WOLDWOLF. 



87 



up of the playful and the biting. His works have 

 lost much interest, owing to the temporary and 

 personal nature of his subjects ; but the extreme 

 felicity with which he exposed the empty preten- 

 sions of false greatness, will not allow them to be 

 altogether forgotten. His poetical works were col- 

 lected, in 1812, in five volumes, octavo. 



WOLD, WELD, YELLOW WEED, OR DY- 

 ER'S WEED (reseda luteola] ; an imperfect bien- 

 nial, with small fusiform roots, and a leafy sttm, 

 from one to three feet in height. It is a native of 

 Italy and other parts of Europe, and is cultivated 

 for the sake of its stalk, flowers, and leaves, which 

 are employed in dyeing yellow. Wold requires 

 the growth of nearly two summers before it comes 

 to maturity : the crop is also liable to fail, and is 

 exhausting to the soil. It is preferred to all other 

 substances for giving the lively green lemon yel- 

 low ; but as it is found, when employed in topical 

 dyeing, to degrade and interfere with madder co- 

 lours more than other yellows, and to stain the 

 white parts, quercitron bark is commonly employ- 

 ed in preference to it. It is still, however, em- 

 ployed in dyeing silk a golden yellow, and in paper- 

 staining. 



WOLE, in northern mythology, the protect- 

 ing spirit of the earth an old prophetess. The 

 name Voluspa (the vision of Wole), given to the 

 most ancient part of the Edda, is derived from her. 



WOLF (cam's lupus}. The wolf is by some 

 naturalists considered the original stock of the do- 

 mestic dog ; and, indeed, it very much resembles a 

 large dog in its general appearance. The Euro- 

 pean wolf habitually leads a solitary life, but, when 



urged by hunger, unites in packs, which, at times, 

 even become dangerous to travellers. It possesses 

 such strength that it is able to carry off a sheep at 

 lull speed, and few dogs are able to attack it with 

 success. When taken young, it is easily tamed, 

 and becomes attached to its keeper, recognising 

 him even after a year's absence. The female brings 

 forth her young in a retired place in the forest, and 

 defends them courageously. 



Wolves were extirpated much earlier in England 

 than any other country of Europe. No mention is 

 made of them in the English annals after 1281. The 

 last wolf known in Scotland was killed in 1680, 

 and in Ireland one was killed in 1701. 



The American wolf is probably a distinct species; 

 but this point is not yet perfectly ascertained. It 

 was formerly numerous in all parts of the United 

 States, but is now almost extinct in the more set- 

 tled districts. 



There is another species of wolf the prairie or 

 barking wolf (C. /a/rans) on the un wooded plains 

 of the Missouri. 



The black wolves are probably mere varieties of 

 the common species. 



WOLF, ARNOLDINA, was born atCassel, in Ger- 

 many, in 1769. She lost her father, an officer of 

 the Hessian government, early, but her mother took 



great care of her education. In her eighteenth 

 year she was attacked by the horrid disease called 

 scabies humida, and passed twenty-six weeks almost 

 entirely without sleep. On one occasion, in the 

 midst of her severe sufferings, she repeated all the 

 songs which her memory could furnish ; after which 

 she composed a poem extempore. Five other 

 poems followed in a similar way. A friend pub- 

 lished them in 1788, and a second edition was soon 

 called for. Becoming entirely deprived of strength, 

 she fell, after six months, into a state of apparent 

 death, in which she retained the exercise of no 

 sense except that of hearing, and was conscious 

 only of the fear of being buried alive. After four 

 weeks, she began to recover, and was eventually 

 restored to full health. She married, in her twenty- 

 third year, a Mr Wolf, became the mother of nine 

 children, and died in 1820. Doctor Wiss, of Smal- 

 calden, where she lived, published the poems of 

 Arnoldina Wolf (1817), with a history of her dis- 

 ease. 



WOLF, CHRISTIAN FREDERICK VON, chancellor 

 of the university of Halle, a distinguished German 

 philosopher and mathematician, was born in 1679, 

 at Breslau. In 1699, he went to the university of 

 Jena, to study theology; but mathematics and 

 philosophy absorbed almost his entire attention. 

 He studied zealously the works of Descartes and 

 Tschirnhausen. In 1703, he obtained permission 

 to lecture at the university of Leipsic, in conse- 

 quence of his disputation, De Philosophia practica 

 universali Methodo mathematica conscripta, and de- 

 livered philosophical and mathematical lectures. 

 Several mathematical works made his name known 

 in foreign countries. When the Swedes occupied 

 Leipsic, in 1706, he left it, and, upon the recom- 

 mendation of Leibnitz, in 1707, was appointed pro- 

 fessor at Halle, where he acquired great reputation. 

 His mathematical lectures were remarkable for 

 clearness, precision, and systematic method. His 

 philosophy, in which he pursued the same method, 

 met with general approbation ; and his method be- 

 gan to be applied also to other sciences, frequently 

 in a pedantic and exaggerated manner. His col- 

 leagues, particularly the theologians, declared him a 

 heretic and an infidel, and, at last, actually accused 

 him to the government. King Frederic William I. 

 Nov. 15, 1723, dismissed him from his office, and 

 ordered him to leave Halle in twenty-four hours, 

 and the Prussian states within two days, threaten- 

 ing him with the gibbet in case he should remain. 

 He received an honourable appointment at Marburg. 

 The contest respecting his philosophical system 

 now became general, and almost all Germany took 

 part for or against him. He received offers of ap- 

 pointments in other countries; but he refused 

 these, as well as an invitation to return to Halle, 

 though the examination of his philosophy, by a com- 

 mittee appointed for that purpose, at Berlin, ended 

 in his entire exculpation. In 1740, however, when 

 Frederic the Great, who esteemed him highly, as- 

 cended the throne, he returned to Halle. In 1745, 

 the elector of Bavaria, as vicar of the empire, raised 

 him to the rank of nobility. Wolf's fame spread 

 over Europe; but his reputation as a lecturer de- 

 clined in the latter years of his life, and the num- 

 ber of his hearers decreased. He died in 1754, at 

 the age of seventy-six years. His merits in pro- 

 moting the progress of philosophy are not to be 

 denied. He directed attention particularly to sys- 

 tematic method. His mathematical method brought 

 light and order into the territory of science ; and if 



