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banks with its still waters, yet bears on, with irresistible force, whatever alights upon its bosom. I could have written down the whole discourse,-though he used no notes, his utterance was of such a grave and even tenor. His audience were diligent with their pens. Some listened with the closest attention. None made any disturbance. Still, the number of auditors was not large."

Though his eyes and his trembling hand permitted him to write no more, yet he retained the use of his intellectual powers, till the beginning of January, 1820, when he was attacked by apoplexy, which deprived him of the power of speech and motion. He lingered till the seventeenth of the month, tenderly watched by his wife, and the object of affectionate solicitude on the part of all his neighbors and friends. In accordance with a desire which he had expressed, his remains were interred at the entrance of the garden of his country villa, where he had passed the last years of his life, and near the place where the ashes of Descartes and Boerhaave repose.

Of the learned societies of which Wyttenbach had been made a member, were the Latin Society of Jena, the Batavian Institute, the Royal Society of Sciences at Göttingen, and the French Academy of Inscriptions.

But the true glory of Wyttenbach is seen in his works, and in those of his affectionate and accomplished scholars. It is not possible to give a just idea of the merits of Wyttenbach, without adverting to the literary career of his more distinguished pupils, reflecting in their writings the purity of his taste, the elegance of his Latin style, and the justness of his criticisms. Philologists, divines, lawyers, physicians, who came under his influence, reveal in their works, that sweet simplicity, that sobriety in regard to ornament, and that rhythmical cadence, which charm both the mind and the ear in the works of their master, and on which one reposes most delightfully, after

being wearied with the toilsome rhapsodies and barbarous dialect of those who fail to make themselves intelligible, by not taking pains with the language which they use.

Among the pupils of Wyttenbach, who have written important treatises on Plato, were de Geer, Groen van Prinsterer, and Philip van Heusde. The last-named, who has lately deceased, wrote in the beautiful Latin style of the school of Ruhnken. The elegance of his diction was owing, in part, as was the case with Wyttenbach's, to his familiarity with the best Greek writers. He moulded his Latin expressions in accordance with Greek models, and thus avoided that stiffness and stilted dignity which are apt to characterize those who read, while forming their style, the Roman writers only. It may be doubted, whether van Heusde did not pursue his Platonic studies too exclusively. Never did a child treasure up the wishes of a departed parent more reverently, than he did the immortal remains of Plato. In his early life, he says, he was led astray by the school of Helvetius, and, subsequently, by the opposite philosophy of Kant. In neither did he find rest for his spirit. Both, it seemed to him, were alike distant from the true path. He then turned, under Wyttenbach's guidance, to the philosopher of the Academy. In the Socratic school, he found the golden mean.

The successor of Wyttenbach at Leyden, is John Bake. In his labors as editor, he has made much use of the Greek manuscripts in the public library. Lindemann heard him lecture on the Orestes of Euripides, and also deliver his inaugural address. He represents him to be a plain and unassuming man, yet affable and gentlemanly in his manners. His appearance in lecturing was calm and thoughtful. He used the most elegant Latin, with perfect readiness. He has devoted his principal attention to the works of Cicero, with reference to a new and

complete edition. Daniel van Lennep, of Amsterdam, and Peerlcamp, and Geel, of Leyden, are among the most eminent living philologists of Holland. Limburg Brouwer has published in French a History of the Moral and Religious Culture of the Greeks, during the Roman dominion over Greece, a work which is highly spoken of.

The philologists of Holland possess facilities for study in the library of the university of Leyden, which are hardly surpassed in Paris itself. The collection is composed, in part, of the private libraries bequeathed by the two Scaligers, Perizonius, Warner, and many others, and, in part, of purchases which have been effected in almost every country of the civilized world. It has a large portion of the manuscripts of Hemsterhuys, Ruhnken, Bondam, and others. Twenty-five years since, there were two thousand and nine hundred oriental manuscripts, to which many have since been added.

Wyttenbach was а
German philosophy, -
This may have led

It may be doubted, however, whether the study of classical philology has made much advance in Holland since the death of Wyttenbach. His pupils, if they share in his spirit, do not possess his comprehensive learning. No one of them has reached that imperial sway which he exercised over the realm of letters. They have been too much inclined to live on the capital which their predecessors earned. most indefatigable opposer of the particularly of the school of Kant. the scholars of Holland to feel less interest in the results of German classical learning. The difference of languages has widened the separation; German has never been a favorite with the people of Holland. The merits of great German scholars, like Böckh, O. Müller, Matthiae, Lobeck and Jacobs, appear to have attracted little attention in the Batavian provinces. Hermann's investigations in grammar and prosody have not become,

as they have in his native land, common topics of discussion in schools and universities.

Still, the claims of the Holland philologists rest on a firm foundation. They have accumulated treasures of most valuable materials. It is the land for patient labor and inflexible perseverance, for immense digests and thesauruses. But this is not all. The countrymen of Grotius have not been destitute of fine taste. The scholars of other nations have wronged them in this particular. The German sometimes understands the principles of aesthetics better than he practises them. Skill in the use of language, either German or Latin, does not always accompany, in his case, profound and varied erudition. But the scholars of Holland, from the days of Erasmus, have composed their works in beautiful Latin. Not a few have written it almost with the purity of the Augustan age. If the use of this language has made them less known and honored at home, it has greatly increased their usefulness and reputation abroad. But true taste in one branch of study will diffuse its influence over kindred pursuits. It will, also, confer important benefits, as it has done in Holland, upon the heart and life.

VII.

SUPERIORITY OF THE GREEK LANGUAGE

IN THE

USE OF ITS DIALECTS.

A DISCOURSE,

BY FREDERIC JACOBS.

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