account of the repairs the workmen are still making, shall be opened again, I will search out for you Ruhnken's papers on Hesiod, and procure a copyist as cheap as possible. These papers have not yet, to my knowledge, been examined by van Lennep, a young man of promise, formerly my pupil, and now my successor in Amsterdam, who is also preparing a new edition of Hesiod, and for whom, I suspect, Boissonade is furnishing readings from the Paris manuscripts. You know that I have decided to publish the letters of Ruhnken. I request you, therefore, if you have no objection, to favor me with those which he addressed to you. The old house, where you saw him, and which was sold on his death, is now levelled to the ground. His widow, who is blind, dumb, and somewhat deaf, and an invalid, has every comfort which it is possible for her to enjoy. The daughter writes that she is not unhappily situated in France. The Luchtmanses have recently published, in one volume, the Eulogy of Hemsterhuys, with Ruhnken's other orations and essays. It has no alterations or additions from his papers; it has a bookseller's preface, but I do not know by whom it was written. Farewell, my dear Wolf, and believe me to be one of the foremost of those who cordially love you, for your great learning, and for your kindness towards me.

WYTTENBACH TO AUGUSTUS MATTHIAE.

Leyden, Oct. 6, 1807.

The present of your Greek Grammar, my dear Matthiae, is, both on account of its author, and of its inherent excellence, very acceptable to me. As I always valued your friendship, when you were with us, it is highly gratifying to me now to learn, particularly, by such a public testimony, that your friendship has not, by our separation during this long interval, been interrupted nor abated. Your learning was not unknown to me

when you were at Amsterdam, but I perceive from this book that it is wonderfully increased. From your Miscellanies, too, published at Altenburg, I observed you had made great progress. I noticed these in the Bibliotheca Critica, though the copy which was sent me,-by your direction, I suppose, was destroyed with other books, by the late explosion. But I return to the book now before me. I have run hastily through it, and have read some parts, particularly the preface, carefully. My own health, and that of my family being ill at present, and being unwilling to put off writing to you any longer, I will content myself with a few words more, and defer the remainder till I have more leisure. I approve of your method of uniting theory and usage, especially as you give the preponderance to the latter, and verify it by abundant learning, in which you show that you have the whole Greek language at your command. I wish you had written your book in Latin, so that it might, out of your own country, serve as a means of promoting you to a professorship. Why not make an abridgement in Latin, retaining the examples from classical writers, which constitute no small ornament to the work ? In style, labor to be perspicuous and elegant, and show by your example, that you not only teach, but also possess, the Grecian spirit, and are free from all the barbarous forms of the scholastic writers. You have acted wisely in making usage your chief aim. The analogical method, as it was employed by Hemsterhuys, after the example of Scaliger and Salmasius, does, indeed, throw much light upon the origin, signification, and forms of words. But Lennep did not exhibit it as it was practised by its author; and Scheid so corrupted and perverted it, that with many it has led to the worst evils. These stupid creatures have strangely adopted the analogical method, to the neglect of declension and conjugation, and even teachers and

professors have sometimes fallen into this absurdity. It is altogether better to retain that old and severe, but profitable discipline of carefully learning the Greek and Latin paradigms, to which our own fathers trained us, in our boyhood, and which was continued, when they put us under other masters. In a review of Scheid's edition of Lennep, in my Bibliotheca Critica, volume third, and part second, I have exposed this false system. If you had consulted that article, and my other writings, while preparing your Grammar, you might have rendered it more complete in many places. I sent my commentary on Plutarch to Oxford to be printed, two years ago, but it is not yet done. If that work should come to your hands, it will also aid you in enlarging your work, for it contains many observations on the theory and usage of the Greek language.

I regret to learn, that there is any misunderstanding between you and Huschke. As soon as he shall have arrived here, I will do my best to restore you to your old friendship; and, after the example of Atticus, "to compare small things with great," prevent any quarrel, and make your rivalry in honor, as it should be with such persons, a bond of friendship.

In regard to Huschke's call to this university, the matter stands thus. When a successor was to be chosen in the place of the departed Luzac, the curators requested me, in conjunction with our friend, de Bosch, to select a person who would be agreeable to me as a colleague, and, at the same time, competent to the place. After differing in opinion in respect to others, we finally agreed upon Huschke. The curators confirmed the nomination, but the approval was not obtained till quite recently, and this circumstance has occasioned a delay in his coming here.

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When you write me next, my dear Matthiae, be so kind as to give me an account of yourself and of your situation, whether you are a bachelor, or have a wife; what is the state of your gymnasium, and that of the neighboring universities of Jena, Halle, and Leipsic. You know I have always taken an interest in the history of philosophy. I wish you would name some work that will present me a compendious view of the change in philosophy, which was begun by Kant, and then carried still further by Fichte and Schelling, and which, you say, in your preface, is a return to the Platonic system. By complying with this request, you would confer upon me a very great favor.

WYTTENBACH TO FREDERIC CREUZER.

Leyden, Sept. 16, 1808.

Your letter has afforded me great pleasure, from the kind regards which you express towards me, and from the pleasing recollections of our excellent common friend, Bang. I have just spoken of him, as among the number of deceased literary friends, in an article of the Bibliotheca Critica, immediately to be published, as if I had poured libations on his tomb, making mention, at the same time, of you, as once his pupil, but now an eminent scholar.

You have written to me so affectionately, and at such length, that it would require a volume to reply to the whole. What you relate of your youth, your whole life, and your studies, is very delightful to me, since it awakens a fresh recollection of the places where I, from the ninth to the twenty-second year of my age, passed my time in useful, and also in useless studies. I remember two brothers, by the name of Creuzer, the one a relation of Bang, the other a bookseller. Pray tell me which of these was your father. You are now transferred from Marburg to Heidelberg, where, as it respects the

enjoyments and conveniences of life, you will have every thing that you could desire. You have my best wishes that your present felicity may be long and uninterrupted. And yet, in these times, when every year brings with it new political changes, no one can tell what may hereafter be called his own. * * But I turn from the darkness which overshadows the future, to dwell on what is more pleasing, though past. I was happy to receive from you the letter of Ruhnken to the excellent Voss, to whom I beg you will return my sincere thanks. You call him your Voss, which I do not understand, unless it be that he has taken up his residence in Heidelberg. On this, and other matters of intelligence respecting the literary world in Germany, I desire you to write me. * * * In Griesbach, Schütz, Beck, Hermann, and Tiedemann, in addition to Bang, you have certainly had the most learned and skilful teachers of the age. I would gladly have a colleague of this description; for since becoming Ruhnken's successor, I have no one to associate with in my philological studies. By Ruhnken's intervention, Valckenaer's place was supplied by Luzac; since whose tragical death, the vacant chair has been offered first to van Heusde, next to Huschke, of Rostock, and finally, to that Sluiter, mentioned in the last number of the Bibliotheca Critica. But whether he will accept the appointment is not yet known. Your Savigny appears to be the same individual who obtained a high reputation by his work on the Nature of Property. * I never think of the present condition of learning in Germany without grief, especially when I see the fortunes of its great scholars ruined by the devastations of war. I lament the sad state of Hesse, once my country; though some suppose the new order of things will be better than the old, and it may be so. That atmosphere was never favorable to the promotion of classical learning. I well