430 
April 1752, elated with hope, and 
experienced a very favourable re- 
ception ; but though the most flat- 
tering promises were made to him, 
they terminated in disappoint- 
ment,~ and his situation would 
have been highly unpleasant, had 
he not obtained the place of tutor 
to a young gentleman, which ena- 
bled him to spend the winter 
in comfort, till 1753, when he 
was again thrown out of employ- 
ment. About this time he seems 
to have been reduced to a state 
of the utmost distress. Such was 
his poverty, that he was obliged 
to sell his books to prevent him- 
self from starving ; and pea-shells, 
which he collected and boiled, 
were on many occasions his only 
food. As he had no lodging, a 
young clergyman, named Sonne 
tagg, with whom he had formed 
an acquaintance, took pity on his 
condition, and gave him a share 
of his apartment, where he slept 
on the bare boards, with a few 
books to supply the place of a 
pillow. At length, after much 
solicitation, he was admitted as a 
copyist into the Bruhlian library, 
at a bare salary of a hundred dol- 
Jars per annum. As this appoint- 
ment was not sufficient to preserve 
him from want, necessity com- 
pelled him to become a writer. 
His first attempt was a transiation 
of a French novel; and in the 
same year he gave a translation of 
«‘ Chariton’s History of Chzerea 
and Callirrhoe,” a Greek romance 
_brought to light a few years be- 
fore by Dorville, and illustrated 
by a learned commentary. It de- 
serves to be remarked, that it was 
here that he first manifested that 
taste for criticism by which he 
was afterwards so much distin- 
ANNUAL REGISTER, 1815. 
guished. “In the false and cor- 
rupted passages, I have assumed,” 
says the translator, ‘ true critical 
freedom ; and supplied, corrected, 
and amended, according to my 
own ideas. In doing this, I en- 
joyed the infinite pleasure, which 
a young critic feels when he 
thinks he is able to amend.’ 
These early productions appeared 
without his name. His next work 
was an edition of Tibullus. It 
was dedicated to Count Bruhl, 
and though it met with no parti- 
cular notice, either from him or 
the German literati, it excited 
considerable attention in foreign 
countries, and served to make the 
name of the critic much better 
known. Having found in the Elec- 
toral library a manuscript of Epic- 
tetus, which he collated, he was 
thence led to a more critical exa- 
mination of the work of that phi- 
losopher, aad soon found, particu- 
larly by studying the Commen- 
tary of Simplicius, that an exten- 
sive field was here open for the 
labours of the critic. His first 
edition of Epictetus, which ap- 
peared in 1756, afforded a deci- 
sive proof of his profound know- 
ledge in the Greek, and induced 
him to make himself better ac- 
quainted with the principles of 
the Stoic pbilosophy. Though 
classical literature formed the 
principal object of his research, 
he had not devoted himself to 
that branch exclusively. In the 
Bruhlean library he found abun- 
dance of works on the English 
and French literature, and he 
read with great attention the clas- 
sical productions of both these na- 
tions: About this time he became 
acquainted with the celebrated 
Winkelmann, who frequented the 
library, 
