strings, which were extended through all the paths about his residence with these strings in his hand, and by small knots made at intervals, he always knew where he was, and could direct himself accordingly.

The activity of his mind made it necessary that he should have such occupations: it might, but for the persons that were about him, have made him the most miserable of mankind; all of these had no other wish but to please and assist him: naturally of kindly feelings, it ceases to be a wonder how he preserved such a happy disposition, so often destroyed by collision with mankind.

His conversation was generally of an amiable and pleasant cast, his wit was gay and lively, and to no part of knowledge was he a stranger he delighted in elevating his thoughts to contemplation on the most grave and important subjects, and could equally descend to the most playful and familiar. He was not learned, in the usual acceptation of the term, but, like a skilful diver, he explored the depths of every question with a species of tact and sagacity which stood him in stead of knowledge. When the conversation turned on subjects that appealed to his head or his heart, his fine countenance became animated in a particular manner, and the vivacity of his physiognomy, by some mysterious charm, seemed even to give expression to his eyes, so long condemned to darkness; the tones of his voice had then something solemn in their sound. "I understand now," once said to me an able man, the first time he saw Huber, "how nations in their early stages have assigned to blindness the reputation of being divinely in spired."

Huber passed the latter years of his life at Lausanne, under the care of his daughter, Madame de Molin. From time to time he resumed his ancient pursuits. The discovery of stingless bees, in the neighbourhood of Tampico, by Captain Hall, excited his interest, and his joy was great when his friend, Professor Prévost, was able to send him, first a few individuals, and afterwards a whole hive of these insects. This was the last attention he paid to his old friends, to whom he had been indebted for fame, and what was more, for happiness. Naturalists who have followed his track, and enjoyed their sight, have found nothing of importance to add to the observations of one of their brethren who was deprived of it.

Huber preserved his faculties to the last, and was amiable and beloved to the last. At the age of eighty-one he thus wrote to one of his dearest friends, -"There are moments when it is impossible to keep one's arms folded, and it is then in unbracing them a little, that we can repeat to those whom we love, all the esteem, the affection, and the gratitude with which they inspire us.' Further on, he added, "I only say to you, that resignation and serenity are blessings that have not been denied to me." He wrote these lines on the twentieth of last December, and on the twentysecond he was no more, having calmly breathed his last in the arms of his daughter.

[From "The Foreign Quarterly Review, No. 21."]

ERASMUS RASK.

THIS eminent scholar and linguist, whose merits and literary labors have been occasionally commemorated in the former numbers of this Journal, was born at Brendekild, in the island of Fyen, in the year 1784. He studied at the University of Copenhagen, and early distinguished himself by his singular faculty for the acquisition of languages. In 1808 he was appointed sub-librarian to the University, and some years after Professor of Literary History. In 1811 he published (in Danish), his "Introduction to the Grammar of the Icelandic and other ancient Northern Languages," the materials for which were entirely derived from the immense mass of manuscript and printed works accumulated by his predecessors in the same field. This grammar appears to have given a fresh impulse to those studies even in Germany. The reputation which he acquired by it recommended him to the Arna-Magnæan Institution, by whom he was employed to edit the "Icelandic Lexicon," of Biorne Haldorsen, which had long remained in manuscript. To this work, published in 1814, a preface was prefixed by Bishop Müller, in which he passes a just eulogium on the talents and spirit of research of the youthful editor. About the same time, Rask, who had never been in Iceland, paid a visit to that country, where he remained from 1813 to 1815, during which he made himself fully master of the language, which he spoke with the fluency of a native, and familiarized himself with the literature, manners, and customs of the people. To the interest with which they inspired him was probably owing the establishment, early in 1816, of the Icelandic Library Society at Copenhagen, which was mainly effected by his exertions, and of which he was the first President. In October, 1816, he left Denmark on a literary expedition of several years' duration, for the double purpose of prosecuting his inquiries into the languages of the East, and of collecting manuscripts for the University Library of Copenhagen. The King of Denmark liberally provided him with the means. He proceeded first to Sweden, where he remained two years, making an excursion to Finland, during which he published (in Swedish), his " Anglo-Saxon Grammar in 1817; in the same year, at Copenhagen, (in Danish), "An Essay on the Origin of the Ancient Scandinavian or Icelandic Tongues," in which he traces the affinity of that most remarkable idiom to the other European languages, especially to the Latin and Greek. In 1818, he published, at Stockholm, a second edition, much improved, of his "Icelandic Grammar," translated by himself into Swedish; also in the same year the first complete editions of the prose or Snorro's Edda, and of the poetical or Sæmund's Edda, in the original text, in two volumes, in the latter of which he was assisted by his friend the

