20 BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE 



in thus accommodating himself to his reverse of fortune, 

 together with the extent of his information, attracted the notice 

 of some well educated and intelligent gentlemen, and he was 

 soon after invited to become a teacher in the college of George- 

 town, D. C. on the recommendation of our late venerable fel- 

 low-citizen, John Carroll, Archbishop of Baltimore. Such 

 was that pious Prelate's esteem of Mr. Girardin's talents and 

 virtues, testified to, moreover, in a letter which was gratefully 

 and reverentially preserved by our deceased friend, that he 

 strongly intreated him to receive orders: but it seems that 

 this was not his vocation. He remained sometime a teacher 

 in the catholic college of Georgetown, whence he removed to 

 Virginia, where he presided at different times over several 

 academies, enjoying the esteem and confidence of the first 

 families of that State, whose children were placed under his 

 charge. His character of a public teacher becoming now bet- 

 ter known, and more generally appreciated, he received the 

 appointment to a professorship in the university of William and 

 Mary. It is from this place that he began to aspire to the lite- 

 rary standing in his adopted country, which the disasters of a 

 revolution had snatched from him in his native land. He com- 

 menced the publication, in conjunction with a German artist 

 by the name of Bos.sler, of a work entitled Amcenitates Gra- 

 phicce^ to be edited in French and English, the prospectus of 

 which sets forth that it has for its object, 'to form an instruc- 

 tive and amusing collection of views, drawings of animals, 

 plants, flowers, fruits, minerals, antiquities, costumes and 

 other interesting objects ; selected with care and engraved 

 upon drawings from nature, or the best representations of 

 those objects ; with descriptions and suitable explanations in 

 English and French : the whole with a view of inspiring 

 young people of both sexes with a taste for useful and agreea- 

 ble knowledge, to facilitate to them the study of it, and to 

 enable them to become acquainted with the languages in 

 which the descriptions and explanations are made. The 

 descriptions and explnnations by L. H, Girardin, professor of 

 modern languages, history and geography in the college of 

 William and Mary — the engravings by Frederick Bossier, 

 Williamsburg, September 12, 1S04.' This work was not 



