510 
tween are reference-tables to affit re- 
fearches ; and portraits of Erafmus, Juf 
tus Lipfius, and Sheepflin. It is a fanc- 
tuary which we cannot enter without im- 
prefftons of refpe&t. Here they pay ho- 
mage to the learned Oberlin. ney pro- 
pote to him queftions, but fuch is his pru- 
dence and modefty that he feldom returns 
an anfwer without putting his hand on 
a book. The eafe with which he finds 
and reads the paflage he refers to, fhows 
that he has it by heart. He jis princi- 
pally occupied by the ftudy of antiqui- 
tics, and his edition of Tacitus. Schweig- 
zenfer is wholly engaged in his Greek 
editions, and now in that of Athenzus 5 
Arbogaft in his calculations ; and Lom- 
bard in medical operations. Brunck, 
whofe age requires reft, finds his princi- 
pal pleafure in his recolle‘iions of the 
learning of the laft age, Thef learned 
en, with eight or ten others, meet al- 
ternately at each others houfes. I was 
prefent at one of their focial meetings, in 
the houfe of Oberlin: it was a fenate of 
{cholars. I am of cpinion that French 
erudit'on muft fix its feat at Strasburg. 
The learned there are men of vait read- 
ing ; of that retentive memory which dif- 
tinguifhes the Germans; they poflefs their 
patience, but they have more of the French 
politenefs. To {peak only of their fenior, 
Oberlin is regarded with great deference, 
and in their focieties he interefls as much 
as he is refpetted. He and Schweigenfer 
enjoy an advantage peculiarly gratifyicg 
to fathers, that of being affifted in their 
labours by fons whom they have formed 
to the fame ftudies. 
Strafburg has two libraries, the cen- 
tral one and that of the old Proteffant 
Univerfity. The members of the Pro- 
teltant Univerfity have always remained 
united, and have continued to give pub- 
lic leGtures. ‘Their common connection 
is ftrengthened by the exiftence of a Lu- 
theran chapel, founded in the church of 
St. Thomas, the prebends of which 
are generally poffeffed by its profeflois. 
In that church is a fine maufoleum for 
Marfhal de Saxe. They lately difcovered 
in a vault of the fame church two cofiins, 
one of them containing the dead body of 
a man, the other that of a’woman; they 
were clothed with the habits with which 
they were buried, probably towards the 
middle of the fixth century. Obdeflin has 
printed a fhort memoir of thefe two 
bodies. The difcovery has created vari- 
ous conjectures on account of the quality 
of the ftuffs, and the make of tae drefles. 
To return to the hbraries. 
Sketch of the State of Strafourg, by Camus. 
(Jan, 
‘Each is entrufted to Oberlin, who has 
preferved with great care the library of 
the univerfity, and has furnifhed the cen- 
tral library with books, drawn from the 
ancient efiablifhments fusprefled at the 
revolution, In both there are valuable 
books, fome manule ipts, and fomec pies 
of {carce editions of the fifteenth century. 
The lib:ary of the univerfity is princi- 
pally eariched by the oft which Schepf 
lin has made to it: ‘he was fingularly 
fond of col'efting uncommon picces on 
the hiftory of Aifice: he alfo formed a 
collection of antiquities. Oberlin has 
added to thef collections his own, and has 
ranged all in the beft order 5 every thing 
is under his refearch and care, and’ he 
knows tothe minuteft particulars the mo. 
numents of his country, ° . 
Oberlin is the direGor of a gymnafium ° 
eftablifhed fome years fince, im -which 
feven tutors divide between them inftiuc- 
tion in the fei nces wfful in education. 
The pupi's amounted, in the tenth year, 
to two hundred. 
Strafbure has three diftin& literary fo- 
cieties, one of Agriculture and Cicénomy, 
another of the Scienccs and Arts, and a 
third of Medicine. 
unite them, and the union was effected in 
vendemiaire, the eleventh yéar. 
The trade cf a bookfelNer was a con- 
fiderable one at Strafburg when it was a 
frontier town. It wes the mart between 
Swifferland, Germany, and France. Ba‘ 
kerville’s impreflions, imported from Bir- 
mingham to Fort Keh!, by Beaurmarchais, 
gave Strafburg a tafte for fine editions, 
Jacob, who had worked under Bafker- 
ville, hes engraved end cali a beautiful 
type. Finely executed editions: have 
come from the prefs of Levrault. The 
typographical fociety of Deux Ponts, from 
which appeared 2 oood collection of cl«fMfie 
authors, isetlablithed at Strafburg. Mefirs. 
Exter and Enifer-are the direétors of the 
undertaking, and cortinue the colleétion 
of the claffics on the plan begun at Deux 
Ponts. . 
Theve feen at Strafburg a roll of Egyp- 
tian writing more valuable than any 
thing I know of the kind, namely, the 
rol] engraved in the Journal of Tre- 
voux, June, 1704.5 fee inthat prefcrved in 
the Cabimet of the Inititute, a deferivtw n 
of which we wait for; tha’ publithed by 
Caylus, ** Egyptian Antiqnities,”-T. iv. 
plate 21. and the rolls engraved by Denon, 
plates. 136 and 337. ‘he roll of Straf- 
burg, in Common with others, is diftin- 
guifhed by {quares, that form fo many 
pages.’ But it differs from other roils by 
its 
It was propofed to. 
