13804. ] 
the profeforfhip of Latin eloquence, Ro- 
man antfquities, and hiftory. His inau- 
gural D.fcourfe upon this occafion was 
De Do&ore umbratico, and had for its 
{cope to expofe the difadvantages of that 
exclufive attachment to folitary, or merely 
{cholaftic, ftudy, which unfits a man for 
the eafy, ufeful, and elegant intercourfe, 
of common life ; while it allio makes him 
unable todiflinguifh in letters what things 
are truly important, from thofe which are 
mere trifles and fooleries unworthy of a 
reafonable perfon’s care. The difcourfe 
gave offence to the matters of fome of the 
principal {chools, who thought that its 
ridicule was directed again them, and 
became, in confequence of this, Rhun- 
ken’s enemies. A profeflor at Amfter- 
dam, and another at Franeker, had been 
his competitors, at leaft in their private 
wifhes, for the chair at Leyden ; and the 
difappointment made them alfo unfriendly 
to him. Both thefe incidents contribut- 
ed for a while to render the attendance of 
ftudents at his leétures lefs numerous than 
was to have heen expected. He gave 
three different courfes annually ; one of 
hiflory, in which he followed the plan of 
Perizonius, or rather Turfellini, with im- 
provements ; another: of antiquities, in 
which, from the genuine teftimonies of 
the ancients themfelves, and from re- 
maining monuments, ~-he explained the 
whole detail of the cuftoms, arts, man- 
ners, and policy, of the Romans ; a third 
for the interpretation of claffical authors, 
in which Terence, Suetonius, Cicero, and 
Ovid were among the favourite fubjeéts of 
his praleétions. 
Gener died at Gottingen, the fame 
year on which Ruhnken was promoted to 
this profeflorfhip at Leyden. Upon the 
recommendation of Ernefti of Leipfic, 
Rhunken was invited by the Hanoverian 
Minifter, Baron Munchaufen, to fill that 
vacancy. Hedeclined the offer for him- 
felf, but recommended Heyne, who ac- 
cepted the appointment, and has fince done 
it infinite honour. The curators of the 
Univerfity of Leyden had the generofity to 
reward his attachment to it by adding fix 
hundred florins a-year to hisfalary. 
In the year 1753, when he was above 
the age of forty, Mr. Ruhnken conceived 
a warm affection for Mariamne Heir- 
mans, a young lady of admirable beauty, 
daughter. to Mr. Gerard Heirmans, who 
had been Dutch Conful at Leghorn.— 
Although fhe was only in her eighteenth 
year, and had many young admirers, fhe 
gave a preference to the addreffes of the 
4 
Memoir of Profeffar David Rhunken. 
151 
profeflor. He married her though the 
had no fortune. After living with him 
five years in great mutual happinefs, and 
bearing him two daughters, the was 
truck with an apoplexy, became firft 
fpeechlefs, and then loft the ufe of fight ;,. 
and the now (urvives him in a fiate of 
wretched imbecility. 
His marriage made fome alteration in 
his habits of life. He now accuttomed 
himfelf to rife early in the morning ; then 
to ftudy for a couple of hours ; then give 
two or three hours to the bufineis of his 
prefefiorfhip ; in the intervals between his 
hours of teaching, either to walk, or 
amufe himfelf at home; ‘then to dine ; 
then to pafs fome’ hours either at the 
houfes of his friends, or with his friends 
at his own houle; after this to fup with 
his wife and children, and r-tire early to 
ret. ‘There were three days in the week 
on which he was not engaged in teach- 
ing, and at leaft on two of thofe he ufed to 
goout tohunt.. He had, befides, fo many 
other of the common duties of life to at- 
tend to, that it 1s furprizing, not that he 
fould have publifhed fo little, but that 
he fhould have found time to prepare fo 
much for publication. 
His friend Alberii had not lived to 
complete his edition cf Helychius.— 
Rhuvken therefore brought out the fe- 
cond volume of that work with accuracy 
and: illuitrations not unequal to thole 
which had been exhibited in the firft. 
Rutilius Lupus, Vellcius Paterculus, 
and Cornelius Nepos, were three ‘authors 
whofe writings Profeflor Rhunken became 
defirous to illuftrate in new editions,— 
The work of Cornelius Nepeos, which he 
much admired for the pure and fimple 
elegance of its ftyle, he would have eluci- 
dated and adorned by exhibiting in con- 
junction with the text the parallel paflages 
trom thofe Greek hiltcrians whom Nepos 
had followed as his authorities. But he 
intended to begin thefe labours by giving 
his edition of Rutilius Lupus. In prea 
paring for this, he entered on a new peru- 
fal of all the Greek orators and rhetori- 
cians.» Aldus has publifhed, in one col- 
le&tion, moft of the remains of the Greek 
rhetoricians of which there have not yet 
been feparate editions. 
Colle&tion, Mr. Rhunken difcovered, in 
a Treatife by the rhetorician Apfines, a 
paflage which, upon comparing it with the 
Notes of John of Sicily upon Ariftides, he 
found to be that portion which relates to’ 
the hiftorical invention of the Work of 
Longinus De Arte Rhetorica, which was 
1 Moa fuppeled 
Reading Aldus’s: 
