1804. | (@57°Y 
“MEMOIRS OF EMINENT PERSONS. 
memorit of the LiFE sh Maddavalecek _ =. An accident engaged him, ‘at this time 
“STERHUIS, many. YEARS PROFESSOR 
Of GREEK iz the UNIVERSITY of LEY* 
DEN. . 
‘TY SIBERIUS HemsTernvuis was born 
at Groningen, on the firft day of Fe- 
bruary: in) the year 16852. ‘His: father, 
Francis Hemfterhuis, was a learned phyfi- 
cian, who delighted greatly in polite lite- 
rature, and, to gratify a liberal and fcien- 
tific curivfity, had travelled over almof all 
Europe. 7 
_ The fon, while a. mere:child, was dif- 
tinguifhed by uncommon quicknefs of aps 
prehenfion ‘and fondnefs for books. In 
his fourteenth year ‘he had. pafled through 
the ordinary courfe of fchool learning, 
and was/already a ftudent at the univer- 
fity of Groningen. Mathematics became 
there his favourite ftudy. The-famous 
John Bernoulli, Profeffor of that {cience, 
ufed to declare that he’never taught a pu- 
pil who made more rapid proficiency ; and 
Hemfterhuis himfelf, in his : after-life, 
confidered his early attention to’ mathe- 
- matics as what had firft beftowed-thofe ha-- 
bits of accurate and patient investigation 
to which he owed his fuccefs in acquiring 
other parts of knowledge. 
From Groningen he went, after fome 
years, to Leyden, where he was defirous 
to hear in particular the Jeftures of the fa- 
mous Perizonius, on ancient hiftory, and 
on the difficulties and delicacies of Roman 
literature. Such was his reputation even 
then for knowledge and- diligence, that 
the Curators of this univerfiry were in- 
duced to confide to Hemfterhuis the charge 
of arranging the manu(cripts belonging 
to its library, which happened then to be 
in a ftate of neglected contufion. 
as he was, it was then juiged by many 
that it would have been for the honour 
and intereft of the univerfity to have ap- 
pointed him, inftead of Havercamp, to 
“fucceed James Gronovius in the proteffor- 
~ thip of the Greek tongue. 
In the twentieth year of his age Hem- 
fterbuis had the honour of being called to 
ke&ture upon mathématics and natural 
philofophy at'Amfterdam. He filled that 
fituation with diftinguifhed merit ; and 
in the fociety:of his colleagues, Brook- 
haufe, Bergler, and Kufer, all three 
men of exiraordinary claflicabhattainments, 
he cultivated ‘with growing” ardour: that 
Fondnefs for the elegant and* profound - 
€rodition of antiquity, which was, ‘even 
“belove, the ruling paflion in histheart, 
SMONTHLY Mac ,Ne. 1:3. 
Youngs’ 
-more particularly, in.the ftudy of Greek 
literature. By the recommendation of 
Grevius he was requelted to uniertake 
the care of an edition of the Qvonesimev 
or Vocabulary of Julius Pollux, “which 
having been: begun under the dire@tion of 
John Henry Lederlin, was by ‘his death 
left unfinified. On this tafk he. entered 
‘with ardour, and with that confidence in 
‘his own powers which is ever natural to 
youth and inexperjence, His fuccefs was 
‘in fome meafure anfwerable to his dili- 
gence and zeal; for when this edition was 
-completed, it was allowed by the unani- 
mous voice of the learned world to exhi- 
bit the text of the author more genuine, 
and with more valuable illuftiations, than 
it appeared in any of the former editions. 
He was himfelf at firtt fufficien'ly pleafed 
with his achievement 3; and he had indeed 
reafon to be pleafed. The work: of , Pol- 
‘ux is a ftorehoufe of the curiofities of 
Greek erudition, and contains many ex. 
tracts from the works of the poets of an- 
‘cient Greece, which are not elfewhere pré. 
ferved. To throw light on: the obfcuri~ 
ties of fuch a collection, and to a({certain 
-at every. doubtful pafiage the genuine 
readings, was a tafk requiring no common 
dagacity and learning-: but in this he had 
undeniably exceeded the endeavours of 
fome of the moft illuftrious (cholars of for- 
mer times, while he was as yet but of a 
‘very juvenile age. It was, as it Were, 
Charles XII. wio before the age of pu- 
berty had ‘urpafled the deeds of the moft 
mature and experienced commanders—or - 
it was rather Hercules, that cruthed the 
ferpents in his cradle, 
Yet he was in a ficrt time much rather 
afhamed than proud of his performance.— 
By the intermediation probably of Gra. 
vius, the friend. of Dr. Richard Bentley, 
the young critic having opened a corre~ 
fpondence with this profuund and eleganr 
{cholar, while|his Julius Pollux was yet in 
the prefs, received in a letter his opinion 
of the general merits of the new edition, 
as foon as Bentley had procured a copy of 
it,, together with a variety of new read- 
ings of paflages in the poetical frogments, 
fuggelted chiefly -by the confideration of 
what the laws of the metre required. — 
Bentiey, by the admirable vigour, acute. 
nefs,.and-elaftic vivacity ef his genius, 
furpafied in {icience, in erudition, in eloe 
quence, «in the power of cogent reafoning, 
ia- manly originality of thought, and ia 
Mm felicity 
