to possess too little similarity to theirs. We meet, however, in the volumes before us, with portraits of persons not quite unknown in this country, and of others whose names deserve to be more known than they are. In another point of view, such a work appears even more interesting to the foreigner than to the countrymen of those whose fates and characters it endeavours to depict:-it forms a correct picture of national character and manners;-it furnishes, next to personal intercourse, and in some cases perhaps fully as well, the best materials for just notions of the state of society among a people;-it enables us to take a glance at their domestic circles, their schools and their studies, and the society of their towns and villages; -and it introduces us into the sphere of action among persons of different ranks and employments. Here we see more than the hasty traveller can discover; we see, as it were, not only the effect, but the composition and the different parts of the complicated machine of society; we are informed how ment become what they are, and how the national character is created and preserved, or gradually changed. If every nation of Europe furnished a collection of memoirs, on the same plan as that of M. SCHLICHTEGROLL, a comparison between them would surely be highly interesting and useful to the inquirer into the actual state or progress of mankind.

Perhaps many nations would afford a much more entertaining series of characters, and a greater variety of facts, than the Germans; among whom striking features and originality of manner are now but seldom found. The political situation of Germany during a considerable number of years, which almost precluded the possibility of a national character, the uniform system of education in the public schools and universities, and the now almost natural propensity of its inhabitants to adopt the ideas and manners of foreign nations, produce such a mixture of qualities, as prevents any single one from obtaining a powerful ascendency; and deprive both the originals and their portraits of that expression of features, which every where forms the most lasting attraction. To this circumstance, the sameness which readers of the present Necrology will perceive must in a great measure be attributed: but there is another cause of that uniformity. The number of unprofessional men, of whom this biographer gives an account, is very small in comparison with the literati. Among the 41 articles contained in these four volumes, only four or five memoirs relate to persons who were not belonging to the learned professions. This disproportion is undoubtedly in a great measure intentional, but it excites a suspicion of the influence of that corporation-spirit which is not seldom discernible among scientific men, parti

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cularly among industrious authors, and which too much confines their attention and esteem to their fellow-labourers in the field of science. The pages of M. SCHLICHTEGROLL are thus rendered much less interesting to the common reader, than they would be if pains were taken to record extraordinary merit, in whatever situation it may have distinguished itself; to pay a more frequent tribute to the artisan who was remarkable in his station, in connection with the eulogy of the professor; and to recount the fate and the benevolent actions of an enterprising and successful merchant, along with those of the counsellor of a prince.

We must, however, highly approve of the attention which the author has paid to a very useful and too often neglected class of men, the learned teachers in the public classical schools. Germany abounds in establishments of this nature, under the name of Gymnasia or Lycæa; and in them a number of men, estimable for their learning and their industry, pass their days, secluded from society by their laborious duties and their narrowed circumstances, and even prevented by want of inclination or of leisure from seeking the scanty honours of authorship. To distinguish those who faithfully and successfully discharged the duties of such important and frequently ungrateful stations, in the temple of national worthies, is a grateful homage to the merit of the dead, and a strong encouragement to the living. Among those to whom Germany is peculiarly indebted for their exertions in the education of youth, and to whom a monument has been erected in the Necrology of the 19th century, we notice Dr. Gedike, director of the principal college at Berlin, and M. Scheller, professor of the Gymnasium at Brieg. The former has promoted by his writings, and by his personal exertions, a more rational system of instruction than formerly existed in the public schools; and the latter has merited the thanks of all students of the Latin language, particularly by his valuable Dictionary, the last edition of which appeared in 1804 in seven large volumes. The author also records the loss of the venerable Baldinger, professor of Medicine in the university of Marburg, who, in point of learning, was probably not excelled by any of the sons of Hippocrates*. It would have added to the value of the memoirs of such men, if a complete list of their works had been given. The notices of Count Veltheim, F.R.S. of London, and well known as a mineralogist,-of Dr. Herz, an enlight

*The same University lost in 1802, Prof. Curtius, whose name. is likewise inserted in the Necrology, and who was an active and very learned member.

ened

ened and benevolent physician of the Jewish nation at Berlin, but a warm opponent of vaccine inoculation, and of Prof. Buttner at Jena, the founder of the Academic Museum at Gottingen, now under the superintendence of Blumenbach, and an ingenious inquirer into the relations of languages and nations, are particularly interesting.

The last mentioned scholar was remarkable for the originality of his ideas and manners. After having served his appren ticeship as a chemist with his father in Wolfenbuttel, a desire of increasing his knowlege led him to foreign countries. He first visited Denmark, Sweden, and Lapland; and then passing over to Scotland, he travelled to London, where he spent some time. Thence he proceeded to Leyden, and pursued his study of Natural History in the same room with Linné. On returning to his native town, he enlarged by the treasures which he had brought with him, a small collection of natural curiosities which had descended to him from one of his ancestors, and which in later years he transferred to the university of Gottingen; whither he removed in 1748, and where he was the first who gave separate lectures on Natural History. His travels had excited in him a particular fondness for languages, in which he endeavoured to trace the descent and the migration of nations. When the Empress Catherine gave orders for a compilation of an universal glossary of tongues, Prof. Buttner was consulted, and furnished many important materials. He published little but his large collection of papers was bequeathed to Prof. Rudiger of Halle, who intends to arrange them, and to print the result of his inquiries. The idea, which others have pursued, that the gypsies derived their origin from an Indian cast, is here said to have originated with him.-He began to publish Tables for the comparison of the written characters of various nations, but they have not been completed.

