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nature and nations, which was written in Latin, and ex- 

 tended to eight volumes 4to. He alfo wrote prefaces to 

 the works of others, and particularly one to SuffVnilch's 

 work on population. Notwithftanding his great celebrity, 

 perhaps on this account, he had many and powerful enemies. 

 Leibnitz, Maupertuis, and Voltaire, were of this number : 

 and with refpeft to the latter, we may obferve, that both in 

 I his writings and in his converfation with the king, he con- 

 , tributed in no fmall degree to lefTen the veneration which 

 Frederick II. entertained for him. In 17J2 he was made 

 a member of the Inftitute at Bologna ; but he did not long 

 furvive this honour, as he died in the month of April 1754, 

 j in the 76th year of his age. He left one fon, who inherited 

 I a confiderable eltate which he had purchafed. 

 j The adverfaries of Wolf attacked not only the principles 



! of his philofophy, but his method and his ftyle. His 

 I Latin, it muft be acknowledged, was not elegant ; but his 

 German has been commended and imitated ; and he is faid 

 to have improved his native tongue both in precifion and 

 ' energy. With regard to his general difpolition and demea- 

 nour, he is faid to have united a great degree of com- 

 plaifance and affability, with irreproachable morals and ex- 

 ' ceflive vanity, which he was not able to conceal. He did 

 not hefitate to extol himfelf and his own merits publicly 

 and without rcferve, and even to exhibit them in emble- 

 matical devices on the titles of his books. Brucker fums 

 up the charaAer of Wolf as a writer in the following con- 

 cife manner : — " He poflefled a clear and methodical 

 underftanding, which by long exercife in mathematical in- 

 veftigations was particularly fitted for the employment of 

 digelling the feveral branches of knowledge into regular 

 fyilems ; and his fertile powers of invention enabled him to 

 enrich almoft every field of fcience in which he laboured, 

 with fome new addition. The lucid order which appears 

 in all his writings enables his reader to follow his concep- 

 tions with eafe and certainty through the longeft train of 

 reafoning. But the clofe conneftion of the feveral parts of 

 his works, together with the vaft variety and extent of the 

 fubjefts on which he treats, renders it imprafticable to give 

 a fummary of his doftrines." Brucker's Philofophy by 

 Enfield, vol. ii. Preface to M. de Vattel's Law of Nations. 

 See Leibnitzian Philofophy. 



Wolf, Jerome, a German philofopher, was born in the 

 county of Oettihgen, in the year 15 16, and inftrufted in the 

 elementary parts of education at a college eftabhfhed by the 

 fenate of Nuremberg. But his ftudies were interrupted by 

 an appointment in the fervice of Julius, the chancellor of 

 count Von Oettingen. This interruption, however, con- 

 tributed to allay the feverity of his countenance and manner, 

 and to meliorate the morofenefs of his temper ; whilft thefe 

 unamiable qualities were amply counterbalanced by probity, 

 diligence, and modeily, which engaged the confidence and 

 efteem of his employer. His habitual difpofition again 

 returned, and he refumed the ftudy of poetry, and of the 

 ancient Greek writers, againft the remonftranccs of the 

 chancellor, who recommended attention to jurifprudence and 

 pubhc bufinefs, as the moll effeftual means of acquiring both 

 honour and competence. . Remonftranccs were ine(Te£lual, 

 and he perfifted in purfuing a courfe which cherifhcd his 

 morbid melancholy and difquieting irritability. Still de- 

 voted to his literary purfuits, he was fortunate in gaining 

 the patronage of John James Fugger ; and in being after- 

 wards advanced to the poft of the direftor of the college 

 of Augfburg, and that of librarian to this inilitution. In 

 this fituation he remained till his death, which happened in 

 the month of Oftober 1580. Wolf was particularly dif- 

 tinguifhed as a laborious tranflator, in which literary depart- 



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ment he gained the commendation of Huet ; though Henry- 

 Stephen cenfures his performances. When the edition of 

 the Annals of Zonaras, publiftied by Wolf at Bade in 1557, 

 became rare, a new one, with notes by Du Cange, w.^s 

 printed at the Louvre in Paris in 1687. Wolf's tranflation 

 of Demofthenes was firit printed at Bafle by Oporinu« ; 

 and being much approved, it pafled through two other 

 editions. After being reviled by the tranflator, Epifcopius 

 printed it at Bafle in 1572, with the orations of ^fchines, 

 the commentaries of Ulpius, and the notes of Wolfius. 

