Sketch of Hie Life of Professor Heeren, 107 



rician named Alexander. Some happy corrections of the cor- 

 rupted text inspired M. Heeren with the idea of its republicar- 

 tion, A bookseller received this first performance of our young 

 critic, and printed it in 1785, under the title of Menander 

 Rhetor, de Encomiis, &c. 



About this period he fell into bad health. Living in solitude, 

 he allowed himself to be affected with melancholy, and found it 

 necessary to travel. A small legacy, which a grand-uncle had 

 left him, afforded him the means of doing so, and he resolved 

 to betake himself to Rome, and to visit the whole of Italy. 

 Travelling was not yet in fashion in Germany. M, Tychsen, 

 one of his friends, returning from Spain, had brought from 

 the Escurial the collation of a manuscript, the Eclogas of Sto- 

 baeus. He gave it to M. Heeren, to whom the present was 

 of great value. The Ecloga of Stobaeus were known only by 

 the edition of 1575, published from a very defective manuscript, 

 and reprinted in 1609; and these two editions were scarce. 

 The collation of the manuscripts of the Ecloga, for the purpose 

 of publishing an edition, thus became an object of his journey. 

 This undertaking, while it prepared for him recommendations 

 for a professorship, of which he was ambitious, afforded an ex- 

 ercise to his mind, which needed occupation. There were only 

 six or seven manuscripts known of this work of Stobaeus, scat- 

 tered in Spain, Germany, Italy, and, as was supposed, in Hol- 

 land. This circumstance determined the plan of his journey. 



On the 17th July 1785, he left Gottingen, and went first to 

 Augsburg. The journey had a salutary effect, and dispersed 

 his melancholy. The public library of Augsburg possessed a 

 manuscript, which was entrusted to him, and which he collated 

 in a fortnight. He then went to Munich. It was at this time 

 that the Illuminati were in all their glory, and every where 

 formed the subject of conversation. After carefully inspecting 

 the library of Munich, he followed the course of the Danube to 

 Vienna. He there fell in with one of his class-fellows, who also 

 intended to visit Italy, and they agreed to travel together. 

 From Vienna he went to Trieste. This city, which is more 

 Italian than German— the view of the Adriatic sea and its 

 shores, with their numerous gulfs— the sight of the harbour 

 filled with ships mostly from the Levant— the proximity of 



