18 MEMOIR OF BARON HALLER. 



languages, subjoining a short explanation ; so that 

 Ke very early composed a kind of lexicon or voca- 

 bulary in Greek, Hebrew, and Chaldaic, to which 

 he had frequent recourse in the subsequent periods 

 of his life. When ten years of age, he wrote verses 

 in German and Latin, with a point which astonished 

 his masters; and with this weapon he revenged 

 himself for the severity of his tutor, by describing 

 in Latin satires what was most ridiculous in his 

 pedantry. At the age of twelve, he had extracted 

 from the Dictionaries of Moreri and Bayle, literary 

 notices of two thousand of the most distinguished 

 characters there described, thus affording striking 

 proof of his assiduity and industry. In his thirteenth 

 year he lost his father, and was then sent to the 

 public grammar school of his native city. Here 

 he speedily distinguished himself among his fellows, 

 of which the following has been narrated as one 

 proof: Soon after his attendance commenced, a 

 translation into Latin was prescribed to him, which 

 he not only speedily and ably executed, but also 

 with equal success rendered it into pure and elegant 

 Greek. 



On leaving school, he devoted a large share of 

 his attention to the cultivation of poetry ; and his 

 early essays in verse being published in the German 

 language, immediately attracted the attention and 

 admiration of the whole empire. His inclination 

 to satire was strong, and his success might have 

 tempted him to indulge his propensity, but an ac- 

 cident about this time occurred, which afforded hioa 



