791 



WOLFF, PIUS ALEXANDER. 



WOLLASTON, WILLIAM. 



792 



Wolff divides human knowledge into three parts, historical, philo- 

 sophical, aud mathematical : in the first he includes everything 

 relating to material as well as immaterial beintr, that is, whatever is 

 cognisable by the senses or by internal conviction. The second he 

 considers as comprehending tho reasons of things ; and he states its 

 object to be the explanation of the reason that what is possible may 

 be realised. His third division constitutes the knowledge of quantity. 

 He divides psychology into two kinds, which ore designated rational 

 and empirical, and the former is distinguished from the latter as the 

 science of things possible relatively to the soul only. He defines 

 science in general, tho faculty of demonstrating. 



He appears to have formed but an imperfect idea of the connection of 

 the sciences, his taste leading him to seek the grounds of their connec- 

 tion only in their being deduced from first principles, which he conceived 

 to exist in the human understanding ; and his criterion of truth con- 

 sisted in the thing predicated being in accordance with the idea of the 

 subject. His dissertations on the employment of hypotheses, and on 

 the deductions drawn from experience, are the developments of a few 

 general maxims, very just, but trite ; and his views on the liberty of 

 philosophising are sound, though, at the time they were written, they 

 appeared too bold. 



Hie metaphysical theory maintained its ground in Germany from 

 tho death of Leibnitz to the time when tho school of Kant was formed. 

 He is considered as the disciple and commentator of the former philo- 

 sopher ; and he admitted a sort of pre-established harmony from whence 

 results the conformity of the operations of the soul with those of the 

 body, but he differed from his master in considering that harmony not 

 as a result of the will of the Deity, but of the changes which are con- 

 tinually in operation in the universe : the latter he considered as a 

 piece of mechanism set in motion by its first cause. He demonstrates 

 at length the existence of God, taking care at the same time to sepa- 

 rate the idea of the Divine Being from that of the soul of the world ; 

 and he maintained the opinion that the Author of the universe being 

 all-perfect must have necessarily created the best of all possible worlds. 

 Asserting also the perfect freedom of man's will, he admits that this 

 freedom is limited to the power of choosinjj what appears to be the 

 best under existing circumstances. 



His general rule of morality is, that each man should, as much as 

 depends on himself, do what may render his own condition and that 

 of others as perfect as possible. While acknowledging that God is the 

 source of all morality, he considers that man is in some respects a law 

 to himself ; that an action is good or bad in itself, independently of 

 divine precepts, and that the conduct of man ought not to be influ- 

 enced merely by the fear of punishment or the hope of reward. 

 Natural law is in his mind identical with morality, and he makes both 

 to depend on the obligation man is under to advance constantly towards 

 perfection. 



Wolff's political science is founded on the principle that everything 

 should be done for the public benefit and the maintenance of public 

 security : he considers a limited monarchy as the most favourable for 

 the attainment of these ends, though he admits that this is not with- 

 out some inconveniences. He leaves to the prince the right of deter- 

 mining what is best for the public good, but he makes him subject to 

 the laws of his country. He inquires into the causes of the wealth of 

 nations, but his views on this subject are confined chiefly to the state 

 of society in his own age, and want the generality which is consistent 

 with the present state of this branch of science. 



His political works are, 'Jus Naturae,' viii. torn. 4to, Francofurti et 

 Lipsise, 1732; and 'Jus Gentium,' Halle, 1752. 



(Ludovici, Vita, fata et scripta, Ch. Wolffii, Leipzig.) 

 WOLFF, PIUS ALEXANDER, one of the most distinguished 

 German actors of the present century, was born in 1782, at Augsburg. 

 His parents designed him. for one of the learned professious, but his 

 own inclination, as well as his natural talents, led him to the stage. 

 In 1804 he was one of the actors engaged at Weimar, the theatre of 

 which place was then regarded as the model for all Germany. Schiller 

 and Gothe were themselves actively engaged in conducting the theatre 

 and training the actors. As Wolff was a man of much greater talent 

 than the majority of actors, Gothe took especial trouble with him, 

 trained him on sound artistic principles, and afterwards declared that 

 Wolff had become an actor quite to his mind. Wolff devoted himself 

 especially to the performance of tragic characters and youthful heroes, 

 which he acted to perfection. His performance of Hamlet, the Marquis 

 Posa, Max. Piccolomini, Weisslingen, Orestes, and Tasso, made such an 

 impression in Germany, that to this day he is considered the standard 

 by which other actors are measured. At a later period he occasion- 

 ally also acted comic and humorous characters, in which he was much 

 admired, though tragedy was at all times his peculiar field, in which 

 he was unsurpassed. la 1816 he became a member of the royal 

 theatre of Berlin. 



He died at Weimar in 1828. During the latter years of his life he 

 wrote several dramas, which were well received, and some of which 

 long remained favourite plays in Germany. Three of them, ' Caesario,' 

 a comedy, ' Pflicht urn Pflicht,' and ' Preciosa,' form the first volume 

 of a collection which he published under the title ' Dramatische 

 Spiele,' Berlin, 1823, but the collection was not continued, and his 

 other plays appeared separately at different times. 'Preciosa' has 

 become celebrated by being taken by C. M. von Weber as the text for 



one of his most popular operas. His other plays are ' Der Hund des 

 Aubri,' a farce, (Berlin, 1822) ; 'Der Mann von fiinfzig Jahren 1 (Berlin, 

 1830); ' Treue siegt in Liebesnetzen,' and 'Der Kammerdiener ' 

 (Berlin, 1832). 



