192 



RCALIGER 



SCALLOP 



Shortly after hU father'* death Scaliger pro- 

 eeeddd to the univen>itv ( Paris with the special 

 purpose of acquiring tin- (.reek language, with 

 which he hail as yet nu nc<|iiiiintJtncc. The teacher 

 whom he sought was Adrian Turnebns, since the 

 death of Itiulii-un the first tireek scholar in Europe. 

 After two MI. .nibs' attendance in the clan of 

 TurnrlniK. Scaliger dincovered, to Inn mortification 

 that he wan too ignorant to |>rotit bv u \\ nli tlu> 

 invincible revolution wliioli wax the liasis of hU 

 character, he shut him-clf up in hi- own room and 

 net himself to master the element* of the language. 

 HU method of procedure and it* extraordinary 

 mult have a place among the anecdote* of scholar- 

 -hip. With tin 1 help of a l.:itin translation he read 

 through Hoincr in twenty one days, making a 



grammar fur himself ax he went along. Kt 



Homer he proceeded to tin- other (Jreek IKM-IJ-, and 

 in four months he hud gone through the whole 

 eriea. Encouraged hy hin success with (Jreck, he 

 next attackeii Hebrew, bat of Hebrew, according 

 to hU best HMMMr, Bemavs, he never acquired 

 that ma-tery which he showed in the cane of Latin 

 and Greek. Eventually lie Itoaxted that he s|..il,e 

 thirteen language*, ancient and modern. It is to 

 be noted, however, that he acquired these lan- 

 guage*, not in the vain spirit of a mere polyglot. 

 bat with the aim of a scientific scholar, who 

 realised that the language and literature of one 

 people are indispensable to the thorough under- 

 standing of another. Scaliger remained HV \ car- 

 at the university <if Palis, hut of this periiMl (if his 

 life only one notable circumstance is relate<l. It 

 was at this time that he adopted the' Protestant 

 faith, a change which eventually proved of the liisi 

 importance in the sulneqnent direction of hU life. 



In 1563 he wa- invited by Louis Chostaigner 

 de la K'N-lir l'o/ay to join him in the capacity of 

 travelling companion, and with the family of this 

 noble he was more or less closely connected for 

 the next thirty yearn. In 1565 lie accompanied 

 Roche-Pozay to Italy, of whose scholarship and 

 religion he received the most unfavourable impres. 

 sion. Of England, which they next visited, 

 Scaliger formed an equally unfavourable opinion. 

