who very generously gave him his table for two years; but in 1758, his fortunes took a surprizing and most unexpected turn, and he was made independent, by being appointed rector of the school of St. Nicholas.This he tells us he had had an omen of at the beginning of the year, for rising on new year's day, at three o'clock in the morning, as was his constant custom, to pursue his translation of Libanius's letters, he found that he had come to a letter written to Anatolius, and the first word he read was Anatolius; Now, (says he) thought I, the year is come in which God will let the light of his countenance shine upon thee, and in five weeks after Haltaus died.

About 1763, he translated Demosthenes and Thucydides into German-and married. On this occasion he speaks very affectionately and feelingly of Mrs. Reiske; and there is a note of hers, worthy of the good old times, in which she speaks of her mother in the most feeling manner. Often, in short, concludes she, did she bring to my mind, in her most advanced age, these lines of Pope,

What nothing earthly gives, or can destroy,

The soul's calm sunshine, and the heart-felt joy,

Is virtue's prize.

In 1768, continues Reiske, I published my proposals for the edition of Demosthenes, in the full confidence, that the learned, in and out of Germany, would do justice to my efforts to serve them; but I found that mankind were like the reed of Egypt, which pierces, and goes through the hand of those who lean upon it. I must therefore trust the work to God, whose council is above the council of man ; and who can make a way in the wilderness, when the thirsting eye pants in vain for deliverance. The work is begun in the name of God,* whether it will see an end, rests with him. Did it depend on man alone,

Here we meet with the following interesting note, by Mrs. Reiske."When the work went to press, only twenty thalers of the subscription money had come in. The good man was quite struck down with this, and seemed to have thrown away all hope. His grief went to my soul, and 1 comforted him as well as I could, and persuaded him to sell my jewels, which he at length came into, after I had convinced him that a few shining stones were not necessary to my happiness.”—Hancine non inter beroinas! Ought we not to buy every thing such a women shall henceforth publish?

I should have been the martyr of my good will. A farther account of this whole transaction will be given in the preface to the first part, which will appear, if it please God, next Easter.* I am writing this in the evening of the first of January, 1770; and here close the short and fleeting account of my life.

Being Omnipotent, in whose hand our breath is, when I meditate on the ways through which thy providence has hitherto conducted me, my spirit sinks into a sea of wonder, gratitude, joy, trust, hope, fear, and shame; I become speechless, and lose myself in my gratitude. The feelings of my heart subdue my thanks, and get the better of them. How shall the weak, and hasty, and blunted pen, express all the various emotions of my wandering mind? God gave me talents, not indeed, the very best, but not the weakest neither, and with the talents, he gave me the desire to make use of them to his glory, and for the common good of mankind. I should certainly have done more, had my cotemporaries been more partial to the studies I was engaged in; and had I found more encouragement and assistance from them, but as it is, I have done more than thousands of others would have done in my circumstances. At least, supposing me to make a proper use of my hardly got together, dearly earned abilities, during the. short remnant of life which is left me, I may appear before my judge, in the humble confidence of not having made a bad use of my talent--and before my judge, I soon shall appear, and give an account of the whole course of my life. Not only the daily decrease of my strength, but a certain omen sounding in my ears, admonishes me that this will probably be the last year of my pilgrimage. That, however, is in the hand of God. I am ready at all hours to leave my frail hut, and to commit all, all, even my manuscripts, which of all earthly things are the nearest my heart, to the hands of my good God. Children I have none, but my children, my fatherless blue coats, are my manuscripts, which I have brought up with great care and at

* The melancholy (says Mrs: Reiske) which he had been subject to from a child, and which shortened his days, here breaks out again. As the work sold very ill, particularly towards the end of his life, the disorder went on increasing, and in the end did its work.

1

tention, till the time for them to go forth to the world. Who will educate them after my death? Who will take care of them? Will there be so affectionate and honest a heart found ?* Yet the father cares for them. I have done all that I could for them, and would not cease doing to help them forward as long as I live. God will also take care of my wife. She will take care of herself; her good qualities and attainments are suffi❤ cient securities to me that she will. And I have taken all the care of her well being, that it was possible for me to do.t

Here would I lay down the pen, but that I have forgotten to speak of my Theocritus, and some other things that befel me, Reiske then proceeds to give an account of his Theocritus; and his notes on an Arabick history, which were booksellers' jobs; and he laments very feelingly the fate of authors, who are the slaves of booksellers, who are the slaves of their customers, who are the slaves of their trifling habits and passions, and like nothing but French translations, novels, &c. &c.--He then mentions several works undertaken, or began by him ; but as there is a list of these in the Acta Eruditorum, it is needless to repeat the names of them here.

