1802.] 
himfelf, and who in his refearches, witha 
mind unfhackled by traditionary fyftems or the 
authority of the fchools, endeavoured to pave 
a new way for himfelf. And indeed, in the 
execution of his office, Hanoverian Superin- 
tendant of the Mines in the Harz, he had 
many opportunities of obferving nature in her 
grand laboratory. In a differtation on the 
Formation of Bafaltes, publithed at Brunfwick, 
in 1789, he. firft declared his fentiments in 
favour of thofe who maintain that bafaltes are 
formed within the craters of volcanoes ; and 
ihn the famous controverfy whether that mi- 
neral owes it origin to fire or water, he refo- 
lutely defended the fyftem of the Volcanifts 
againit the Neptunifts ; and if in the courfe 
of the conteft, he was fome times vanquifhed, 
he oftener came off viétorious. The obferva- 
tion, even, urged by Gifeni againft its Vol- 
canic origin, that the whole of the interior 
of Mount Etna confifts of bafaltes, was in 
an ingenious manner explained by Veltheim 
fo as to favour his own fyftem, Veltheim, 
however, did not fight only with weapons of 
fcience, which were the more at his com- 
mand, as with his mineralogical knowledge, 
he united an intimate acquaintance with the 
claffical authors of antiquity, and poffeffed a 
choice collection of the principal writers of 
every nation, which were not placed on the 
fhelves of his library for fhew only :—he 
likewife employed the fting of his ever-ready 
and often feverely-wounding wit ; efpecially 
in his controverfial work ‘* On Mefirs. Wer- 
ner and Karften’s Reforms in Mineralogy.”— 
With much better effe@&, he afterwards ap- 
piied his great knowledge of natural hiftory, 
to the folution of archzalogical and anti- 
guarian queftions; and he always placed the 
obje&, of which he treated, if not in the moft 
proper, at leaft in the moft ftriking, point of 
view. In 1791, he publifhed a treatife in 
which he declared it to be his opinion, that 
the murrhine vafes of the ancients were made 
of Chinefe fteatite ; and in the fame year he 
explained the figures on the. Barberini, or 
Portland Vafe, which he had feen when Sir 
William Hamilton paffed through Germany. 
According to the Count’s manner of explain- 
ing them, they reprefent the ftory of Alcefté, 
whom Hercules is bringing back from the in- 
fernal regions.. The treatifes on Memnon’s 
Statue, the Smaragel of Nero, and the Art 
ef Making Glafs, as pra€tifed among the an- 
tients, (1794,) as likewife that which ap- 
peared at a later period relative to the native 
country of the large onyxes of the ancients, 
contain a feries of moft interefting combina- 
tions and conjectures ; where, however, the 
reader is frequently rather forced to admire 
the wit and great erudition of the author, 
than convinced of the truth of the opinions 
advanced by him. ‘Thisis, in particular, the 
cafe with refpect to his laft publication, (in 
31799) concerning ‘* Gold-digging Ants, aad 
the Griffins of the Ancients.” Being a mem- 
ber of the principal literary focieties of Eu- 
rope, he carried on an extentive epiftolary 
correfpondence with the naturalifts and anti. 
d : 4 
Count Von Feltheim. 93 
re) 
quarians of every country, not for~ parade’s 
fake, but for the purpofe of inftruéting him-~ 
felf, and enriching his valuable colleétion of 
natural curiofities. His country-feat, Harbke, 
thus became a true temple of nature and art, 
of which he himfelf was the chief prieft. 
For here, furrounded with beautiful gardens 
and plantations of exotic trees, whole groves 
of which, efpecially of American trees, as 
for inftance, of the Tulip trees, grew in his 
park ; and, cheered by the frequent vifits of 
his literary friends from the Univerfityof Helm- 
ftadt, and other parts of Germany, he pafled 
the latter years of his life, after he had refigned 
his office of Superintendant of the Mines, 
in learned eafe, andin the performance of va- 
rious duties which he had impofed upon him- 
felf. A determined opponent of the French 
Revolution, he publifhed feveral anonymous 
pamphlets, written with too much acrimony 
againft fome of its Brunfwick defenders, efpe- 
cially againft Campe, the celebrated pedago- 
gical writer, who has accumulated by the 
fale of his works more than 50,000 dollars. - 
He approved of, and praifed, however, the 
pacific meafures adopted by his king, being 
of opinion, that the only efte¢tual means to 
prevent the mifchiefs arifing from revolu- 
tionary vertigo, is to enlighten and diminith ' 
the burthens of the lower orders of fociety. 
Towards this defirable end he contributed, as 
far as lay in his power, by introducing feve- 
ral falutary regulations and reforms in his own 
eftates, a few years before his death. Almott 
at the fame time, the Univerfity of Helm- 
ftadt conferred upon him a doétor’s diploma, 
and the King of Pruffia the title of Count. 
The Univerfity of Helmftadt loft in him a 
moft learned and hofpitable neighbour, the 
wide circle of his friends a moft obliging ade 
vifer and patron of laudable undertakings, 
and Germany one of her moft noble-minded 
worthies—in/clitum egueftris ordinis exemplum, 
as without flattery he was called in the doc- 
tor’s-diploma of the Univerfity of Helmftadt. 
Many ef his fmaller pieces being out of 
print, he, in r800, gratified the with of the 
public, by publifhing a colle&ion of them 
with many additions and corretions in two 
volumes,with the following title: Des Grafen 
wv. Velthcim's Sammlung einiger Aufsatze biftorij~ 
chen, antiguarifchen, and mineralogi{cben Inbalts. 
Although for fome weeks previous to his 
death, he was almoft deprived of the power 
of utterance, and had to contend with a moft 
painful diforder, a cancerous ulcer in his 
neck, yet he retained the powers of his 
mind to the laft, anda moft lively intereft in 
politics and literature. He loved kis friends, 
and he hated his enemies, from his whole 
heart. But then he always promoted what 
he thought a good caufe, and fought and 
efteemed truth, wherever he found it. Of 
his treatife on the Portland Vafe, a matterly 
French tranflation, (Conjectures fur ?Uine de 
Barberini, par A. Fa Comie ce Veltheim, trad. 
de [ Allemand) has been publifhed by his 
friend M. von der Vivere, with valuable ad- 
ditions by the Tranfiator. 
' MONTHLY 
