HOFFMANOWA, KLEMENTYNA Z TANSKICH. 



HOFLAND, THOMAS CHRISTOPHER. 



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in ono or other of the chief systems of the body, the nervous or th 

 vascular, produced, he thought, every variety of disease. 



Hoffmann's theory has itself long ceased to be studied, but it forme 

 the basis upon which many others, more nearly approaching to accu 

 racy, were founded. Cullen acknowledges that his own doctrine 

 were in a great measure founded upon it ; and Brown's hypothesis o 

 exhausted and accumulated excitability, upon which that of Rasor 

 still received in the Italian schools, was founded, was another modifl 

 cation of the same theory of Hoffmann. In this country some of hi 

 terms alone are preserved to express similar and rather indeliuit 

 ideas. In the applications of his theory to the details of physiolog 

 and pathology, he adopted several explanations from both the mechan 

 cal and the chemical doctrines of his predecessors; in his practice h 

 was extremely simple, and, by comparison with modern physicians 

 temporising and inefficient. In accordance with his theory, mos 

 medicines were deemed by him to act either as tonics or as anti 

 spasmodics; the former class including all stimulant, and the latte 

 all depressing agents ; but he also admitted alteratives and evacuants. 

 Hit knowledge of chemistry and pharmacy was extensive, and we ow 

 t:> hirn the discovery and first introduction of the Seidlitz waters au< 

 the purgative salt obtained from them. 



The best edition of hit complete works is that published at Geneva 

 in 1748, in 6 vols, folio; and his best treatises are the 'Meilicina 

 Katioualis Sjstematica,' which occupies the first 3 volumes, and the 

 ' Con.-iliarii Medici.' 



(Life prefixed to his works; Broussai, Examen des Doctrine* Mtdi 

 cales, vol. ii.) 



HGFFMAXOWA, KLEMESTYNA Z TANSKICH, a distinguish 

 authoress, who has been sometimes called the Polish Miss Edgeworth 

 was born at Warsaw, on the 23rd of November 1798. The form an< 

 arrangement of her name conveys to a Pole that her maiden name 

 was Tanska, her father's being Tauski, and that she was married, anc 

 her husband's name was Hoffman. The practice of retaining the 

 maiden name in conjunction with the married one might be adoptee 

 with advantage in other countries ; and an example has been set by a 

 very distinguished authoress in our own language, Mrs. Harriel 

 Bcecher Stowe, formerly Miss Harriet Beecher. Just before Klemen 

 tyua's birth, her mother, Maryanna z Czempinskich Tanska, had been 

 reading ' Sir Charles Qrandisoii,' and was so charmed with the story 

 that she determined if she had a son he should he named Charles, anc 

 if daughter, Clementina. The father of the family, Ignacy Tanski, 

 who was the translator into Polish of parts of Virgil and Goldsmith, 

 died in 1805, and the daughter received an excellent education under 

 the care of her mother. Her patriotic sentiments in regard to the 

 national language appear to have awakened with unusual energy about 

 her twentieth year. She commenced keeping a diary on the 1st ol 

 January 1818, the first entry in which is on the subject of language; 

 " Frenchness, or Frenchism (Francuzczyzna), is going out of fashion, 



and many persons now feel, think, speak, and write in Polish 



I grew up in the false opinion that it was quite an unbecoming thing 

 for a lady to write a letter or anything else in Polish ; I am now con' 

 vinced how erroneous the opinion was, and that we may express our 

 selves as well in Polish as in French. I am ashamed of my long- 

 continued blindness, and would willingly exchange my power of 

 French composition for a good Polish style, free from errors, and 

 thoroughly Polish." " We have," she afterwards says, " few women 

 who write Polish ; but I doubt after all if they do not surpass in 

 number those who read it." This state of affairs was soon changed by 

 her own agency. Her first work, 'Six Historical Tales,' was followed 

 in 1819 by her 'Memorial of a Good Mother' (' Pamiatka po dobrej 

 Matce '), which had the moat astonishing success. It is written in the 

 character of a dying mother giving her last advice to her daughter ; 

 and the original idea was taken from a German work of the game 

 character, which the Polish imitation must hive far surpassed in 

 execution, as it was itself translated into several languages, Kussian 

 included. Tho ' Pauiiatka ' still continues a standard book to put in 

 the hands of Polish ladieo. It was followed by a scries of works, one 

 of which, 'Amelia, a Mother,' a Catholic religious novel, proved a 

 failure ; but the others raised her reputation so high that a pension 

 was granted her by the government, and when, in 1827, a normal 

 school for governesses was established in Warsaw, Klementyna Tanska 

 was named the superintendent, and was also appointed visitor of all 

 the boarding-schools for young ladies. Her success as an authoress 

 wat very remarkable in another point of view. " As it is a thing 

 sufficiently rare," she says in her diary of the 1st of March 1829, 

 " that a woman born in the higher ranks of society should be able to 

 maintain herself suitably by literary labour, I have resolved to note 

 down carefully my pecuniary history." The sum total of her gains 

 by the pen in the course of ten years was 41,873 Polish florins (about 

 10401.). In 1829 the was married to M. Hoffman. Tho marriage 

 appears to have been a very well-assorted one : she writes in her diary 

 a few months afterwards, " I say it in the sincerity of my soul, and 

 before the God whom I have in my heart, that I am so happy that I 

 do not know what else to wish for, except that it may last." The 

 Polish insurrection, which broke out in the following year, changed 

 the entire aspect of affairs. Klementyna and her husband joined in 

 the movement, and she was the head of a committee of ladies to 

 scrape lint and attend to the wounded. After the suppression of the 

 BIOO. PIV. YOU III. 



insurrection she followed her husband, who had escaped to Dresden, 

 and they afterwards settled at Paris, which became their permanent 

 residence. At one time she was coming on a visit to England, but 

 circumstances prevented her; she was however enabled to make a 

 tour in Switzerland and Italy. She died at Paris on the 20th of 

 September 1845, in the arms of her husband, aud was buried at Pere- 

 la-Chaise. Though her most popular work waa written in the character 

 of a mother, she never had a child. 



