742 VEKPLANCK, GULIAN C. 



VILLEMAIN, ABEL F. 



Talisman," which was published by Dr. Bliss 

 in the year 1827 and the two following years. 

 To these volumes he contributed the "Pere- 

 grinations of Petrus Mudd," a humorous and 

 lively sketch, founded on the travels of a New- 

 Yorker of the genuine old stock, who, when 

 he returned from wandering over all Europe 

 and part of Asia, set himself down, to study 

 geography in order to know where he had 

 been. Of the graver articles, he wrote "De 

 Gourges," a chapter from the history of the 

 Huguenot colonists of this country; "Gelyna, 

 a Tale of Albany and Ticonderoga," and several 

 others. In conjunction with Robert 0. Sands, 

 a writer of a peculiar vein of quaint humor, he 

 contributed two papers to the collection en- 

 titled "Scenes in Washington," of a humorous 

 and satirical character. He disliked the manual 

 labor of writing, and was fond of dictating 

 while another held the pen. In 1833, he col- 

 lected his public speeches into a volume. 

 Among these is one delivered in August of 

 that year in Columbia College, in which he 

 holds up to imitation the illustrious examples 

 of great men educated at that institution. In 

 one of those passages of stately eloquence which 

 heso well knew how to frame, he speaks of 

 the worth of his old adversary, De Witt Clin- 

 ton, the first graduate of the college after the 

 peace of 1783, and pays due "honor to that 

 Itofty ambition which taught him to look to 

 designs of grand utility, and to their successful 

 execution, as his arts of gaining or redeeming 

 the confidence of a generous and public-spirited 

 people." In the same discourse he pronounced 

 the eulogy of Dr. Mason, who had died a few 

 days before. 



After separating from the Democratic party, 

 Mr. Verplanck was elected by the Whigs, in 

 1837, to the Senate of the State of New York, 

 while that body was yet a Court for the Cor- 

 rection of Errors a tribunal of the last resort 

 and in that capacity decided questions of 

 law of the highest magnitude and importance. 

 During the four years in which he sat in this 

 Court, he heard the arguments in nearly every 

 case which came before it, and delivered 71 

 opinions. These opinions of his form an im- 

 portant part of the legal literature of our 

 State. If he had made the law his special pur- 

 suit, and been placed on the bench of one of 

 our higher tribunals, there is no degree of 

 judicial eminence to which he might not have 

 aspired. 



One of the most marked of the many dis- 

 courses which he delivered was at Union Col- 

 lege in the year 1836, the subject being "The 

 American Scholar." His design was to show 

 that the mental activity of America, the general 

 dissemination of intelligence, the open path to 

 every species of intellectual distinction, more 

 than counterbalance the opportunities for 

 scholastic retirement in which the New is as 

 yet inferior to the Old World. In 1844 he 

 began the editing of an edition of Shakespeare's 

 plays, the publication of which was completed 



in 1847, in three large octavos. Mr. Yerplanck's 

 labors consisted in a revision of the text, which 

 he did with independence as well as careful- 

 ness. An excellent feature in his work was 

 the pointing out of colloquial expressions often 

 called Americanisms, which, obsolete in Eng- 

 land, are yet preserved in this country. He 

 gave original prefaces to the plays, character- 

 ized by the ease and finish common to his pro- 

 ductions. 



Mr. Verplanck was a member of the Board 

 of Regents of the University of the State of 

 New York from 1826 till his decease, and on the 

 Library Committee for the State Committee 

 for 1 844 to his death, and Vice-Chancellor of 

 the University since 1855. He was one of the 

 Governors of the New York Hospital from 

 1823 to 1865, and always attentive to his duties. 

 He was a member and most of the time Presi- 

 dent of the Board of Commissioners of Emigra- 

 tion, from its organization in 1847 to 1870; a 

 Trustee of the Public School Society from 1833 

 to 1841, and connected with most of the publi'c 

 charities and institutions of New-York City. 



VILLEMAIN, ABEL FuAisrgois, a French au- 

 thor, professor, statesman, and academician, 

 born in Paris June 11, 1790; died in that city, 

 May 10, 1870. His early education was ob- 

 tained at the Imperial Lyceum (near the Lycee 

 Louis le Grand), where he exhibited, while 

 yet a child of twelve years, a proficiency in 

 Greek and in composition so remarkable that 

 the Professor of Rhetoric often left him in 

 charge of the class. After completing his 

 course at the Lyceum, in 1808, he commenced 

 the study of law ; but in a year or two, De 

 Fontanes, who had made his acquaintance, 

 and was charmed with his talents, persuaded 

 him to qualify himself for a literary career by 

 engaging in teaching. In 1810 he was ap- 

 pointed Adjunct Professor of Ehetoric in the 

 Lycee Charlemagne, and soon after Master of 

 the Conferences in French Literature and of 

 Latin Versification at the Normal School. In 

 1812 he was appointed to deliver the Latin 

 oration at the general examination of the Ly- 

 ceum, anil acquitted himself with great ability. 

 The same year he competed for the prize of- 

 fered by the French Academy for the best 

 essay on Montaigne, and his memoir was 

 crowned by the Academy and received its high 

 appreciation. Two years later (in April, 1814), 

 by a special vote of the Academy, he read be- 

 fore them an essay on the " advantages and 

 inconveniences of criticism," when he had the 

 King of Prussia and the Emperor of Russia 

 among his hearers. In 1816 he was again the 

 orator of the Academy, reading before it an 

 " Essay on Montesquieu," which had been 

 crowned by that body. lie was at this time 

 Adjunct Professor of Modern History at the 

 Sorbonne, but through Roger Collard's influ- 

 ence he was promoted to the professorship of 

 French Eloquence in that venerable university, 

 a position which he occupied with credit for 

 ten years. In 1819 the young professor gave 



