1797] 
Dire&tor of the Chancery of the city.— 
In this honourable ftation he remained 
till 1769, devoting to the mufes what- 
ever timehe could fpare from occupa- 
tions which accorded fo ill with his ge- 
nius. While refiding at Zurich, with 
Bodmer, he had fpent much of his time 
in the ftudy of Englith, French, and 
Ttalian literature, making it a point to 
read no work in German, and particu- 
larly the Journals written inthat lan- 
guage. Till 1768, he had no corre- 
fpondence whatever with the writers 
and learned men of Germany ; availing 
himfelf of this kind of ifolated ftate, 
to accomplith feveral different literary 
enterprifes. 
In 1762, he entered on a complete 
tranflation of the Plays of Shak{peare, 
which he finithed fuccefsfully in 1766, 
in eight volumes. In 1764, he wrote 
an agreeable romance, entitled, The Tri- 
umph of Nature over Fanatici/m 3 or, the 
Adventures of Don Sylvio Rofalva (Sieg 
der Natur uber die Schwarniercy. Ulm, 
4764, Leipzig, 1772, 2 vols). A work 
which, not having feen, I can only judge 
of it by wretched extracts, or pitiful 
tranflations, which disfigure it, and mi!- 
conftrue the fenfe of the author—its fole 
object is to aim a fatal blow at fupertti- 
tion and fanaticifm. © 
His Comic Tales (Komifcbe Evxcabhlun- 
‘§en, at Zurich, in 8vo.)appearedin 1766. 
‘It may be called the Secret Hiftory of 
Olympus, fet off in the moft brilhant 
colours, and written in a vein of fatire, 
not unworthy of Lucian. 
Agaihon, a romance, compofed with fo 
much art, that it interefts alike the learn- 
ed and the ignorant, was publifhed in 
-3766-and 1777. 
Mufarion, or the Philofopby of the Graces, 
a work diétated by the graces: them- 
felves ; and Jdris, an heroi-comic poem, 
in five cantos, as rich in comic adven- 
tures asin charaéters varied and fhaded 
by a philofophical poet, appeared firft 
in 1768. 
Mr. WIELAND had at firft many dif- 
ficulties to furmount on his arrival at 
Biberach ; but after a little time, he ac- 
quired the confidence of the religionifts 
of both communions, and won the hearts 
of all his fellow-citizens. They parted 
with mutual regret; when he accepted 
the offices of Countellor of Government, 
and Profeffor of Philofophy in the uni- 
verfity of Erfurt, which were tendered 
to him by the Eleétor of Mentz,.Em- 
merick-Jofeph. He paffed, at Erfurt, 
three of the moft agreeable years of his 
Life and Writings of Wieland. 
415 
life, and there renewed his acquaintance 
with German literature, which he had 
neglected to fuch a degree, as to be even 
infenfible of the reputation which his 
own writings had procured him in Ger- 
many. 
Being invited afterwards to the court 
of Weimar, with the character of Coun- 
fellor to that court, he there became 
greatly in favour with the Duchefs Dow- 
ager, regent, and had the principal ma- 
nagement of the education of the two 
princes, her fons. His affiduities were 
liberally recompenfed in the fequel, fo 
that he was enabled to {pend the refidue 
of his days in eafe and affluence, and at 
full liberty to confecrate his time to the 
mules. 
I had forgot to mention, that Mr. 
WIELAND married, O&. 21, 1755.— 
He {peaks thus, in a private letter, of 
the lady whom he had feleéted as his 
companion for life: ‘* The twenty-two 
years that I have fpent with her, have 
elapfed without my withing fo much as 
once to be again unmarried : on the con- 
trary, her exiftence is fo clofely inter- 
woven with my own, that! cannot be ab- 
fent from her for eight days together, 
without é€xperiencing a return of the 
moft fombrous melancholy. Of thirteen 
children, whom fhe has borne me, ten 
are yet living, and conftitute, with their 
mother, the principal happinefs of my 
lifes? 
Let me refume, however, the notice 
of his publications. In1770, he pub- 
lithed The Dialogues of Diogenes of Si- 
nope, Wherein the natural philofophy of 
Diogenes is happily contrafted with that 
of.Socrates ; a number of interefting hif- 
tories are alfo judicioufly introduced and 
blended in the work. 
The fame year he publithed, in two 
volumes, Memours, ferving to a particular 
Ehiftory of the Underfianding of the human 
Heart, drawn from the Archives of Naiure : 
a work of great value, teeming with 
the moft profound obfervations on the 
‘pafiions of men, and demonfirated by 
hiftories and particular travels. Alfo, 
Combabus, a mélange of pleafantry and 
fenfibility, truly original ; and The Graces. 
The New Amadis (Der neue Amadis, 
2 vols.) a fatyric hiftory of chivalry, ap- 
peared in 1771. Here we find, as ufual, 
the talents of its author, difplayed in a 
feries of adventures, which pleafe, in- 
tereft, and excite the moft mirthful fen. 
fations. 
The following year, 1772, he pro- 
duced four new pieces: 1. The Golden. 
Bibl 2 Mirror ; 