There are two collections of her works, occupying 19 vols. The 

 first, ' Wybor Pisrn,' &c. (' A Selection of the Writings of Klementyna 

 Hoffmanowa '), 10 vols., Breslau, 1833, contains the 'Memorial of a 

 Good Mother,' two volumes of historical tales, the subjects taken from 

 Polish history ; two volumes of moral tales illustrating Polish manners; 

 a collection of short Polish biographies; two volumes of letters 

 describing tours in Poland; a series of letters on education; and a 

 volume of 'Varieties.' The second collection, 'Pistna Posmiertne' 

 (' Posthumous Writings '), 9 vols., Berlin, 1849, comprises three 

 volumes of memoirs, consisting chiefly of extracts from her diary, 

 three volumes of essays on the duties of women, and three volumes of 

 extracts from her common-place books. The chief interest of these 

 works in the eyes of a foreign reader will be found in the completely 

 national character of their subjects. Her letters descriptive of tours 

 to Warsaw, Cracow, Lublin, &c., are the best, almost tlie only book 

 for acquiring some general aud yet familiar notions of Polish topo- 

 graphy. Such books are extremely rare in the language. " Who 

 travels to France or England," she says in the first page, "is of course 

 in duty bound to write a journal. But what, say some, will you put 

 in a book of travels in Poland ? What is there curious in our country ? 

 What can one do in travelling here but get a gojd sleep in one's 

 carriage, wake up in time for refreshment stopping of course at a 

 filthy inn amuse oneself with some French or English novel, or get 

 another sleep if the roads will allow." The volume of biographies of 

 eminent Poles has also tho recommendation of supplying a deside- 

 ratum. Her own memoirs and diary afford a glimpse of the life and 

 manners and tone of society at Warsaw a mixture of heroism and 

 frivolity, sincerity and shallowness which cannot easily be obtained 

 from other sources. The style of her works is throughout easy and 

 agreeable. 



HOFLAND, THOMAS CHRISTOPHER, was born at Worksop, 

 Nottinghamshire, December 25th, 1777. His father, an extensive 

 cotton-manufacturer, removed to London in 1789, but the business on 

 which he had entered failed, aud young Hofland at the age of eighteen 

 Lurned to landscape-painting as a profession. For some time he was 

 :hiefly engaged in teaching drawing in London and its vicinity, when 

 ie removed to Derby to follow the same pursuit. There about 1808 he 

 married Mrs. Hoole, a lady subsequently well known as an authoress, 

 of whom a notice will bo found below. In 1811 he returned to Londou 

 with a view to practise as a landscape-painter, but in order to secure 

 an immediate maintenance he for some years painted numerous copies 

 Torn the pictures exhibited at the British Gallery, of Claude, Poussin, 

 Wilson, Gainsborough, and other eminent masters of the art, which 

 met with ready purchasers, while his original works found few or 

 none. A couple of night-scenes exhibited at the lioyal Academy in 

 .812, obtained him some commissions, aud he was enabled gradually 

 .o give up the wearisome toil of copying for bread. The literary 

 abours of his excellent wife, it ought to be mentioned, tended in no 

 imall degree to remove his pecuniary difficulties. 



Hofland was steadily securing his position us an artist when he 



unfortunately obtained the patronage of tho late Duke of Marlborough, 



who, having lavished a great deal of money on his seat of White 



Cnights near Reading, was anxious to have a handsomely illustrated 



lescription of it. He fixed on Hofland as the most suitable person to 



make the drawings, and his wife to write tho descriptions; and 



unluckily the painter was further induced by the duke to make on his 



jwu account the engagements with the engravers. The consequence 



was, that not only did Hoflaud receive no compensation for his own 



and bis wife's labours, but he was called upon to meet the engravers' 



>ills. This affair involved Hoflaud in pecuniary embarrassments, 



which it required many years of economy to surmount ; but his liabili- 



ies were all eventually honourably discharged. From this time 



iofland resided in or near London, pursuing without any remarkable 



hange of circumstance the even tenor of his way. Every summer or 



utumn he made the accustomed sketching and angling tour, and 



very wiuter and spring he prepared his pictures for the annual exhi- 



'itions. In his sixty-third year he visited Italy, but it was too late to 



erive professional improvement from liis studies there, though he 



made a large number of sketches, and on his return painted several 



ictures of Italian scenery. 



The landscapes of Hofland had few of the qualities which attract 

 ie popular gaze, and he had to work his way to public favour slowly, 

 ^or the most part his pictures were taken from tho rivers and lakes 

 f Scotland aud Cumberland, of Wales and Ireland; and the quieter 

 assages of our British river and lake scenery have probably never 

 een given with a more genial appreciation of their true character- 

 tics, or a more poetic feeling of their gentler graces. Seldom did 

 e approach the grand or sterner phases of lakes and mountains, 

 r the marvellous atmospheric phenomena occasionally to be witnessed 

 mong them, and when he did he failed to convoy their meaning; but 



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