ZACHARIAE, JUST FRIEDRICH. 



ZACHARIAE, KARL SALOMON. 



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iu which he endeavoured to determine the effects of attraction on the 

 plumb lino by means of a aeries of astronomical and geodetical ope- 

 ration*, which he had carried ou at Marseille in the preceding year. 



In 1826 he unexpectedly removed from Genoa, and astronomy 

 BU Mured a general loss by the cessation of hia work. For many of the 

 later year* of his life he suffered severely from the stone, and at length 

 the constant care of Dr. Civiale of Paris became BO absolutely neces- 

 sary that he took up his abode in that city in order to receive it. 

 Experiencing relief by the operation of litbotrity, he enjoyed such 

 intervals of comparative ease that he even entertained thoughts of 

 re-visiting England, when he was suddenly attacked by cholera on its 

 firat modern visitation of Europe, and died on the 2nd of September 

 1832, after an illness of only twenty hours. He was a man of warm 

 and ardent affections, of the most lively and agreeable manners 

 rapid, and sqiuetimes hasty in his conclusions, but of indefatigable 

 industry. There havo been few persons of the present century whose 

 loss has been more sensibly felt by the friends of astronomy in every 

 country in Europe. 



Baron Von Zach was a member of most of the scientific societies iu 

 Europe, a counsellor of state and chamberlain of the court of Saxe- 

 Gotha, where he had the military rank of colonel, and was a knight 

 of the royal order of the Black Eagle of Prussia. He had been 

 elected a foreign member of the Royal Society of London on the 12th 

 of April 1804, at the same time with Gauss, Olbers, and PiazzL His 

 only contribution to the ' Philosophical Transactions ' consisted of 

 ' Astronomical Observations, in Two Letters,' addressed to Tiberius 

 Cavallo, F.R.S. Theso are dated Lyons, April 4 and May 4, 1783, but 

 were not read before the society until December 23 in the following 

 year, and were printed in the volume for 1785. This is noted because 

 certain irregularities formerly practised, or errors committed in the 

 reading, dating, and publication of papers by the Royal Society, have 

 led to serious difficulties in unravelling the history of discoveries 

 of the discovery of the composition of water for example. The delay 

 in the present instance is probably referable simply to the tardy 

 communication of Cavallo. 



Von Zach's name appears in the first list of the (Royal) Astrono- 

 mical Society, dated February 8, 1822, as an associate, or foreign 

 member. To the 'Memoirs' of that society he communicated the 

 following papers: 'Remarks on Captain David Thomson's Method 

 and Tables for working a Lunar Observation made at Sea,' vol. iv. ; 

 'A New Method of Reducing the apparent distance of the Moon from 

 a Star to the true distance,' to which is annexed a Demonstration of 

 the process, by A. De Morgan, Sec. R.A.S., vol. v. ; 'On the Geogra- 

 phical Latitude and Longitude of a place on the Terrestrial Spheroid, 

 the Geodetic distances of which from the meridian and perpendicular 

 of a given point are known,' vol. vi. : the method which the author 

 reproduced, with some simpliBcations, in this paper, had been origi- 

 nally published by him in his 'Correspondence' iu the year 1815. 

 ]Not long afterwards, formulae for the solution of the same problem, 

 practically identical with his own, were devised by Oriani of Milan, 

 whose method was afterwards employed by Captain Kater in his 

 determination of the difference of longitude between the observatories 

 of Paris and Greenwich, in preference to any other, as the most com- 

 modious and expeditious. On this account, Von Zach, as the particular 

 formulae he had constructed had not been noticed, thus communicated 

 them to the society shortly before his decease. 