WOLFRAM VON ESCHENBACH, a Minnesiinger, who lived in 

 the first part of the 1 3th century, was the best German poet of his 

 time. He was probably born at a castle called Eschenbach, which 

 seems to have been situated in the Upper Palatinate, and he was 

 descended from a noble family. After having been made a knight, he 

 led the life of a warlike troubadour, and the princes of the empire 

 received him with equal satisfaction in their camp and at their court. 

 He was present at the famous poetical festival on the Wartburg. 

 Towards the end of his life he retired to his native country : he died 

 in 1220. 



Wolfram von Eschenbach was a very fertile poet. Of his numerous 

 productions the greater part however are lost, but his principal poem 

 has most luckily been preserved in manuscript at St. Gallen and at 

 some other places. This poem is entitled ' Parzival : ' the subject of 

 it is partly taken from French and Provencal models the holy Gral 

 being the marvellous object which the hero of the poem, Parzival, 

 pursues in a long course of adventures. He at last becomes king of 

 the Gral, and thus enjoys the purest happiness and perfection which 

 man can attain. There is an epical tendency in the poem, but it 

 would be incorrect to call it an epic ; full of deep thoughts on the 

 destiny of man, on the mysterious nature of his soul, on his religious 

 aud moral duties, it belongs to a class of poems which are peculiar to 

 German literature, and of which Gothe's ' Faust ' may be considered 

 as the most striking specimen. The 'Parzival' was written about 

 1205. It was first printed in fol., 1477, in an incorrect and mutilated 

 edition, which was reprinted and somewhat corrected in the first 

 volume of ' Sammlung Altdeutscher Gedichte,' by Miiller, who collated 

 the manuscript of St. Gallen. The other extant works of Wolfram of 

 Eschenbaeh are, 2, ' Titurel,' first printed in 4to, 1477, a fragment of 

 an introductory poem to Parzival, and in Gervinus's opinion the finest 

 specimen of ancient German poetry, which must not be confounded 

 with another poem, likewise called ' Titurel,' which was once in- 

 correctly attributed to Wolfram ; 3, ' Willehalm von Oranais ' (William 

 of Orange), in Manesse's collection of Minnesaugers, where there are 

 also several of the author's minor lyrical poems. An excellent critical 

 edition of all the extant productions of Wolfram von Eschenbach was 

 published by Lachmann, Berlin, 8vo, 1833, who has added a valuable 

 introduction to the Life and Works of the author. Wolfram, accord- 

 ing to contemporary writers, was a very learned man; his style is 

 simple, clear, and elegant, and the difficulties which exist are rather 

 due to the mystical tendency of the author and his transcendental 

 ideas, than to a want of those qualities which constitute a great 

 writer. 



WOLLASTON, WILLIAM, author of 'The Religion of Nature 

 Delineated,' was born at Coton-Clanford in Staffordshire, on the 26th 

 of March, 1659. He was descended from an old and considerable 

 Staffordshire family, but belonged to a younger and a poor branch of 

 it. When he was in his tenth year, a Latin school was opened at 

 Shenston in Staffordshire, where his father, a private gentleman of a 

 small fortune, then resided, young Wollastou was immediately sent 

 to it. He continued there near two years, when he was sent to 

 Litchfield school, in which a great confusion soon after happened, and 

 the magistrates of the city turned the master out of the schoolhouee. 

 Many scholars followed the ejected master; and Mr. Wollaston amongst 

 the rest. He remained with him till he quitted his school, which was 

 about three years ; and then, the schism being ended, he returned into 

 the free-school, aud continued there about a year. This was all the 

 schooling Mr. Wollaston ever had. (Clarke's ' Life of Wollaston,' 

 prefixed to his edition of the ' Religion of Nature,' Svo, 1750, p. v.) On 

 the 18th of June 1674, he was entered a pensioner at Sidney Sussex 

 College, Cambridge, where he resided almost without interruption 

 until the 29th of September 1681, by which time he had taken.his 

 Master of Arts' degree and deacon's orders. He was disappointed iu 

 not obtaining a fellowship in his college, for which he had laboured 

 with great diligence, and iti the hope of obtaining which he had sub- 

 mitted to much inconvenience from poverty during his residence in 

 the university. On leaving college he took the situation of assistant- 

 master at Birmingham school, and shortly after he joined the school 

 he obtained a lectureship in a chapel two miles out of Birmingham. 

 After having filled the situation of assistant-master for about four years, 

 he was appointed second master of the school, which had three 

 masters and two assistant-masters, and at the same time took priest's 

 orders. This mastership was worth only 70. a year. Out of his 

 small income he was able to give assistance to two brothers who had 

 got into difficulties. 



In August 1688, the poor schoolmaster suddenly found himself in 

 affluence by the death of a second cousin, the head of his owu branch 

 of tho Wollaston family, Mr. Wollaston of Shenton. iu Leicestershire, 

 who greatly to his own surprise made him hia heir. This gentleman 

 had not long before his death lost his only son, and not choosing to 

 give his estate to his daughters, proceeded to settle it on the uncle 

 and father of the subject of this sketch. But a further acquaintance 

 with his youuger relative, and the high character which he heard of 

 him, led him before his death to revoke this settlement and make 



