and thither like a ball. To increase his troubles, in the course of the winter the good Theresa, who had returned to Dresden, fell violently sick, and was given up by the physicians as beyond recovery; she even received "extreme unction," according to the rites of the Romish church (being a member of that community); and for some hours was actually considered to be dead. Dead, however, she was not, but became gradually restored to sense and convalescence. Moreover, with her returning strength, she gave intimation of a desire to renounce the Catholic faith, and to become publicly a Protestant. The difference of their religious views had long been a matter of anxiety between Heyne and herself, and she now thought she could see sufficient reasons for conforming to his creed. All the representations that were made to her of the conventional disgrace and estrangement of her friends that would ensue were of no avail in diverting her from her purpose; and accordingly, after a public renunciation of her former faith, she was received as a convert to the Church of the Reformation. She had not the slightest expectation at this time of ever being united to Heyne upon earth; but she trusted that a common creed might unite them in a kindred destiny in another world. Indeed Heyne himself had at this time fallen ill, and it was only through her nursing and attention that he escaped narrowly with his life. The circumstances of both were now alike cheerless and distracted. Theresa's change of faith had caused her to be forsaken by most of her acquaintance, and her little property had been destroyed by the late calamitous bombardment. In all the wide world she had no true friend but Heyne. He saw that, with a noble courage, she bore up bravely under the consequences which conscience had commanded her to incur, and that even extremest poverty could not compel her beautiful and gentle head to bend or swerve from its serene steadfastness; and so, moved by the influences of love and duty, he said to her, "Come to me, thou dear one, and let us link our hopeless fates in unison; and if not otherwise, yet in our united helplessness we will be as one: where I dwell thou shalt dwell, and whatsoever of fortune or mischance may be in store for us, we will meekly share together." This was a determination which could not but expose him to the universal censure of the "prudent;" yet, under the circumstances, it was unquestionably commendable, and Heyne had

never any reason to regret it. They were married at Ensdorf, on the 4th of June, 1761. Theresa proved a noble wife to him, and with the ornaments that sprung out of her fine affection, adorned and beautified his destiny.

As to the vulgar necessaries of life, they were in some sort realised by Heyne's occasional labours for the booksellers. The clouds and disturbances of war began gradually to clear away, and the hospitalities of friends contributed to eke out the insufficiencies of the still poorly-furnished household. For a while Heyne seems to have been engaged as a sort of factor or overseer of general affairs, under a certain Herr von Löben, who was a kind friend to him, and left him in possession of his country-house when he himseif was driven from it by alarms of war; in which capacity Heyne says he gained some little notion of "land-economy;" and Heeren records that he had, amongst other concerns, to superintend❝ a candle manufactory." While here, an incident occurred which favourably illustrates the character of Theresa. "Soon after the departure of the family, there came upon us an irruption of Cossacks-disguised Prussians, as we subsequently learned -who, after drinking to intoxication in the cellars, set about plundering. Pursued by them, I ran up-stairs, and no door being open but that of the room where my wife was with her infant, I rushed into it. She arose courageously, and placed herself, with the child on her arm, at the door against the robbers. This courage saved me, and also the treasure which lay hidden in the chamber." One almost regrets that Heyne should have condescended to save his life by an undignified retreat behind such frail bastion-works as petticoats; yet it is beautiful to see that even bloody-purposed Cossacks, or "disguised Prussians," have a certain inextinguishable reverence for the courageous defencelessness of a woman, standing at their mercy with her infant at her bosom. Surely human nature, in its lowest and worst forms, is never utterly diabolical!

Shortly after this, there arose for Heyne the dawn of better circumstances. Long and weary are the nights, gloomy and cheerless, too, the days of our protracted northern winter; but yet the spring comes in at last, even though it be sometimes rather late in summer: so to honesty and faithfulness, and a manful endeavouring to "realize our aspirations," there commonly succeeds some intelligible

