(4 
revived in the darker ages, and 
where, 
Smit with the love of facred fong,” 
he might indulge his enthufiafm and 
improve his tafte in claffical litera- 
ture. The uncertain ftate of his 
health, the maladie du pays, which fo 
remarkably affects the Swifs in fo- 
reign parts, and on which he has 
compofed a poem, together with the 
advice of his friends, prevailed over 
his inclination, and induced him to 
return to his native country. 
In his way to Berne he ftopped 
at Bafle, in order to ftudy mathe- 
matics and algebra under the céle- 
brated John Bernoulli; and in this, 
as well as every other inftance of 
his life, applied with fuch inde- 
fatigable perfeverance, as if thofe 
fciences were to form the fole object 
of his future refearches. His pro- 
ficiency in thefe ftudies is futicient- 
ly proved by feveral treatifes ftill 
extant in manufcript, which he 
compofed on arithmetic and geo- 
metry, and particularly by his re- 
marks on the Marquis de l’Hofpi- 
tal’s Analyfis of Infinitefimals ; and 
his attachment to them by his being 
deeply employed in a profound cal. 
culation on the day of his marr lage. 
But though he made fuch a progrefs 
as aftonifhed Bernoulli: himfelf, he 
continued his other purfuits, being 
appointed to reac leGures on ana- 
tomy during the ficknefs of the 
profeffor : while he felfilled the duties 
of that office, he alfo attended the 
lectures of Tzinger on the sare 
parts of medicine; thus at the fame 
time difplaying, with equal pro- 
priety, the dignity of a profeflor, 
and the humility of a pupil. 
During the fummer of 1729, he, 
im company with his friend John 
Geiuer, made an excurfion into the 
ANNUAL REGISTER, 
1790. 
mountains of Switzerland; an ex- 
curfion rendered memorable by its 
fuggefting to him the plan of a 
Flora Helvetica, and by infpiring 
his poem on ‘the Alps, which he 
compofed in the z1ft year of his 
age; a poem as fublime and im- 
mortal as the rountains which are 
the fubje&t of his fong. 
Not to interrupt thefe biographi- 
cal anecdotes with a chronological 
detail of his poetical productions, lL 
fhall juft mention, that, not long 
after his poem on the Alps, he wrote 
his ethic epiitles, on the Imperfec- 
tion of Human Virtue, on Super- 
{tition and Infidelity, on the Origin 
of Evil, on the Vanity of Honour, 
Various Satires, Doris, a Paftoral 
on his firft wife, and his much-ad- 
mired Elegy on her death, Itis a 
convincing proof of Haller’s verfa- 
tile genius and extraordinary men- 
tal powers, that he fhould have fo 
eminently excelled in poetry, which, 
except in his early youth, he never 
confidered otherwife than as an © 
amufement, either to foothe him un- 
der affliétions, and inthe bed of fick- 
nefs, or to confole him for the envy 
and neglect of his contemporaries. 
‘The foundett German critics place 
Haller among the moft eminent of © 
their poets ; and confider fublimity 
as the grand characteriftic of his 
writings. They acknowledge, that 
he improved the harmony and 
richnefs of his native tongue; that 
he poffefied the higheft powers of 
invention and fancy; great origi- 
nality both in bis ideas and lan- 
guage; that he is the true colourift 
of nature; that he founded the 
depths of metaphyfical and moral 
fcience; that he equally excels in 
picturefque defcriptions, in foft and 
delightful imagery, in elevated fen- 
tunents, and philofophical precifion.” 
A few 
