which he prefixed to a difcourfe of one of 
his deceafed friends. His public lectures, 
and the attention he was obliged to give 
to the Vatican prefs, occupied, for the 
lait five years of his life, almoft all that 
part of his time which he did not fpend 
in focial converfe and other agreeable 
relaxations. Not but that he fill cherith- 
ed defigns of greater literary atchieve- 
ments tnan he had yet accomplifhed. He 
meditated a new edition of the Works of 
Plautus, in which the text fhould be ac- 
cura'ely revifed, and illuftrated with a 
fuitable commentary. He had alfo con- 
ceived the plan of a General Hiftory, 
with a full and accurate Topographical 
Defcription of Italy. And he intended 
to have given the Life of Caftruccio Caf- 
tracani much more at length, than in the 
fhort narrative of it, which he actually 
publifhed. 
He died on the 28th ef October, 1597, 
at the age of fifiy years, eight montis, 
and twenty-two days, in the tenth year 
of his refidence at Rome. He had by his 
wife a daughter and feveral o:her children, 
who all died young. In him thus ended 
the race cf the ALDI, whole names and 
publications are fill the glory of the ty- 
pographical art. His library appears to 
have been fold, after his deceafe, for the 
benefit of his creditors. If lefs diligent 
and accurate as a printer than his father 
and grandfather, he mui, however, be 
owned to have had lurger views of {cience 
and literature, and a more vigorous; bold, 
and comprehenfive genivs for original 
compofition. He is faid to have been, in 
the latter part of his life, fomewhat too 
fond of convivial enjoyments. 
After his death, Twenty-five. Dif- 
courfes, by him, on the Hittory of the 
Second Carthaginian War in Livy, were 
printed by William Faciotte, and pub- 
lithed in the year 1601. He is faid by 
fome to have had an ugly countenance in 
his old age: but this does not appear from 
the reprefentations of him which have 
been preferved. 
—SEE 
MEMOER Of GOTTFRIED HERDER. 
OHN GortFRizD HERDER was 
J born in 1741, in a {mall town of 
Pruiha, and was originally intended by 
his relatives for the profeffion of a fur- 
geon. In Germany this proteffion requires 
a toilfome noviciate, to which he fubmit- 
ted, and thus acquired that knowledge of 
phyfiolegy, of which he afterwards made 
fuch a ufeful application. A fecret voice, 
however, called him to enter upon a dif- 
ferent career; the inftinét of his genius 
* Montury Mac, No. 119. 
Memoir of Gottfried Herder. 
133 
impelling him towardshis true deftination, 
he embraced the clerical profeflron. 
It is well known, that in the north of 
Germany ‘the in(titutions devoted to the 
preparation of minifters for the facred 
funétions, are extremely favourable to the 
fiudies of thofe young men, to whom fore 
tune has been fparing of her gifts, but 
who fee] themfelves filled by nature with 
more afpiring hopes. They have more 
than once preferved to the republic of 
letters men whom circumitances feemed 
(o have condemned to an ob{cure exiftence. 
Of this, Herder furnifhes an examole. 
His fuccefs was rapid, for {carcely had 
he finifhed his ftudies when he was invita» 
ed to Buckeburg, by the Count of Schaue 
enburg, to officiate as minifter, and to be 
a member of the confifiory of the ecclefi- 
aftical council. Here he had the firit op- 
portunity of diftinguifhing himfelf as an 
orator and a writer. In a fhort time he 
acquired deferved celebrity, and the Duke 
of Saxe Weimar, who by colle&ting at his 
court the moit eminent literati of Ger- 
many, has made it, in fome meafure, the 
focus of knowledge and the tribunal of 
tafte, invited Herder to his capital, con- 
fervring upon him, in 1774, the offices of 
firft preacher to the court and ecclefiafti- 
cal counfellor. He afterwards raifed him 
to the dignity of Vice-Prefident of the 
Confiftory of Weimar, which he held till 
his death. 
Thus enjoying a perfeét and tranquil 
independence, living in the fociety of men 
fach as Gothe, Schiller, and Wieland, in 
the epoch of the moft rapid progrefs of 
German literature, and on the fpot moft 
favourable for obferving it, inured to 
habits of perfevering labour and profound 
meditation, Herder exercifed a powerful 
influence over the ideas and tafte of his 
countrymen. By his produétions he 
equally enriched divinity, hiteory, philo= 
fophy, and the {ciences. 
His theological works, his fermons full 
of fablimity and of fimple and unaffest. 
ed piety, are entirely free from the {pirit 
of intolerance ; he endeavoured to render 
religion beloved by making it known ; 
he reprefented it as the moral inftructor of 
man, the medium of attaining perfection, 
his guide in the uncertainties, and his 
con‘olation in the misfortones of life. 
His Dialogue on the Exiftence of Ged 
combines clofe and found reafoning with 
a mild and noble eloquence. The Aca- 
demy of Beriin crowned many of his 
works, in the public competitions on phi- 
lofcphic queftions ; and, perhaps, no au- 
thor ever received more academical ho. 
pS nours 