success; and that "tide" which is in the affairs of men, being taken at the full, leads on, if not to "fortune," to at least some practical satisfaction and contentment. "On our return to Dresden," says Heyne, "I learned that inquiries had been made after me from Hanover." Now what can such unwonted Hanoverian curiosity signify? Heyne is for some time left to guess, but has no gift for guessing right. Nevertheless, the singular enigma is by and by unriddled. Heyne learns that Professor Gessner, of the University of Göttingen, has lately been translated from this sublunary life; and therefore a successor was required to occupy his vacant chair of "Eloquence." The prime minister of Hanover, in whom the patronage was vested, had written to Ernesti for advice; and Ernesti, knowing no proper man in Germany, recommended Rhunken of Leyden as a highly desirable person, could he only be prevailed on to take the post. Rhunken declined to leave his country, but ventured to propose a man whose qualifications he deemed worthy of consideration. "Why," said he, "do you seek out of Germany what Germany itself offers you? Why not, for Gessner's successor, take Christian Gottlob Heyne, that true pupil of Ernesti, and man of excellent talent, who has shown how much he knows of Latin literature by his 'Tibullus,' and of Greek by his 'Epictetus?' In my opinion, Heyne is the only one that can replace your Gessner. Nor let any one tell me that Heyne's fame is not sufficiently illustrious and extended. Believe me, there is in this man such a richness of genius and learning, that before long all Europe will ring with his praises." Rhunken knew nothing of Heyne otherwise than by his writings; nevertheless, his generous and boldly-spoken verdict was accepted. Heyne was sought after, and with difficulty discovered; the appointment was conferred on him; and in June 1763 he became finally settled in Göttingen, with an "official income of eight hundred thalers," which subsequently, by various additions, was increased to twelve hundred-a sum, indeed, nowise very considerable, but yet quite sufficient for the needs of a modest and unambitious man of learning like our Heyne, who does not appear to have conceived it to be any part of the scholar's object to be rich, or that the glory of his life consists in living sumptuously.

This, then, is the culmination of Heyne's personal history. He has reached the position for which nature seems to have

intended him. What greater blessedness can happen to any man in life? Henceforth his existence is as quiet and fertile in activity as it had previously been desolate and distracted. He lived with little interruption for many years, "in the quiet and still air of delightful studies." He became an incarnation, or walking library of profound learning. Though several times solicited to accept appointments of higher distinction and importance, he never quitted Göttingen; but with a steady devotion to the institution which first afforded scope for his diligence and abilities, and furnished him with the comforts of a settled and honourable position, he remained calmly and contentedly connected with it throughout his life. With the punctuality of the sun he arose each day to renewed intellectual exertion, working sedulously in his vocation as a teacher, and continually adding new and important acquisitions to his treasury of personal knowledge. With unresting diligence he reads and examines into all manner of ancient records, difficult manuscripts, ponderous tomes of accumulated lore and rubbish, and with a keen and ready discrimination, draws from them, for his uses, whatever essence of true and serviceable learning they may contain. Thus, "hiving knowledge with each studious year," he grows gradually and progressively in influence and consideration with his contemporaries; fails not to be honoured with the reverence and esteem of the learned and the studious both at home and in foreign countries; and even eventually attains to that position. of eminence and reputation which Rhunken predicted for him, and is recognised as being, in his own peculiar domain of intelligence and research, unsurpassed, and even without an equal, in Europe.

Heyne, moreover, as a stationed and accredited professor, has now become a person of some civic consequence and elevation. He has a fixed and reputable household, respectable comings in, charges and relations of a civil and public character, audiences with the learned, interests and vanities to adjust and regulate, Burschen irregularities to admonish and restrain, and, upon the whole, a very considerable multiplicity of affairs to superintend and keep in order. He seems to correspond with the poles and the equator-writing "letters by the hundred to all parts of the world, and on all conceivable subjects;" he teaches three classes daily in his college; appoints and recommends professors; superintends

a multitude of public schools; has under his inspection for a number of years the very freytische, or free tables of the university, settling the bills of cooks, and being the authorized purveyor of "commons," or recognised students' provider; and is, besides, a kind of general administrator of things in ordinary within the entire collegiate jurisdiction. Yet amid all this diversity of labour he is constantly pursuing some private and independent study; he collates and edits, with elaborate annotations, and publishes in a variety of forms, and in manifold editions, many of the most estimable and illustrious masterpieces of ancient literature; writes endless reviews and learned disquisitions, essays, eulogies, verses, and translations, until at length the works of his single head are almost numerous enough to fill the rooms of a public library. Nor are they mere indigested accumulations of learned lumber, not classical pumicestone or indiscriminate "shot rubbish "—cartloads of ashes, with a sprinkling of pearls and diamonds-not even rugged ore, like the uncoined hills of California; but, as one has said, "regularly smelted metal, for the most part exhibiting the essence, and only the essence, of very great research, and enlightened by a philosophy which, if it does not always wisely order its results, has looked far and deeply in collecting them." Of the most important works to which this estimate applies, some brief account shall by and by be rendered.

In his domestic relations Heyne must be reckoned as being upon the whole favourably circumstanced. The good Theresa, though of a melancholy temperament, and of a somewhat irritable susceptibility, was nevertheless an amiable and gentle wife to him. Patient and enduring in adversity, she had also the qualities which failed not to grace and beautify the home of his prosperity. Children, too, spring up about their knees to share their love, and to unite them more intimately in the bonds of life; and though some of them died early, making the house to appear vacant which had formerly been rendered cheerful by their presence, yet none of these bereavements left them utterly disconsolate; but out of the pious sorrow engendered by their loss, there sprung up graceful and enduring tendernesses, which reconciled the mourners to their fate. Thus amid light and shadow, and the alternations of gladness and distress, the