717 



KIRCHER, ATHANASIUS. 



KISFALTJDY, KABOLY. 



718 



great number of interesting facts which he collected with great 

 diligence, in reference to all departments of the animal kingdom, and 

 the spirit in which it was written was eminently in accordance with 

 the object of the founder of the treatises. 



Mr. Kirby's other principal labours are as follows: 'A Description 

 of several new species of Insects collected in New Holland by Kobert 

 Brown, Esq., F.B.S,' ('Linn. Trans.' xii.) ; i'An Account of the 

 Animals seen by the late Northern Expedition whilst within the 

 Arctic Circle," 4to, London, 1821, being a supplement to the appendix 

 of Captain Parry's 'Voyage for the Discovery of a North- West 

 Passage.' The insects were described by Mr. Kirby. The insects in 

 ' Fauna Boreali- Americana, or the Zoology of the Northern parts of 

 British North America,' 4to, Norwich, 1837. 



Although most exemplary in the performance of his clerical 

 duties, Mr. Kirby was never promoted in the church of which he was 

 so great au ornament. The only appointment he ever received in 

 addition to the cure of Barbara was that of chaplain to the district 

 workhouse in 1794. In scientific circles his name was one of influ- 

 ence. He was chairman of the first meeting of the Zoological Club 

 of the Linntean Society, which was founded in 1827. This was one 

 of the first offshoots of the Linnaean Society, and was followed by 

 the establishment of the Entomological Society in 1833. Of this 

 society Mr. Kirby was elected Honorary President, and he presented 

 it before his death with his very valuable collection of insects. He 

 was made a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1818, and of the Geolo- 

 gical Society in 1807. He also received the honorary diplomas of 

 many scientific societies on the continent and the United States of 

 America. In 1847 a museum of Natural History was founded at 

 Ipswich ; ho was present at the opening of this institution, and held 

 the office of President till his death. 



Mr. Kirby was twice married, his second wife being Miss Rodwell 

 of Ipswich, to whom he was married in 1816. She died in 1344. He 

 had no family by either w.ife, and died on the 4th of July 1850, at 

 the great age of ninety. His ' Life,' to which we are indebted for 

 many of the above particulars, has been written by the Rev. John 

 Freeman, M.A., and was published in 1852. 



KIRCHER, ATHANASIUS, born at Geysen, near Fulda, in 1602, 

 entered at an early age the order of Jesuits, made great progress in 

 various branches of learning, especially in the study of Hebrew and 

 other Eastern languages, and was made professor of philosophy and 

 Oriental languages in the college of Wurzburp. He afterwards went 

 to Avignon, where he became acquainted with the learned Peiresc, 

 and h there applied himself to the study of antiquities. From 

 Avignon he went to Rome, visited Naples, Sicily, and Mai' a, and on 

 his return was made professor of mathematics in the Roman or 

 Gregorian college at Rome. He filled this chair for eight years, and 

 resigned it in order to devote himself entirely to his favourite studies. 

 He collected a valuable museum of antiquities, which he left to the 

 Roman college, and which has been repeatedly illustrated. (Sepi, 

 ' Roman! Collegii Soc. Jesn Musseum Athanasii Kircheri novis et raris 

 inventia locupletatum,' fol., Amsterdam, 1678, with a complete list of 

 all the works of Kircher, published and republished ; Bonanni, 

 ' Musxum Kircherianum,' fol., Rome, 1709 ; republiehed by Battara, 

 Rome, 1773 ; Contucci, ' Mussei Kircheriani ^Erea notis illustrata,' 