 Scotland was also included in their tour, hut of the 

 Scoto be speaks more kindly, specially mentioning 

 the beauty of their ballads. In 1570 lie settled at 

 Valence in Daupbinc, where for about two years 

 he Ntudicd under the great jurist Cujacius. Proa 

 l"'7'2 to 1574 he was in Geneva in the capacity of 

 professor in the academy established there by 

 Calvin. Returning to France, he found a home in 

 tin- family of Itoche Po/jiy for the next twenty 

 year*. It wa the period of the Huguenot wars, 

 and Scaliger, like the rest of hU countrymen, 

 Miilcied from the confusions of the time. It was 

 during thene yean, however, that he produced a 

 eriea of work which placed him at the head of 

 European Mholam. Among them may l>e men- 

 MM hU editions of CUOUM, Tihiillus, and Pro- 

 .n. his commentaries on which are equally 

 remarkable for their learning and spirit of viiiii- 

 glorious assumption. Itut tlie works which dc- 

 linilively extAhlixlnxl hU reputation were his edition 

 of ManilitiH in 1879 and bis De Emetuint,>ir 

 Temporum in 1JHW. By these works he founded 

 the M-iencc of m.-lern chronology, an achievement 

 WkMirpaiwed in the history of scholar*!] i p. This 

 labour he crow no. I by hi*' edition of Kunebius in 

 i.-., 



In I.W8, on an int Station from the Netherlands 

 in tin- highrat degree flattering to his vanity, 

 Kcaligrr went as nucceMor to Justus Litmins in 

 the nniveniily of Ix'vden, where he remaine<l for 

 the runt of hi* life. Though bin connection with 

 the university wan altnoxl nominal, it in to bis 

 example and innpiration that Holland owes her 



long line of scholars during the 17th and 18th 

 centuries. Scaliger's last years were embittered 

 by controverxiex which he had him-clf largely 

 pnivokcd by his indifference to the feelings of 

 others. His chief enemies were the Jesuits, who 

 regarded him as the most formidable foe of their 

 order. In Gaspar Scioppius they found a match 

 for Scaliger himself in the use of trenchant Latin, 

 and one, moreover, who carried the qualities of a 

 hired bravo into the domain of letters. The 

 vulnerable point in Scaliger'H coarse nature was 

 his pride in his descent from the family of La 

 Scala. In what is perhaps the most unscrupulou- 

 lani|KMin in literature, Scioppius, in his >,,///,/-/ 

 Ilir/mbolimtrut ('The Supposititious Scaliger'), 

 held the great scholar up to Kurope as a baseborn 

 impostor, a profligate, and an atheist. Scaliger 

 wiotc a reply; but it was ineffectual against the 

 poisoned weapons of Scioppius. It is generally 

 accepted that the attack of Scioppius hastened 

 Scaliger's death. He still continued his labours, 

 indeed, but his spirit was broken, and he died in 

 1609, in the arms of his favourite scholar Heinsius. 

 By his combined knowledge, sagacity, ami actual 

 achievement, Scaliger holds the lii-t place among 

 the scholars of all times. 'More than any one 

 before or after him,' says Beniays, 'he approached 

 to a complete conception of the life of antiquity.' 

 To the same effect is the statement of Niebuhr, 

 that 'Scaliger stood on the summit of real and 

 universal knowledge, as no one after him has done." 

 In his perRonnl character Scaliger was vainglorious, 

 overliearing, and exacting to the verge of absurdity. 

 It was his single-niinded devotion to learning, 

 his love of truth, his noble independence of spirit 

 that redeemed a nature essentially coarse and un- 

 lovable. 



See Jacob Bernys, Joxph Justus Scaliger (Berlin, 

 1855); Charles Nisrd, Juttr. Liptr, Joteph Stalvjtr, et 

 Jmae Cataiilton (Paris, 1852); Tamizey de Lairoque, 

 Lettra franfaitct im'dites de Jatr/ih Sralii>er (Agen, 

 1881); Hark Pattison, AM.M/, edited hy Henry Nettle- 

 ship, M.A. (voL i. oxford, 1889). It was Pattinon'* 

 intention to write a biography of Bcaligcr ; hut the frag- 

 ments that appear among these essayg are all that be 

 actually accomplished of his book. A list of Scaliger'i 

 works anil their various editions U given by Bernays. 



Scallop (Pecten), a well-known bivalve, one of 

 those with a single muscle closing the shell. The 

 valves are fan shaped, the left often more or less 

 flat, the right more markedly arched ; both are 

 marked with sinuous radiating ridges, to which 

 the name Pecten (I. at., 'a comb') refers. The 

 hinge-line is with- 

 out teeth, and is 

 extended laterally 

 in two ears. The 

 beaut ifnl colouring 

 of the shells is re- 

 markable even 

 among bivalves. 

 On the margins of 

 the mantle there 

 are hundredr of 

 small sparkling 

 eyea of different 

 degrees of visual 

 elliciency. The 

 small (i tiger-shaped 

 foot is usually 

 marked with bright orange or red colour. The 

 scallops are widely distributed in all seas, at depths 

 of 3 to 40 fathom's. When young they are active 

 nml able to swim a little by rapidly opening and 

 closing their valves, but as they grow older they 



I me more sedentary, and are often found thickly 



covered with acorn-shells, serpula-tubes, and zoo- 

 phytes. Many species attach themselves by a 



-35 



Pecten opercularis. 