General de Benkendorf, in the service of the Elector of Saxony, was one of the few heroes of the seven years' war who witnessed the commencement of the present century. The account here given of that veteran is extracted principally from his own papers, and contains many interesting circumstances not generally known, relative to some of the most important periods of that war. It was owing to Benkendorf's valour and presence of mind, that on the memorable 18th of June 1757, near Collin, victory was snatched from the hands of the great Frederic of Prussia. In spite of the signal to retreat, which was given by the commanding General, Benkendorf, then a Lieutenant Colonel, ordered his men to rush on a weak part of the Prussian line, which they successfully

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broke; and inspiring their despairing comrades with new courage, they decided not only the fate of the day, but in a great measure the fate of the war. In allusion to this event, an ingenious politician has remarked, that two men alone had prevented Berlin from becoming as important as Paris; the commander of the Saxon dragoons, Benkendorf, and Peter III., who would not listen to the warning of the great Frederic. The following anecdote occurs in the course of this memoir :

It was necessary to advise the Austrian General Laudon, that the Saxon troops had arrived in his neighbourhood with the view of cooperating with him. A captain was charged with the message, and succeeded in escaping by the guidance of a faithful peasant, from the enemy, who infested those parts: but he could not venture to return with the answer of the Austrian commander, on which the whole plan of operation was to depend. A note containing this answer was therefore intrusted to the peasant, who admirably executed his commission, and delivered it in time, though he had been stopped by the Prussians, and examined in the strictest manner, so as even to be strip. ped to the skin. He had twisted the note round the bottom of his stick, fastened it with some thread, and covered it with a large clod of earth. As soon as he was stopped, he kicked the clod off his stick, and submitted to be searched. When he received permission to pursue his way, he looked for his clod, found it, and reached the place of his destination. To this stratagem, the allies owed the interception of an important waggon-train of the king of Prussia, with money and ammunition, the loss of which obliged that monarch to raise the siege of Olmütz, and to abandon Bohemia.'

The General's descriptions of the operations in which he was engaged are simple and modest; and they contain many interesting remarks on the conduct of the Austrian commanders in chief, principally Daun and Lascy, with the latter of whom Benkendorf was often dissatisfied. He preserved his military habits to the close of life, was always fully dressed even in illness, and to the last put on his military boots as soon as he rose in the morning.

In conclusion, we have only farther to remark that this work distinguishes itself from most German books by a pleasing exterior and good paper.

ART.

ART. II. Tableau E'lémentaire, &c. i. e. an Elementary View of Ornithology, or the Natural History of those Birds which usually occur in France. To which is added a Treatise on the Manner of preserving their Specimens of them, in the formation of Collections, and a Series of forty-one Engravings. By SEBASTIAN GERARDIN (de Mirecourt), formerly Canon of the noble and illustrious Chap ter of Poussay, Ex-Professor of Natural History in the Central School of the Vosges, &c. &c. 2 Vols. 8vo. and 4to. Atlas. 1806. Imported by De Boffe. Price 21 12s. 6d.

Paris. sewed.

I

THE HE professed design of this publication is to instruct French youth in the elementary study of that portion of Ornithology, which is susceptible of exemplification within the limits of their own country; or, to speak more ingenuously, within the circumscribed range of the Vosgian department. M. GERARDIN, in his introduction, candidly admits this farther restriction, and pleads for the adoption of his comprehensive title on the ground of motives which are more allied to prudence than to science. The attention of the public was not, it seems, to be attracted by the modest guise of an Essay on the Ornithology of a district; and a work of such important concoction must be ushered into the world under a pompous and imposing tone. We are, nevertheless, aware of the author's better apology, that the hills and forests of the ci devant Lorraine are situated in the direct line of periodical migration observed by many of the birds which inhabit France; and that the species which are natives of the Empire, and unknown in the Vosges, are perhaps not numerous. It is at least certain that the multitudes and diversities of the feathered race, that are yearly sacrificed to the snares of the fowler in the department of the Vosges, exceed those which share a similar fate in any one province of Europe.

M. GERARDIN appears to have been born and bred within the precincts of this natural aviary, and to have consorted with the winged tenants of his native woods and hills during the long term of thirty years. His preliminary discourse belies not such pretensions and opportunities, for it explains the general topics of Ornithology in language at once succinct and perspicuous. The five chapters of which it consists were submitted to the revision of the estimable Daudin, whose premature death his friends and science will long deplore.To me,' says the author, he obligingly manifested the kindness of his disposition by the alterations which he inserted, or suggested. May his shade, which now reposes in the tranquil mansions of virtuous spirits, not remain insensible to this pub-` lic testimony of my sorrow and regret!'-On this introduc

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