 2 vols. fol., Home, 1763-65.) Kircher was liberally assisted by several 

 princes and noblemen, German, Italian, and Spanish. He died at 

 Rome, in November 1680. He was a man of very extensive and varied 

 erudition, and a very copious writer; but his judgment was defective ; 

 he wanted criticism, and jumped too hastily at conclusions, fancying 

 that be could resolve any question. He was also very credulous, as 

 his work* amply testify. He wrote on mathematical and physical 

 sciences ; on philology and hieroglyphics, and also upon history and 

 antiquities. His principal works are: 1. ' Magnes, sen de Arte 

 Magnetica,' libri iii. ; 2. ' Primitiae Gnomonioe Catoptrics?, hoc eat, 

 Horologiographise nova; specularis ;' 3. ' Ars inagna Lucis et Umbne ;' 

 4. ' Prodromus Coptus ;' 5. ' Institutiones Grammaticales et Lexicon 

 Copticum.' In these two last works he gave the best information up 

 to that time concerning the Coptic language. 6. ' CEdipus ^Egyptiacus, 

 hoc eat, Univenalis Hieroglyphicto Veterum Doctrinse Temporum 

 Injuria abolibe Instauratio,' 4 vols. fol., Rome, 1652-54. Kircher 

 dedicated this work to the Emperor Ferdinand III., whose eulogium 

 is prefixed, written in 20 languages of Europe and Asia. The work 

 in full of quotations from Rabbinical, Arabian, and Syriao writers. 7. 

 'China illustrata.' 8. 'De prodigiosis Crucibus quaj post ultimum 

 Incrndium Vesuvii Montis Neapoli comparuerunt.' 9. 'Scrutinium 

 Pestis.' 1 0. ' Latinm, i. e., nova et parallela Latii turn veteris turn 

 novi Descriptio, qua qusecumque vel nature, vel veterum Romanorum 

 ingenium admiranda efficit, geographico-historico-physico Ratiocinio, 

 juxta rerurn gestarum temporumque sericm exponitur et enucleatur,' 

 foL, Amsterdam, 1671, with maps and figures, and a minute descrip- 

 tion of Hadrian's villa, with a plan of it. This work of Kircher is one 

 of bin best, and may still be read with profit. 



KIRWAN, RICHARD, a chemical philosopher of considerable 

 eminence, was born in Ireland about the middle of the last century. 

 He was intended for the profeanion either of law or medicine, and was 

 lent to be educated by the Jesuits of St. Outer's. On the death of his 

 brother however he succeeded to the family estate, left St. Omer's, 

 and abandoned all thoughts of a profession. His whole life was 



devoted to science, and he has also written on some subjects not 

 .mmediately connected with it. His knowledge was extensive and his 

 memory accurate ; but though he lived at a time when Black, Caven- 

 dish, Priestley, and Scheele were greatly extending chemical science 

 y their experiments, he did not contribute any very remarkable 

 original discovery; he was nevertheless usefully employed in many 

 investigations. 



About 1779, when he was residing in London or its neighbourhood, 

 be read before the Royal Society, of which he became a Fellow, several 

 papers, and in 1781 the Copley medal was awarded to him. In 1789 

 he returned to Ireland, and was for some time president of the Royal 

 Irish Academy, and he was elected member or associate of most of the 

 literary societies of Europe. 



It would be useless to attempt an analysis of the memoirs and 

 works of Kirwau ; they include not merely chemical subjects, but 

 meteorology and mineralogy, and are diffused through the ' Transac- 

 tions ' of the Royal Society of London, those of the Royal Irish 

 Academy, and other publications. One of his most remarkable separate 

 works was 'An Essay on the Constitution of Acids,' in which he 

 attempted to reconcile the ancient chemical philosophy with modern 

 discoveries. This work was translated into French by Lavoisier, with 

 notes in refutation of its doctrines by Guytou-Morveau and Lavoisier, 

 &c. In these notes his reasoniugs were completely refuted, and 

 Kirwan had the candour, too rarely exhibited, of admitting the erro- 

 neousness of his views. lu 1794 he published ' Elements of Mineralogy,' 

 in two volumes, 8vo ; a work, though now of course obsolete, unques- 

 tionably useful in extending the knowledge of the science of which it 

 treated. His 'Geological Essays' have never been considered as 

 equally useful ; but his ' Essay on the Analysis of Mineral Waters ' 

