~ 
236 Menvirs of the Life end Writings of M. Bitaubé. [April 1 
grasses, and that which I have to say upon 
therm is from the report of others. I scarcely 
thirk chat the Orecheston grass would grow 
on any dry or batren upland situation, which 
we are asstred of the fiorin. ‘Upwards of 
eight tons of hay from an Erg!ish acre of land, 
is ‘doubtless a vast produce, in respect of bulk 
and ‘Weight; but if the quality be hard, pipy, 
and ianutritious, the eight tons in quaniity 
may, in consumption, dwindle to less than a 
single. ton in quality. Certainly however, 
watered land would have the favourable effect 
_ of softening a too harsh grass. I profess to 
have no: experience in this article ; but a 
friend of mine lately assured me, that from 
its coarseness, the fiorin grass is unworthy 
of cultivation; and I understood him to speak 
from experiment. The fate of Guinea and. 
other grasses, formerly recommended with so 
much ze.l, is well known. In truth, there are 
hardy and bulky grasses enough to be fuund, 
were they. on comparison with these we have 
of real usé,. worthy of cultivation. We have 
even has the culture of thistles -recom- 
mended of late years, by a learned doctor. — 
I desire only to guard the public, by no means 
to check the experimental culture of the 
fiovin grass; one good and nutritious crop of 
which will, as it ought, overturn these my 
speculations: and in cases like this, I shall 
ever feel happy to find myself in an error, 
\ 
Et 
MEMOIRS AND REMAINS OF EMINENT PERSONS. 
MEMOIRS Of the LIFE and WRITINGS of 
the late M. BITAUBE. 
Ra Jeremiah Bitaubé was horn 
at Konigsberg; on the 24th of No- 
veinber 1732, of one of those families of | 
French refugees whom the revocation 
of the edict of Nantes had dispersed over 
different parts of Europe, and who had 
particularly enriched the protestant 
countries of Germany. Prussia whs one 
of the earliest in receiving, and afford- 
ing a settlement to, some of these wan 
dering colomes, who every where repaid 
their reception by introducing with them 
a spirit of industry, the cultivation of the 
arts and sciences, morality, and good 
examples. _ Accordingly she was not 
Jong in reaping the harvest of her bene- 
volent hospitality: for though, previously 
to that period, less advanced than most 
other states in the progress of civili- 
sation, she too afterwards enjoyed an 
enlightened age; and under Frederic the 
Great, who gave his name to this age, 
the north of Europe was illumined by 
one of those bright sunsnines of genius 
which only break forth upon nations at 
distant intervals: nor can it be dented 
that the excitement and emulation prody- 
ced by the new-settlers hastened its dawn, 
and increased its meridian splendour. 
As the refugees did not enjoy the 
rights of citizenship 1n Prussia, M. Bi- 
taubé, when he bad finished his course of 
‘studies, and was of an age to choose a 
_ profession, had only an opticn between 
trade. (which his father pursued), medi- 
cine, andthe church. <As he had early 
imbibed a taste for literature, he made 
choice of the last; and perhaps it was 
this decision that also determined his 
inclination for that particular: branch of 
study to which be afterward attached 
~ himself. 
-An assiduous perusal of the bible, 
which in all protestant countries forms 
one of the principal foundations of pul- 
pit-eloquence, gave M. Bitaubé an 
early familiarity with the simple and 
sublime images of that primitive state of 
mankind, of which the sacred writings 
offer so many and such inimitable mo- 
dels. In recurring to this source for the 
elements of religious knowledge, he had 
been «struck with admiration at the 
accents of that poetry which, by sounds 
more noble and affecting than those of 
any profane lyre, announce a divine 
origin; and bespeak a master “ whose 
brows,” to use the expressions of Tasso, 
“‘justead of ‘the perishable laurels of 
Helicon, are’ crowned with unfading 
stars amidst the celestial choirs.” 
| After having enjoyed the advantage of 
forming a taste in this elevated school of 
poetry, the rind is naturally disposed to 
feel the powerful charms of the works of 
Hoiner, and the other early productions 
of Greece. The manners of the patri- 
archal, instruct us in those of the heroic 
ages. These great pictures, in which 
man is shewn in a state of bold and ma-_ 
jestic simplicity; undisfigured by the — 
artificial gloss of a late stage of civilisa- 
tion, shew most forcibly in how high a 
degree the times celebrated by the au~ 
thor of the Iliad and the Odyssey were 
favourable to poetical imitation, 
All that is known concerning the 
early years of M. Bitaubé, is drawn from. 
some of his works composed at a more 
advanced age, among which he occasi= 
onally indulges in recollections of hig 
si youthful 