We have then the alphabetical list of his correspondents, with some account of their characters. I shall translate the account of such of these as are persons of eminence, and known to the learned world.

Abresch is a German from Hanau-He studied at Utrecht, where he corrected an edition of Mill's Greek testament. He was Rector at Middleburg in Zealand, and afterwards at Zwoll. His son is Minister at Utrecht, and means to publish Reinesius's Eponymologicum. The letters of the father to me relate to his writings, or contain literary news. One of them concerning the inedited scholia of Aristides is remarkable. They are most of them in Dutch.‡

* See, says Mrs. Reiske, the dedication to Mr. Trescow, who has done all this.

In 1767, says Mrs. R. he subscribed to the widows fund. I shall be forgiven for letting all remain, that the good man has written to my praise. -The testimonies of his kindness towards me, were too dear for it to be in my power to strike them out.

Mrs. Reiske has given us eleven in Latin. The most remarkable are those which contain observations on Reiske's notes on Sophocles, and the account of the Aristides.

Alberti-I had only one letter from Alberti relating to Hesychius; soon after which we met at Leyden. Soon after my return to Germany he had a disorder, which took away the use of his hands, till his death. In other respects he was very healthy-An open-hearted honest man, without any pride.

Albinus was my master--the picture of happiness to judge of him by looks. All was neat and spruce about him. He knew how to conceal even defects of his gait, only he was a little lazy, and seldom came to read his philosophical lecture, which was from ten to eleven, till within a quarter of twelve. He was commonly surrounded by engravers and printers of his anatomical tables.

Askew wrote to me only once. He would have taken me with him on his journey to Greece, and have allowed me one hundred ducats a year. We were to have met at Leipsick in 1746, but I staid at Zorbig, and he went on, leaving me a present of twelve ducats behind him.*

Bandini--The correspondence with Bandini relates to the Florentine MSS. of Demosthenes.

Bartholomei--The most remarkable part of the correspondence with Bartholomei relates to a Greek MS. written by Arsenius, Archbishop of Athens, not long since dead. This remarkable MS. contains the history of the Greek church to the year 1720. The former part has nothing curious in it; but the latter may be interesting, as it contains the state of the Greek and particularly the Athenian church under the Turks, which is little known. Eugenius bishop of Cherson in Russia, has since turned it into modern Greek, and means to publish it.

Bernard--The correspondence with Bernard contains litera

ry news.

Bianconi--Bianconi I discouraged from publishing Aelius Promotus; but he remained my very good friend, and contributed to place me in my present situation. Good God, how

* There is nothing remarkable in Askew's letters except it be his men. tioning his intention of sending his sons to Leipsick, and his offering to get any thing which Reiske should think proper to publish against Toup, without a name, printed at London.

wonderful are thy ways! My pretended friends were here working under-hand to prevent my having bread to eat, and God called an Italian and a Catholick from Bologna to procure

it me.

Bilder-My connection with Bilder began and broke off pleasantly enough. After a good deal of other strange thread, which he sent me to untwist, at length, he sent proofs of two little works he was going to publish. The first was a dialogue in vulgar Arabick--Of this I could be no judge, as I had never been in Arabia.--The second a sermon of Count Zinzendorff, which he had likewise translated into Arabick, and intended to follow up with many others. I wrote him my mind--he made me a sharp answer, and that connexion was

over.

Bondam-There is one letter from Bondam, which contains an account of a new edition of the Grammaticorum Latinorum of Elius Putchius, which he was employed about.

Findley-Findley kept up the friendship we had contracted at Leyden; but Askew and he are the only ones amongst the Scotch and English from whom I heard after we had parted. I lament much that the good Pollock was so soon taken from the world. The parting with him cost me many a tear, for I saw in him the blossom of a learned and worthy divine.

Gesner-Gesner's letters are short, and contain nothing very important. We were very good friends till 1746, when I visited him at Gottingen; but since that time his heart was estranged by something I chanced to let drop in a review about persons who read the Latin classicks not with the intention to understand their meaning and feel their beauties, but with a view of crowding phrases from them into the margins of their Faber. Gesner was then about to publish his Thesaurus; but God is my witness, I never thought of him whilst I was writing. The man I had in my eye was Burman, whose remarks extend only to a miserable phraseology for which nothing more is required than to have two eyes and five fingers. Gesner, however, never could be convinced, owing, I believe, to the good offices of a certain common friend.

Gronovius-I was intimately acquainted with Gronovius at Leyden, and the intimacy did me no great good. He is not a man of any great abilities. One would have thought, however,