the work itself? Sainte Croix complained loudly, and all literary men united with him in condemning such a license. He accompanied the French ambassador to the Porte, in 1785, and visited the Grecian islands and Mount Athos, but was disappointed in his object, and returned the next year, bringing materials for a great work on Greece, which, however, never appeared. The French Revolution disturbed his literary projects. He was banished to Orleans on account of his being a nobleman. After his return to Paris, he was made professor of ancient and modern Greek, but died in 1805, at the age of fifty-five. His edition of Homer, published in 1788, is his great work.

P. 133.

LARCHER.-Pierre-Henri Larcher was born in Dijon, in 1726. His father was connected with the department of finance, and the young Larcher was at first destined to some civil office. But strong natural inclinations early indicated that he had another calling. He commenced his classical studies in Dijon, prosecuted them still further under the Jesuits at Pont-à-Mousson, and, at the age of eighteen, went to the College de Laon, in Paris, where, with slender means, he contrived to save enough of his allowance of 500 francs, to purchase books out of the ordinary course. His passion for the English, which was second only to his love of Greek, induced him, in 1750, to steal away to England, without the knowledge of his mother, who supposed he was all the while in the College de Laon. His earliest literary efforts were translations from the Greek and the English. His accurate translation of the romance of Chariton, with learned notes, appeared in 1763. It is in this work, that he speaks in the highest terms of D'Orville's edition of Chariton, saying, that "the observations of D'Orville ought to be studied by all who have a taste for Greek and Roman literature." When Voltaire wrote his Philosophy of History, several ecclesiastics requested Larcher to reply to it, and, in 1767, appeared his celebrated Supplement to the Philosophy of History, a work of extraordinary learning, and the first which gave the author a high public reputation, while it put the old philosopher into a very unphilosophical passion against the author. But Larcher's chief work is his translation of

He

Herodotus, in nine volumes, not so much admired, however, for the style of the version, as for the richness of the commentary, and the learned discussions on geography and chronology. led such a life of literary retirement, as to escape the fury of the Revolution. When the imperial university was founded in Paris, he was elected professor of Greek, a mark of honor to him in his old age, or rather to the university, in which he performed no active duties. He died in 1812. In early life he was an infidel, and resolved with others, to do what he could to destroy Christianity. But, in his last edition of Herodotus, having become wiser and better in his old age, he struck out all those passages which could be construed as unfavorable to the Bible. A pretty full account of the life and writings of Larcher, by Boissonade, may be found in the nineteenth number of the Classical Journal.

When Larcher was eighty-three years of age, Wyttenbach wrote to him, requesting him to furnish the materials for a sketch of his life, and received a long letter in reply, containing some amusing passages, of which Wyttenbach made no public use. The following quotation is taken from Kraft. "You request me to furnish you with some particulars respecting my life. That is very flattering, and I know how to appreciate every word you shall write respecting me. As you probably intend to honor my memory when I am no more, the best encomium you can pass on me, would be to say, that I had discernment enough to perceive and appreciate your rare attainments; that I sensibly felt the friendship with which you honored me; that our friendship has never been suffered to languish; that it has been maintained, with unabated warmth, for more than thirty-five years. This, sir, is what will do me the most honor in the eyes of posterity. As to the rest, I am quite indifferent.”

P. 135. SAINTE CROIX was born in Mormoiron, near Avignon, in the south of France, in 1746. After finishing his public education in the college of the Jesuits, at Grenoble, he was, in his youthful days, led by the circumstances of his noble birth, and the example of his family, to enter the army, where he was made a cavalry officer, as soon as he left the college.

His public life, his perils and losses during the revolution, though in the highest degree interesting, cannot be detailed here. His estates in the compté of Venaissin were confiscated; he himself escaped from prison, and fled to Paris; his wife soon followed; two of his sons perished in the bloody scenes which commenced in his native province. He devoted his last years to religion, and to literature, and found them the solace and support which he needed. He died in 1809. The earliest production of the Baron de Sainte Croix, was his Critical Examination of the Historians of Alexander, written when he was but twenty-six years of age, which won the prize in th Academy of Inscriptions. From this time he laid aside the sword, and devoted himself to letters. In 1775 and 1777, he gained two other prizes in the same Academy, by two essays, which afterwards served as the basis of his great work on the Secret Religion of the Ancient Nations, published in 1784, under the superintendence of Villoison, of which, a second edition, with a different title, appeared in 1817, in two volumes.