 contained a collection of what had been previously done on the subject, 

 with new, and, in many cases, useful directions for conducting the 

 requisite processes. In 1809 he published a work on logic, which 

 furnished ample materials for critical severity. He died in 1812, 



KISFALUDY, KA110LY, or CHARLES, the most popular dramatic 

 poet of Hungary, was the youngest brother of SANDOK KISFALUDY, 

 the most popular lyric poet. He was born on the 6th of Feburary 

 1788, at Tete, and his birth cost his mother her life. His father never 

 saw him with pleasure. As a boy he was unruly ; and once when, 

 after he had attained the age of sixteen, a professor at the High 

 School of Raab struck him on the face, the pupil answered by hurling 

 at him an inkstand. The army was thought the most suitable pro- 

 fession for a youth of this character, and in 1805 he went to Italy as 

 an officer in Prince Esterhazy's regiment. The only book he took 

 with him was his brother's poem of ' Himfy,' by a constant perusal of 

 which, just at the period of life in which new faculties are awaking, 

 he was led at first to make acquaintance with the Italian poets, and 

 then to try his own powers in verse ; but most of his early efforts 

 were destroyed by himself in after years, and Schedel, his biographer, 

 who had seen some of them, assures us that their disappearance ought 

 to cause his admirers no regret. In 1809 he served in the Austrian 

 campaign against Napoleon 1. in Germany. In 1810 he quitted the 

 army to marry ; but he was so singularly unfortunate that his father, 

 who had an objection to the lady, threw him off on finding him 

 deteroiined not to renounce her, and the lady threw him off on finding 

 that he was at variance with his father. Deeply wounded in his 

 inmost feelings, Kiafaludy found himself reduced to earn his bread, 

 and established himself at Vienna, where for some years he turned to 

 account some proficiency he had attained in painting, and obtained a 

 scanty subsistence as an artist. His chief amusement was the th -;itiv, 

 to which we are told that he often devoted his last shilling. He 

 became acquainted with the poet Korner, who was then on the point 

 of being made the official poet of the Vienna Theatre, and it was at 

 his suggestion that Korner took for a subject the Hungarian Leonidas, 

 Zrinyi, who by his brave self-sacrifice at Sigeth checked the triumph 

 of the Turks, and ended in sorrow the career of Solyman the Magnifi- 

 cent. Unfortunately, the remark of Kist'aludy on the play, that the 

 manners were not sufficiently Hungarian, was not well received by 

 Korner, and their friendship cooled. It was at Vienna that Kisfaludy 

 first became a hard reader. " French poetry," says Schedel, " he did 

 not consider poetry. Schiller, among the German authors, he early 

 loved the most, and ho remained faithful to the preference. Gijthe 

 he could never love, though he admired his 'Faust,' which was 

 singular. But Shakspere he read and studied perpetually, and from 

 day to day more and more at last almost to the exclusion of anything 

 else. Of Shakapere ho was always ready to talk, and he placed him 

 out of the line of even the great poets of the world as a great 

 solitary. He often said that from him and Leasing he had learned 

 all that he knew that was of value. Scott was never a favourite with 

 him." In 1817 his brothers reconciled him with his father, and he 

 removed to Pesth, where, on his father's death in 1824, he came in 

 possession of his inheritance. It was in 1819 that he suddenly became 

 famous. The theatre at Pesth was in that year opened at the expense 

 of Count Brunszvik by a strolling company from Stuhlweissenburg, 

 there being at that time no permanent company of Hungarian actors 

 in the capital. For the sake of greater novelty, they wished to make 

 their appearance with a new play. Kisfaludy offered them one on a 

 national subject, entitled ' A Tatarok Magyarorszagban ' (' The 

 Tartar in Hungary '), and on the 3rd of May it was produced. The 