ZACHARIAE, JUST FRIEDRICH WILHELM, a German poet, 

 was born on the 1st of May 1726, at Frankenhausen in Thuriugia, 

 where his father was employed in the service of the Prince of Schwarz- 

 burg. After the completion of his preparatory education, he went, in 

 1743, to the University of Leipzig, professedly to study the law; but 

 he devoted himself almost exclusively to belles-lettres, an inclination 

 which had been cherished by his father, who had himself some name 

 as a poet in his native place. Zacharias's first attempt at poetical 

 composition created considerable sensation at Leipzig, and attracted 

 the attention of Gottsched, then the critical oracle in matters of taste 

 in Northern Germany, who induced the young poet, in 1744, to pub- 

 lish his comic epic ' Der Reuommist' (The Brawler) in the ' Belustigun- 

 gen des Witzes und Verstandes,' a periodical edited by Gottsched 

 himself. This poem was the first of its kind in German literature. 

 The author had taken Pope's 'Rape of the Lock' for his model, but 

 his imitation was not a very successful one. Zacliariae, like all young 

 men who had power and originality, soon emancipated himself from 

 the pedantic tyranny of Gottsched, arid in 1744 he joined the society 

 of young men then assembled at Leipzig, who prepared a better taste 

 iu German literature by insisting upon the necessity of studying the 

 ancient Greeks and Romans, the early German poets, and especially 

 the literature of England. The great success which the ' Renommist ' 

 had met with induced Zachariaa successively to publish a series 

 of comic epics, among which we may mention ' Phaeton,' ' Das 

 Schuupftuch,' ' Murner in der Holle,' the last two of which are the best 

 among them. In 1747 he went to Gottingen, where he formed con- 

 nections with men of congenial minds. In the following year he was 

 appointed teacher at the gymnasium (Carolinum) of Brunswick, and 

 the beneficial influence which he exercised there on the development 

 of the talents and tastes of his pupils induced the Duke of Brunswick, 

 in 1761, to appoint him professor of poetry at the Carolinum. In 

 addition to thia office he was appointed, in 1762, to the superintendence 



of the printing and publishing establishments connected with the orphan 

 asylum (Waisenhaus) of Brunswick, and of the Brunswick ' Intelligenz- 

 blatt,' to which he himself contributed a series of interesting and use- 

 ful papers. In 1764 ho resigned the superintendence of those estab 

 meuts, which had prospered very much under his management, and 

 confined himself to tho duties of his professorship. From 1768 

 to 1774 he edited the ' Neuo Brauuschweiger Zeitung' (the New 

 Brunswick Gazette), for which he himself wrote nearly all the literary 

 articles and reviews. He died on the 30th of January -1777. 



Zachariae was one of the b.:st poets of his time, and in the comic 

 epic he has scarcely been surpassed by any more recent German poet. 

 He is less successful in descriptive poetry. He also wrote a number 

 of songs in a light and pleasing style, and he himself set many of them 

 to music. He made a German translation of Milton's ' Paradise Lost,' 

 iu hexameter verse (4to, Altona, 1760 ; a second and improved edition 

 appeared in 1762), but the translation is weak, and not always faithful 

 to the original. His ' Fabeln und Erziihlungeu in Burkard Waldis' 

 Manier' belong to his best poetical productions. His style is clear, 

 plain, and correct. For the purpose of promoting the study of the 

 early German poets, Zachariae began to publish a collection of the best 

 specimens of the best German poets from the time of Opitz ('Auserle- 

 sene Stiicke der besten Deutschen Dichter von Opitz bis auf tegen- 

 wartige Zeiten,' 2 vols. 8vo, 1766-71). This undertaking was continued 

 after Zachariae's death, by Eschenburg, who published a third volume 

 (1778, 8vo). The first complete collection of Zachariae's works ap- 

 peared, in 9 vols. 8vo, at Brunswick, in 1763-65. A second and 

 cheaper edition, iu which tho translations from foreign languages are 

 omitted, was published in 1772, iu 2 vols. 8vo, and was reprinted 

 in 1777. After his death, Eschenburg published a supplementary 

 volume, which also contains a Life of Zachariae. 



