In regard to the second question, I am far from being disposed to chaffer. But since my support here, if I succeed in my present expectations, will be 700 rix dollars, I may justly consider myself as entitled to a salary of 800; so much the more, as, in consequence of my loss in the Dresden fire, I am obliged to furnish my house anew. My circumstances, therefore, require, also, 100 or 200 rix dollars for the expense of removal. I believe the lamented Gesner had the charge of the university library. The loss of my books, and my having been long accustomed to libraries, render it important to me to succeed him in this office.

I am not blind to the importance of the place to which I have been designated, nor of the splendor which my predecessor has given to it. I honestly confess to you, that since the fire, in which I saw all the avails of many years' labor perish, I have directed my attention,-Plato alone excepted,-wholly to moral philosophy, and to English literature. But I may, without immodesty, hope in a short time to feel at home again in ancient literature, and to advance with redoubled energy.

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RUHNKEN TO C. G. HEYNE.

Leyden, July 14, 1763.

It gave me the greatest pleasure to learn that my recommendation had SO much influence with his excellency, Münchhausen, as to procure for you a place, distinguished of itself, but the more so from the lustre Gesner for many years gave it. And yet I do not so much congratulate you, as I do the cause of good learning, that it has found in you an unexpected support. Would that the German youth might so understand their true interests, as to abandon metaphysical subtleties, and drink at the fountains of sound learning which you shall open to them. I beg you to favor me with your inaugural

address, which you have undoubtedly delivered before this time, and any thing else which you may have published, either in your own name, or in that of the university. If I publish any thing of the kind, I will send

you a copy.

RUHNKEN TO HEYNE.

Leyden, July 18, 1764.

I have received the kind and affectionate letter, in which you say you are turning your attention from Apollonius Rhodius to Virgil. I have often censured the German booksellers, that they no sooner find an excellent scholar of their own country, than they engage him, not leaving him to his own judgment about publishing, but, by entreaty, or by money, bringing him into subjection to themselves. Hence it sometimes happens, that works are published which are unworthy of their authors. Gesner, for example, if he had followed his own judgment, instead of that of Fritsch, would have given us a beautiful and perfect edition of Horace. But, as it now is, the book is a slender production, by no means corresponding to the author's fame. Think of the haste with which it was printed; so great, that whole lines have been omitted. I think that your admirable talent is equal to the work of correcting the text of Virgil, and that you cannot apply your powers to a worthier object. * I have just been reading the Lives of Philologists, by Harles, and, after going through with those of Burmann, Klotz, and Saxius, I congratulated myself, that when the author requested me to furnish him with the materials for my biography, I had the discretion to make no reply. * * At the sale of Gesner's library, if it is not too much trouble, have the goodness to bid off for me, and my colleague, Schultens, the books marked in the catalogue, at such prices as you shall judge expedient. But those marked N. B., I wish you to obtain, whatever they may cost. *

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RUHNKEN TO HEYNE.

Leyden, Feb. 21, 1765.

The box of books reached me in safety. The business could not have been done better than it has been done by you. I regret that the Dissertations of Berger have been taken away from me; for I had advised our booksellers, on account of the delay of those in Germany, to reprint them, together with his Formulas. But perhaps this loss can be made up from the sale of Heumann's library, the catalogue of which I earnestly desire you to send me. The money due for the books I have not transmitted to the Cliffords, because I did not doubt but that you would wish some portions of the library of Wesseling, which is to be sold here in the spring. The pay can be adjusted then. I will send you a catalogue as early as possible. I have read your eulogy of Heumann with great pleasure, both on account of the elegance of the composition, and your skill in the treatment of the subject. I have long been seeking, but without success, for the eulogy upon Gesner by Michaelis. Perhaps you may have a copy which you can send me. * * While I think of it, I will inquire whether there is any hope that the transactions of the Academy of Sciences will be continued. If not, then you ought to publish separately, Gesner's discourses delivered before the Academy, in which that distinguished man excelled even himself.

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RUHNKEN TO HEYNE.

Leyden, Oct. 13, 1765.

I know not why it is, that you, who formerly wrote me so often, have all at once broken off, as if you had forgotten me. May the reason of your long silence be any thing rather than ill health. I sent you a catalogue of Wesseling's library, hoping, by this means, to elicit a

letter from you.

But I have received from you no list of

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In

books to be purchased, though it was agreed that I should in this manner. balance my account with you the summer vacation, I made so many emendations in Velleius Paterculus, that I hope to be able to give a better edition than any now before the public. But I must first search the public libraries, and ascertain whether there are any manuscripts to be had. I have been diverted from the Greek to the Latin authors, by the reproaches of the younger Burmann and others, who, while they admit that I understand Greek, deny that I have a similar knowledge of Latin. But they shall learn, to their cost, that I have always combined the study of the two languages.

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RUHNKEN TO HEYNE.

Leyden, Dec. 25, 1766.

Though, on account of my numerous engagements, I write to you less frequently than I could wish, no day passes without my thinking of you, or speaking of you with my literary friends. Nothing appears more desirable to all of them than that, freed from the embarrassments of which you complain, you should be able to devote yourself wholly to the illustration of the Latin and Greek classics, for which you are happily formed by nature and by excellent discipline. But consider, I entreat you, my dear Heyne, whether you do not sometimes undertake more than is necessary. All the essays you have sent me are equally excellent; but, if I mistake not, you might write fewer. Why prepare elaborate biographical notices of such men as Heumann and Heilmann, whom it interests neither the present generation, nor posterity, to know very particularly? I am sorry, too, that you should have mentioned Bentley in the place in which you speak of Heumann's boldness, which was coupled with equal

ignorance. They are totally different men. Heumann is the dullest of critics, whereas Bentley is the most felicitous and elegant of any that I have ever known. You will find the remark of Hemsterhuys,―himself the most like Bentley,—to be true, namely, “though Bentley alters many passages which ought not to be altered, in most cases, the writers would have done better if they had written as he corrects them."(?)

RUHNKEN TO HEYNE.

Leyden, Dec. 27, 1769.

Your friendship for me manifests itself every way. You are not only one of my warmest friends yourself, but you conciliate for me the good-will of others, and among the rest that of Wyttenbach, a young man of great promise, whose critical epistle on Julian evinces such talent, that we may safely augur well of his future eminence. He has not reached Leyden, as he had designed, but is detained for a time by the state of his domestic affairs. He expects, however, to be here early in the spring, and to pursue his studies under Valckenaer and myself. I have induced him to give up Julian, to whose writings he was accidently attached, and have recommended him to bestow the study of his whole life upon Plutarch, a far better writer, which he has resolved to do.

RUHNKEN TO KANT.

Leyden, March 10, 1771. It is now thirty years since we were under the rigid but not unprofitable discipline of the Pietists in the gymnasium at Königsberg. Even then it was believed that you might rise to the greatest eminence, if you should apply yourself to uninterrupted study. I need not say that the expectation then raised has been met by