434. 
Bondely had begun, was completed by the 
Count von Stadion, who, at the time when 
Wieland was appointed recorder of his 
native city, lived with princely {plendor at 
Warthaulen, a caftle only a mile anda 
half diftant from Biberach. Count Sta- 
dion had been prime-minifter to the elec- 
tor of Mentz, was an admirer of Voltaire 
and the Encyclopedifts, a man of various 
knowledge, polifhed manners, and pofleil- 
ing an exquifitivelly cultivated underftand- 
ing. He conceived fo great an affection 
for Wieland, that he could hardly live 
without him. Wieland had an apartment 
affigned to him in‘the cafile, and was al- 
moft daily at the Count’s, who had an ex- 
tenfive library, and every neceflary appa- 
ratus of literature, and a rich fund of 
knowledge in his own mind. Here he con- 
ceived and collected the ideas for his dga- 
thon, his. New Amadis, his Gelden Mirror, 
and moft of the other poetic produétions, 
by which he firft excited the admiration of 
all Germany. 
That our poet raifed himfelf to his pre- 
fent envied eminence merely by his own 
ftudy and application, and by the firength 
of his genius, I need net inform thofe who 
have perufed his earlier writings, where 
he fo often and fo feelingly complained of 
the fevere conftraint which his poetic Mufe 
endured from unfavourable circumftances; 
and in him we have an additional proof, 
that a great man is not the creature of 
circumitances, but is formed by his own 
exertions and the culture and proper ap- 
plication of his own inherent powers. No 
one becomes a great man, without willing 
to become a great man. 
Except the above mentioned verfatility 
in politics, which might perhaps be inter- 
preted rather to his honour as a genuine 
cofmopolite, Wieland pofleflesan unchange- 
able firmnefs of opinion. This he proved 
againft the violent impetus of the Kantian 
profelytifm, which left no man of literary 
_ diftinction untempted, and, like an irre- 
fiftible hurricane, {wept men and fy tems 
along with it.—Wieland’s character is ir- 
reproachable, and his heart generous :— 
When Fichte was difmifled from his pro- 
fefforfhip at Jena, the noble-minded Wie- 
land expreffed his regard for him and his 
concern for his hard tate by the following 
exclamation: ‘On fuch occafions it vexes 
me that I am not a prince, that I might 
be able to offer a fuitable penfion to. fo 
deferving a man.’’ ‘This wifh does the 
more honour to his heart, as he belonged 
to the party which oppofed Fichte, whofe 
philofophy was odious to him, as being a 
texture of ufelefs and noxious fubtilities, 
With fuch a heart, nothing excites his in- 
Memoirs of Iaac Madox, Bifhop of Worcefter. 
[Dec. 1. 
dignation fo much, as to hear himfelf call- 
ed the German Voltaire. 
To the above particulars, I muft yet 
add, that he is at prefent amployed on a 
new work, ‘* Ariftippus,’” one half of 
which (in two oftavo volumes, Leipzig, 
Gofchen) is already finifhed, and in the 
compofition of which all the juvenile fpi- 
rit of the poets feem again to have ani 
mated him. ‘The philofophy of Ariftip- 
pus, fo often mifunderftood, always ap- 
proved itfelf as the moft proper to the in- 
ward conviétion ot Wieland ; and already 
feveral years ago, he explained himfelf 
with great animation on this fubjeét in his 
excellent Annzotations on Horace, whofe Sa- 
tires and Epifiles he tranflated in a maf- 
terly manner, and publifhed in four vo- 
lumes. It is eafy, therefore, to reprefent 
to onefelf, what a rich fund of experience 
and the philofephy of life he has accumu- 
Jated in this lateft produétion of his philo- 
fophic Mufe. It has fome fimilarity to 
Barthelemy’s Voyage de jeune Anacharfis ; 
as it too tranfports us as by inchantment 
into Greece, and is founded entirely on 
true accounts tranfmitted to us in the 
Greek writers. But a creative poetical 
fpirit, which is wanting in the work of the 
Frenchman, pervades the whole. After 
Ariftippus, the celebrated and here vindi- 
cated Lais aéts.a principal part in this epi- 
{tolary correfpondence, for the whole con- 
fifts of letters fuppofed to have/pafled be- 
tween Ariftippus and his cotemporaries.— 
Wieland intended to write the hiftory of 
his own mind. May it not happento him 
in execution of this excellent defign, as te 
Lichtenberg, out of whofe hand Death 
{natched the pen, and clofed the hiftory of 
his life juft as he was geing to begin the 
hiftory of his mind. | But we have every 
reafon to hope that Wieland will be more 
fortunate; he enjoys at the age of feventy 
as good a ftate of health as formerly, and 
his genius {till blooms with the vigeur of 
youth. Few things has he willed, which he 
has not fooner or later put in execution: 
and herein, in my opinion, is fhewn the 
true greatnefs of mind pofleffed by this 
eminent man, who always accurately knew 
beth his own powers and the extent of his 
undertakings, and with perfevering dili- 
gence completed the defigns he had once 
conceived. 
ae 
ORIGINAL ANECDOTAL MEMOIRS of 
ISAAC MADOX, /oime time BISHOP of 
WORCESTER. 
SAAC MADOX, being bound appren- 
tice to a paitry-cook, was by mere 
‘accident obferved by a gentleman to be a 
lad 
