me with these, my dear Larcher, you would do me a great favor. Should the labor be too burdensome for you, in your advanced age, be so kind as to engage some suitable person to undertake the service. If it should be the will of God that I should survive you, I shall owe the same tribute of affection to you. It may not, then, be transgressing the rules of propriety, to request you to send me some brief sketch of your own life. "But let all these things be as the gods direct." I hope you have received from Boissonade the last number of the Bibliotheca Critica.

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We are expecting, about this time, the arrival of the learned Frederic Creuzer, formerly professor in Heidelberg, but now appointed Luzac's successor in the Greek professorship in Leyden. He is a profound and elegant scholar, and is already well known by several publications, the last and most important of which, on the origin of the Dionysiac orgies, has no doubt come to your knowledge. The text and Prolegomena of my Phaedo have long been struck off; but the printers get along slowly with the commentary, though it has long been written out.

WYTTENBACH TO J. B. GAIL.

Leyden, July 18, 1810.

Your Thucydides, and your kind letter, together with two other books, all reached me in safety. The Thucydides was a very welcome present, not only on account of its elegance, but for the proof which it gives of your friendship, and the pleasing recollection which it awakens of other similar favors. By your elaborate edition of this triumvir of the Greek historians, you have entitled yourself to the favor of classical scholars, and all lovers of learning. You would have conferred a great

benefit upon the friends of ancient literature, if you had done no more than reprint the text; for that would have facilitated the study of this author, by multiplying copies. But by collating the manuscripts and adding a commentary, you have greatly increased our obligations to you. I will have this and your other works properly noticed in my journal, if, indeed, in the changed state of our affairs, the work shall be continued. Then, too, I shall be able to read and examine them carefully, but at present, my thoughts are too much occupied with other things. And now, my dear sir, go on as you have begun, kindling and keeping up the enthusiasm among your countrymen for Greek literature. One of the volumes which you were so kind as to send to me, containing the fifth and sixth books, is blotted in the margin, and I have taken the liberty to give it to our friend, Le Pileur, who will, if agreeable to you, bring back a clean copy.

WYTTENBACH TO COUNT DE FONTANES.

Leyden, Jan. 25, 1812.

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That you, respected sir, who are so distinguished both for your sense and learning, and who, by a kind Providence, are now placed over us, should condescend to signify to me by letter, that you were not displeased with my Phaedo, emboldens me to write to you, and lay before you some affairs in which I am interested. I have been professor forty years, twenty-eight at Amsterdam, and the remainder at Leyden. I was brought to this place almost against my will, in order to take charge of two vacant professorships, that of Latin eloquence and universal history, and that of Greek literature and antiquities, to which the charge of the library has been added. I still discharge the duties of my threefold office. During all this period, I have employed whatever leisure I could find, in study and in writing for the press, and begin to learn more and more

the extent of my ignorance. By such thoughts I have sometimes been almost tempted to turn aside from the literary career upon which I had entered. Two things have chiefly kept me from doing so, the approbation of intelligent men, and the encouraging number and character of my pupils. I have therefore adhered to my purpose, though publicly assailed by the tongue of envy and calumny. Recently no less than three individuals have attacked me, two anonymously, in two Belgian journals, the one an advocate, it is said, the other a professor, in Harderwyck. The third is a retired theologian, an old hand at abuse, and a trumpeter of the Kantian philosophy. Knowing my dislike of the sect, he has been trying to vent upon me, in barbarous Latin, the bitterest abuse that could be picked up from the gutter. Although this abuse has not hit me, and I care nothing about it on my own account, yet, since these low fellows make every good man the mark of their ribaldry, and sell themselves to the multitude, making mischief among our students, it would be doing a good service to have that nuisance abated by public authority.

Our country being now reduced to a province of the French empire, we, the public professors, hope that the same pay for our services and support in old age, which was appointed by our government, will, through your influence and good-will, be continued to us by the emperor; and we commend ourselves, and our fortunes, to your guardian care. Nothing shall deter me, on my part, from a diligent and faithful discharge of the duties of my office. The weakness of my eyes, which has prevented me from reading, has, in no way, impaired my ability to teach. I have now several works ready for publication. Among them is the continuation of my Bibliotheca Critica, which is to contain addenda to Phaedo and Plutarch, and a memoir of Louis William Wassernaer, a young Batavian,

of one of the oldest families, and promising still greater distinction in literature. He was on the point of giving us a learned treatise on the life and writings of Chrysippus, when, in July last, his death snatched away all these high hopes. This journal, which I used to publish at intervals of about one year, and several works prepared by myself and by others are kept back by the new censorship for the press, which, while it is useful in suppressing vulgar libels, causes such delay in the publication of literary works as greatly to prejudice the interests of learning. We look to your excellency to provide a remedy for this evil. I am informed that my friend and disciple Mahne is a candidate for the new professorship at Brussels, whose qualifications for this office your excellency may learn from his Aristoxenus and his Epicrisis. By supporting his claims, you will consult the interests of that professorship, and do me a personal favor.

Van Praet, keeper of the imperial library at Paris, has requested me to exchange our rare edition of Martial for another from the imperial library. But I have no right to do so, nor do our curators consider themselves authorized to perform such an act. He intimates a wish, that the business may be transacted through the minister of the interior. I have, therefore, consulted Brugmans, our rector, who desires me to entreat you, both in his name and my own, to avert such an evil, and to protect our library from injury, for the benefit of ourselves and our posterity.

WYTTENBACH TO H. C. A. EICHSTAEDT.

Leyden, Sept. 7, 1802. I have delayed replying to your letter, my dear Eichstaedt, longer than I had intended. I am unable to do as I would, on account of not enjoying my usual health, and being so troubled with my eyes, that I can

neither write nor even read. The parcel recently received from you contained many things which delighted me ;first your letter; next the second volume of your Diodorus; then the critical performances of your two pupils, Purgold and Ast; and, finally, what deserved to be mentioned first, the communication from the Jena Latin Society, inviting me to become a member. Will you, my excellent friend, by whose recommendation, no doubt, this honor was conferred upon me, have the goodness to present to your colleagues and associates my thanks for this honorable testimony of their respect. Remember me kindly to those two pupils of yours, whose critical essays you sent to me, and assure them that I was greatly pleased with their elegance and learning. Encourage Purgold, who proceeds in a grammatical way from words to things, to go on as he has begun. To Ast, who goes on in a philosophical way from things to words, repeat the prediction of Parmenides, in regard to the young Socrates; "You are still young, and philosophy will hereafter take a stronger hold upon you than it has yet." I will repay your present in the same coin, and send you a treatise on Panaetius, by van Lynden, a disciple from my school, one of the most distinguished of our young men, both in rank and in learning. copies and other works, if I that was not too expensive. when you write again; for I suppose, that as you are a contributor to the Jena Literary Journal, such things may be sent to you free of expense.

I should send you more knew of any conveyance Inform me on this point,

I did not believe my critical Epistle, and my other observations on Julian, would be published in Leipsic without my consent. Four years ago, Professor Kuhn, of Leipsic, wrote, requesting me to give to Schäfer, then a bookseller, my notes on Julian, and such unpublished observations as I had on Plutarch. I replied, that I could