 His other works, which were numerous, almoft wholly re- 

 lated to Greek and Latin authors. Eloges par Formsy et 

 Teiflier. 



Wolf, John Christopheh, a German Lutheran divine 

 and eminent fcholar, was born in 1613, at Wernigeroda, 

 and removing in 1695 to Hamburgh, was educated under 

 the proteftion of the celebrated Fabricius, by whom he 

 vifas employed, under the age of 20 years, in making a 

 catalogue of all the writers quoted in Euftathius's Commen- 

 tary on Homer, afterwards inferted by Fabricius in his 

 " Bibliotheca Grasca." Having profecuted his ftudies at 

 Wittenberg, and graduated mailer of arts, he became, in 

 1706, adjundl of the philofophical faculty. Upon his re- 

 turn to Hamburgh, he undertook a tour in 1708 through 

 Holland to England, and for fome time refided at Oxford 

 for the ufe of the Bodleian hbrary. His next migration 

 to Denmark led, in 1710, to the appointment of extra- 

 ordinary profefTor of philofophy at Wittenberg, where 

 his ledlures coUedled a great number of pupils. Although 

 he was here advanced to the chair of theology, he removed 

 in 1 7 1 2 to Hamburgh, and was appointed profefTor of the 

 oriental languages in the Gymnafium, and in 1715 pro- 

 moted to be reftor of that inflitution. He was likewafe 

 a preacher-extraordinary at the cathedral, and became paftor 

 of the church of St. Catharine ; and foon after a member 

 of the Academy of Sciences at Berlin. He commenced his 

 literary contributions to the " Afta Eruditorum" in 1708 ; 

 and he colledled from various repofitories an aftonifhing 

 number of rabbinical and oriental books and MSS. ; 

 which library he bequeathed to the library at Hamburgh, 

 where he died in June 1739. Of his numerous works, we 

 fhall here enumerate his " Bibhotheca Hebrtea," in 4 vols, 

 fol. ; " Hiftoria Lexicorum Hebraicorum ;" " Primitix 

 Flemburgenfes, five Oratio de Praecocibus eruditis, et Ora- 

 tiones bins de NecefTitate et Utihtate declamandi ;" " Hif- 

 toria Bomogilorum ;" ♦' Differtatio de Atheifmi falfo fuf- 

 peftis ;" " Curas philologicas et criticx in Novum Tef- 

 tamentum," 4 vols. 4to. He was alfo the editor of feveral 

 learned works. Gen. Biog. 



Wolf. There are biographical articles for five German 

 muficians of that name in Gerber's Continuation of Wal- 

 ther's Mufical Lexicon. 



Firfl, Michael Chri^ian Wolf, organifl and mufic direftor 

 in St. Mary's church at Stettin, born 1709, and vi'ho died 

 in 1789, after publifliing the following works : " Six Duets 

 for two German Flutes at Berlin ;" " Six Harpfichord So- 

 natas," Stettin, 1776; " Songs with a Harpfichord or Harp 

 Accompaniment," Ebend, 1777 ; " Exercifes for the Organ 

 in Choral Mufic ;" and having in MS. a Pfalm for Four 

 Voices, with an Accompaniment for the Organ, and many 

 other pieces for the church and chamber. 



II. Ernjl Friederic Wolf, brother to the preceding mal- 

 ter, ftate organifl at Cologne, who died in 1772. He had 

 been two years under the chapel-mafter Stolzd, for compo- 

 fition ; and under the concert-mafter Hiilm, at Gotha, for 

 the violin. But at nine years old he had previoufly fludied 

 the feores of great mafters, and the Gradus ad ParnafTum 

 4D 2 of 