P. 139. LUZAC.-Without attempting to justify the alleged ingratitude of John Luzac to Ruhnken, his teacher and benefactor, it ought to be said, that Wyttenbach, though generally candid in his estimates of others, has allowed himself, in this instance, to do injustice to a distinguished man. Huschke, in a letter, dated Amsterdam, March 6, 1796, says, "Though we have great occasion to rejoice, that there are persons, who, in this political frenzy, have not lost their love of learning, we have equal reason to regret, that our present government carries its intolerance so far as to depose some of our very best teachers. Pestel lost his place at the very beginning. Recently, the learned John Luzac has been deprived of his professorship in Leyden. He held two professorships, that of Belgian history, and that of Greek literature. The Provisional Representatives of Holland took from him only the former; but he was so high-minded, that he resigned the latter. His removal was occasioned by a newspaper of his in French, one of the best published, where he copied some articles from the French papers, which were not to the taste of the Directory at Paris. Properly speaking, it is the Directory that deposed him."

Körte, in his life of Wolf, vol. I, p. 314, says: "John Luzac was the friend of Jefferson, of Adams, and of Washington. After he had lost his professorship, Washington wrote to him, 'The man who acts from principle, who never deviates from the path of truth, moderation, and justice, must finally succeed by these qualities. This, I am sure, will be the case with you, if it is not so already.' Luzac, as is known, complained of the Curators before the States General, and recovered his place." A few particulars may be added from the Biographie Universelle. Luzac, after finishing his studies under Ruhnken and Valckenaer, and under equally distinguished professors of law, was offered a professorship in Gröningen, and afterwards another in Leyden, but he declined both, preferring to enter upon the practice of law. He became a contributor to the "Gazette,” in 1772, and was sole editor after 1775. He still prosecuted the study of ancient literature, and held a correspondence with the most distinguished men of the times. The emperor Leopold, Poniatowski, Washington, Adams, and Jefferson, bestowed upon him the most flattering marks of favor. In 1785, he succeeded Valckenaer, as professor of Greek, in Leyden. On retiring from office of rector, at the end of the year, in 1795, he pronounced a remarkable discourse, De Socrate Cive, full of learning and sagacity, and dedicated it to John Adams, whose oldest son, John Quincy Adams, was then studying at Leyden, under the care of the author. This dedication is a master-piece, and gives evidence of the lively interest which Luzac took in the American struggle for liberty. He translated this discourse into Dutch, with additional observations, and it passed through two editions in the same year. But the affairs of Holland became more and more desperate. The government often applied to Luzac for advice. He could not, however, escape the effects of the general overthrow. This true and enlightened friend of liberty fell under the suspicion of the revolutionary party. His professorship of the history of Holland served as a pretext, and he was suspended from office in 1796. When he resigned his Greek professorship, he was then dismissed entirely. But he recovered his place in 1802. In the letter from Washington, here quoted more at length than in Körte, it is added, “America is under great obligations to the writings

and actions of such men as you." From this time, till his tragical death in 1807, he devoted himself with great success to his favorite studies.

P. 140. BOISSONADE, professor of Greek in Paris, and member of the Academy of Inscriptions, was born in Paris, in 1774. He was formerly secretary of the Prefecture of the Upper Marne, and afterwards associate editor of the Journal des Debats, for which he wrote articles displaying great ability, under the signature of Omega. The following circumstances will serve to explain the allusions in this letter. Wyttenbach had written to Sainte Croix; "I hear that Boissonade has edited the Heroics of Philostratus, and that he has sent me a copy of it. But Į have not received it. Should it come to hand, I would give an account of it and of its author, in the next number of the Bibliotheca Critica." When Boissonade was informed of this by Sainte Croix, he wrote to Wyttenbach; "My Philostratus, most learned friend, appears before you, a nice judge, at a late hour. Full of defects, as it is, it would have been imprudent in me to send you a copy. I therefore resolved not to make myself known to you till I had finished another work which could be received with more favor. But Sainte Croix informs me that you have requested a copy which you might notice in your next number of the Bibliotheca Critica, and I could not do otherwise than comply."

P. 141. SIMON CHARDON DE LA ROCHETTE was born in 1753, studied at Paris, and early took rank with the most eminent Greek scholars of his country. In 1773, he went to Italy, for the sole purpose of visiting its libraries, and formed the plan of editing the Greek Anthology, upon which he bestowed much labor and expense. He was the intimate friend of Villoison. The Revolution ruined his moderate fortune, and interrupted his literary projects. After 1796, he became a principal contributor to Millin's Magasin Encyclopédique; and it is the collection of the valuable articles which he wrote for this journal, which constitutes his principal work, Mélanges de Critique et de Philologie, in three volumes, published in 1812. He died in 1814. Jacobs, in the preface to his