CHARACTERS. 
library, and who was then on the 
point of undertaking a tour to 
Italy. Heyne, however, notwith- 
standing all his exertions, conti- 
nued to labour under the oppres- 
sion of poverty, and his situation 
was rendered still worse by the 
incursion of the Prussians into 
Saxony. When the Prussian 
troops took possession of Dres- 
den, Count Bruhl, who was the 
chief object of Frederick’s resent- 
ment, was obliged to fly for shel- 
ter to Augustus King of Poland, 
upon which his palace was de- 
stroyed and his library dispersed. 
None suffered more on this occa- 
sion than those who were in the 
Count’s service; and as they were 
deprived of their salaries, the 
source from which Heyne had hi- 
therto derived a scanty mainte- 
nance was entirely dried up. He 
endeavoured, therefore, to relieve 
his wants by translating political 
pamphlets from the French, but 
the small pittance which this pro- 
duced afforded very little relief. 
In the autumn of the year 1757 
he was again reduced to a most 
forlorn condition, but was so for- 
tunate as to obtain, through the 
means of Rabener, a place as tutor 
in a family, where he became 
acquainted with a lady named 
Theresa Weiss, whom he after- 
wards married. His pupil having 
gone to the university of Witten- 
berg, Heyne repaired thither him- 
self in the month of January 
1759, and resumed his academic 
studies, which he prosecuted with 
more advantage than before, ap- 
plying chiefly to philosophy and 
the German history. In the year 
following, a residence at Witten- 
berg having become insecure, he 
retired to some distance in the 
431 
country, but soon after returned 
to Dresden, where he witnessed 
the norrors of the bombardment 
in the month of July, during 
which he was exposed to the most 
imminent danger. In the year 
following, Heyne married the ob- 
ject of his affections, and in 1763 
he was invited to’ Gottingen to the 
vacant professorship of John Mat- 
thias Gesner. He entered on his 
new office with an inaugural dis- 
course, ‘¢ De veris bonarum ar- 
tium literarumque incrementis ex 
libertate publica ;” which was fol- 
lowed by a classical dissertation, 
on announcing the aniversary of 
the university, and the festival on 
account of peace, ‘ De genio sx 
culi Ptolemzorum.” Before the 
end of the year he read his first 
paper as a member of the Society 
of the Sciences, entitled “« Tempo- 
rum mythicorum memoria a cor- 
ruptelis nonnullis vindicata.” His 
first academic lectures were on 
Horace, the Georgics of Virgil, 
and some parts of the tragic 
writers. In 1766 he explained 
the Jliad, and afterwards the 
Greek antiquities and archzology. 
Heyne’s new situation, as it af- 
forded him considerable leisure, 
enabled him to resume his labours 
as a writer, which domestic cir- 
cumstances, during the first years 
of his residence at Gottingen, ren- 
dered more necessary; and he 
published a translation of the first 
seven parts of Guthrie’s and 
Gray’s History of the World, but 
with such additions and improve- 
ments, that it might be called an 
original work, After this em-~ 
ployment, he returned to the La- 
tian Muses, and in 1767 published 
the first part of his Virgil, which 
was followed by the other parts, 
at 