ZACHARIAE, KARL SALOMON, a celebrated German jurist and 

 political writer, was born at Meissen, ou the 14th of September 1 760, 

 and received his early education in the great public school (Fiirsten- 

 schule) of his native place. In 1787 he went to the university of 

 Leipzig, where at first he devoted himself almost exclusively to philo- 

 logical and philosophical studies, but afterwards he took up the study 

 of jurisprudence. He Itft Leipzig in the spring of 1792, and, beiug 

 recommended by persons of distinction, he obtained the situation of 

 tutor to the yountj count Zur Lippe, whom he accompanied to the 

 university of Wittenberg, where he continued his studies for two 

 years longer. When the count entered upon his military career, 

 Zachariae. in 1795, carried into effect his favourite plan of becoming 

 au academical teacher. He had not been privatdocent for more than 

 two years before he was appointed professor extraordinary, and in 

 1802 he was raised to the ordinary professorship of jurisprudence iu 

 the University of Wittenberg, lie had distinguished himself as an 

 author long before this time, and had acquired considerable reputation 

 as a philosophical and political writer. In 1807 he received au invita- 

 tion to a professorship in the University of Heidelberg, which he 

 accepted because in his situation at Wittenberg his leisure time was 

 almost wholly occupied with the practical administration of justice, 

 which formed part of his office, and thus he had little time left for literary 

 pursuits. At Heidelberg, he lectured on law in all its departments, 

 among which we may mention the public law of Germany, canou law, 

 feudal law, and comparative jurisprudence. He always treated his 

 subject in a philosophical spirit. His merits were rewarded by the 

 title of Qeheimer Rath of the grand-duchy of Baden, and by other dis- 

 tinctions. For a time he was drawn away from his scientific and 

 literary pursuits by being elected a member of the first and afterwards 

 of the second chamber of the grand-duchy of Baden. In the capacity 

 of deputy he has been charged with being an advocate of monarchy, 

 or at least with the desire to throw more power into the hands of the 

 government than it ought to have , but as far as his writings show, 

 from which alone we are enabled to judge of him, he was a liberal 

 royalist, with a strong leaning towards aristocratic principles. Duriug 

 his active career in the university of Heidelberg, he received two very 

 honourable invitations, the one to Gottingen and the other to Leipzig, 

 both of which he declined. He remained at Heidelberg until his death 

 on the 27th of March 1843, having shortly before been raised to tho 

 rank of nobility under the name of Barou Zachariae von Liugenthal. 

 Zachariae was one of the ablest and most philosophical writers ou law 

 and politics in Germany, and few continental men have possessed a 

 more comprehensive knowledge of the legal and political institutions 

 of the various states of modern Europe than he did. 



The following list contains his principal works : 1, ' Handbuch des 

 Kursiichsischen Lehnrechts, 1 Svo, Leipzig, 1796 ; a second edition was 

 published by Ch. E. Weisse and F. A. Langenn, Svo, Leipzig, 1823. 2, 

 'Die Eiuheit des Staats und der Kircho,' Svo, Leipzig, 1797 ; a sort of 

 appendix to this work is his ' Nachtrag liber die evangelische Briider- 

 gemeiue,' Svo, Leipzig, 1798. 3, ' Handbuch des Frauzosischen Civil- 

 rechts,' of which the third edition appeared iu 4 vols. Svo, at Heidelberg, 

 1827, &c. 4, ' Vierzig Biicher vom Staate,' 5 vols. Svo, Stuttgardt, 

 1820-32 : a new and much enlarged edition of this work was begun in 

 1839, and completed in 1843, in 7 vols. Svo ; it is by far the best work 

 on political philosophy iu the German language. 5, ' Lucius Cornelius 

 Sulla, als Ordner des Romischen Freistaates,' in two parts, Svo, Heidel- 

 berg, 1834, is a very admirable treatise, the only fault of which 

 perhaps is, that he assigns greater merits to the political reforms of 



