49 
Lovis-le-Grand et Paris. Being -after- 
wards engaged in the civil adminiftration 
of-the war-department, he bad jong neg- 
lected the cultivation of ietters, when, in 
the courfe of the sane gs in Hanover, 
he happened to Jodge at Gieffen, in the 
houfe of a profeffor of the univerfity of 
that city. With this worthy man he read 
Severa] Latin and Greek works, and was 
foon infpired with a very ftrong predilec- 
tion, and of a particular natwe, for the 
Jatter language. It was the charms and 
the harmony of Greek poetry that almoft 
exclufively engaged his attention, 
It is obvious that the ancient authors 
pollcfied two very great advantages over 
thofe of modern times; they ‘had at their 
difpofal a great number of words folcly de- 
voted to poetry ; words, | ‘which being ad- 
drefled only to the imagination, never fail 
to produce the defired effeét ; and in which 
ihe amateur, initiated into the myfteries of 
that language, finds as great a difference 
between them and their fynonyms in 
profe, as between the flower of a plant 
and its fruits or leaves. They fpcke 
moreover a language effentially rythmi- 
cal ; that is, cadenced according to the fe- 
eret laws of a harmony of which-we can 
fcarcely form a perfeét idea, and of whofe 
powerful attractions nothing but long 
dtudy can render us fenfible. 
The imitation of the ancients alone has 
conveyed a portion of both thefe advan- 
tages into modern languages. The co- 
pies of the Greek and Latja poets are ftill 
preferved, in which Racine interlined the 
bold expreilions with which he enriched 
the poetic: langvage'‘of his country. In 
the moft remarkable paflages of his ad- 
mired po:ms, we find with delight fome- 
thing of that beautiful cadence which 
charms in the productions of  polifhed 
Gyeece, and in thofe of the Roman poets, 
who, like him, repaired te the only fource 
where it can be acquired. e 
Among men of learning, a tafte a 
thefe delicate beauties, fcr this blofem— 
this mufic of poely, has been almoft as 
tare as the erudition of the prefent day 
ma as been uncommen among ports 
“This tafte M. Branck polteided in the 
highelt de epree, and eombined «with it.an 
ardent: love of: thofe pleafures: which 
poetry imparts to him who is capable of 
appreciating it. Animated by this tafe, 
ne peried the works ef the adcients with 
the enthufhaim of a real amateur; he de- 
Voured their beauties, whie the negli. 
gencies that are occahonaily met with in 
en excited. his indignation. Thefe he 
tiributed entirely to the carelefinefs of 
BLemoirs of M. Brunck 
f Auguft 13 
copyifts ; and, sulle a judgment enlights 
ened by the mol: extenfive erudition, and 
the moft affiduous perufal of the ancient 
grammarians and rhetoricians, he correct= 
ed, aliered, and even deftroyed thofe 
verfes which he difliked, with a boldnefs 
almoft always happy, though fometimes 
bordering on extravapance. 
In this literary hardihood he cae more 
particularly indulged, in the marginal 
notes to his books, and to the manufcript 
copies which he has left of almoft all the 
Greek poets. Some of thefe books, fold 
together with bis library, are in the hands 
of amateurs. A Plautus, treated 1a this 
manner, will be publifhed by a beokfeller, 
a friend of M. Brunck. A few yea:s be- 
fore his death, he gave me, tegether with 
feveral other books and valuable manus 
{cripts, fome printed works of various 
Greek poets, with writtea notes by him- 
felf, and all ‘the copies above-mentioned. 
It was by facrificing his natural vivacity 
to the pleafure he experienced in making 
thefe copies, that he became imbued with 
that poetic tafte by which he was guided 
in the correstion of faulty verfes: This 
occupation was alfo a kind of adoration — 
paid by him to objects that he loved ; bea 
{towing the utmott pains on the execu- 
tion, and {tudying the greateft luxury of 
paper or vellum; many of the copies 
which he has left me being written, or ra 
ther painted, on velium of the moft ph 
fite beauty. 
Among his moft faerie authors. was, 
Apollonius Rhodius, author of the poem, 
of the Argonauts, an ecition of which 
he pubiifhed, and of which i have m my 
poflefion five manu! ‘cript copies by himé 
This preference may eafiiy be. accounted 
for, by the perfection which that poet, 
like all thofe of the Alexandrian {chcoly 
gave to his verification... We know thag¢ 
this city (where for the firft time thd 
Greeks had at their difpoial a royal reve- 
nue and an extenfive library) was at once 
the feat of found criticiim; and of great 
attention to the perfection of the-lan- 
guage. ‘ There was formed the catalogue 
of claffic authors, and there feveral of 
them received that forma which they fill 
retain. It is beyond a doubt that Virgil 
owed the high perfection of his verfifica~ 
tion to the pcets of tivis School: whom he 
has in many places imitated and tranilateds 
To prepare the era of new Virgils, the 
mot efficacious method « ould pet haps bes 
to encourage la bours fimuar te thele pa 
Le a by the fucceffors of Aiexander.) ¥ 
- The moft extraordinary circumitance 
in ee lite of a man who loved his literary 
Pees] 
aioe» 