Reverend Mr. Afzelius, along with Swedish translations of both Eddas in two other volumes. From Stockholm he proceeded, in 1819, to St. Petersburgh, where he wrote an interesting paper in German "On the Languages and Literature of Norway, Iceland, Sweden, and Finland," which was published in the sixth number of the Vienna Jahrbucher. From Russia he proceeded through Tartary into Persia, and resided for some time at Tauris, Teheran, Persepolis, and Schiraz. It is an instance of his remarkable facility for acquiring languages, that in six weeks' time he was sufficiently master of Persian to be able to converse fluently with the natives. In 1820 he embarked at Abuschekr, in the Persian Gulf, for Bombay, during his residence in which he wrote (in English), "A Dissertation on the Authenticity and Antiquity of the Zend Language," addressed in the epistolary form to the Honorable Mountstuart Elphinstone, the governor, which was published in the third volume of the "Transactions of the Literary Society of Bombay." And it is probably this Dissertation, with corrections and additions, which we have understood is to appear in the ensuing volume of the " Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society." From India his next stage was to Ceylon in 1822, where also he wrote (in English), "A Dissertation on the best Method of expressing the Sounds of the Indian Languages in European Characters," which was printed in the "Transactions of the Literary and Agricultural Society of Colombo." Professor Rask arrived at Copenhagen in the beginning of May, 1823, after an absence of nearly seven years. He brought home with him a considerable collection of rare and curious Oriental manuscripts, ancient Persian, Zend, Pali, Cingalese, &c. &c., which now enrich the University and Royal Libraries of the Danish capital. Since his return home, Professor Rask has published the following works in his native language: "A Spanish Grammar (1824), an "Italian Grammar," a "Frisic Grammar A Treatise on the Ancient Egyptian Chronology " (1827), on the "Ancient Jewish Chronology previous to Moses" (1828), "Essay on Danish Orthography" (1828). He also edited a new edition of Schneider's "Danish Grammar for Englishmen "(1829), and superintended the English translation of his "Anglo-Saxon Grammar" (1830). See p. 104, ante.

(1825),

He had also been long engaged in the compilation of an Etymological Dictionary of the Danish language, in which he proposed to exhibit the important illustration which that and the collateral tongues of Europe may derive from a comparison with those of

See "Foreign Quarterly Review," Vol. III. p. 607. In the Second Number of "The Foreign Review" there is an account of his Grammars, and in the Tenth Number an article on Grimm's Teutonic Grammar and a work on the Danish Language, which we have reason to think were drawn up from his communications. In the Third Number of the same journal is a letter from him, signed DANUS, containing remarks on some papers in a MS. of the Archæologia. VOL. II. NO. I. 17+

Asia. We have not heard in what state of forwardness he has left it.

In a former number of this Journal, with reference to Professor Rask's labors in the field of Icelandic literature, we took occasion to pay a just tribute of respect and admiration to his extraordinary and multifarious acquirements. We think we cannot do better than now repeat a portion of what was so well said by our eloquent contributor.

"No man ever existed whose study of language has been directed to a wider circle, and assuredly none who has made the structure of language so much the object of attention. He is the consummate comparative anatomist of philology, not building up his theories from the scattered fragments, gathered, as it were, by accident, but drawing his deductions from the most profound and elaborate research; and by comparison, comprehension, and exhaustion, throwing daylight on all those curious inquiries which have, for the most part, been feebly and ignorantly dealt with by the majority of critics. Not that Rask's writings have hitherto enabled the world to form any accurate estimate of his extraordinary learning. To have written the best Icelandic or Anglo-Saxon Grammar, to have tracked through Hebrew or hieroglyphic records the chronology of Egyptian kings, to have edited Eddas or Sagas, and have carried off prizes for Essays on this or the other limited inquiry, this these are little, are nothing, compared to what he is capable of effecting. He is one of the very few men who can write on philology, having some sufficient acquaintance with the subject in its various bearings, who has seen with his own eyes, heard with his own ears, the tribes, the tongues, which cover the world's surface; who, if he has not girdled the whole earth, has at least explored those tracts in which so many nations were cradled; and who, travelling through all the East in the pursuit of philological knowledge, took with him a mind so trained, and exercised, and cultured, that nothing could be wasted upon it."

In private life the character of Rask was such as to command admiration and respect. His manners were mild and gentle, though retiring, and his morals unimpeachable. His mode of living was simple in the extreme.* The habits of study and application which he had acquired in early life were never thrown aside. In company he was diffident, and expressed himself with modesty; and when the subjest involved any thing relative to his own history, sentiments, or pursuits, with an unwillingness almost amounting to morbid sensibility, which seemed to grow upon him with years. His facility in the acquisition of languages was extraordinary; he appeared to gain a knowledge of them almost intuitively, and his mind seemed to recollect rather than to learn.

[* In the original these words follow, "his temperance was that of a Sybarite," in which there is apparently some error of the pen or the press, which we are unable to correct. Every one knows that the Sybarites were proverbially famous for their intemperance. EDD.]

In 1822 he was master of no less than twenty-five languages and dialects. His knowledge of English was extensive and correct; he wrote and spoke it with such fluency and accuracy that every Englishman to whom he was introduced asked him how long he had been in England, considering, but erroneously, that such an acquaintance with the language could be gained only by a residence in our island. In personal appearance Rask was thin and spare, but well made; his habits of temperance, regularity, and exercise, had contributed to give him all the appearance of a very healthy man, and warranted the belief that he would live many years. He was capable of enduring much fatigue, and the privation of necessary rest; changes of climate seemed to produce no impression upon his feelings or his constitution, and the scorching sun of India, and the frosts of Iceland were alike disregarded. But with all this apparent superiority to the weakness of our frame, he fell a victim to consumption, brought on, as it is believed, by those habits of intense application, and abstinence from proper nutriment, to which we have already alluded, and died at that period of life when the faculties of the human mind have little more than attained their maturity, leaving behind him a name which will not soon be forgotten.

[From "The Foreign Quarterly Review, No. 21."]

JEAN BAPTISTE SAY.

THE celebrated Political Economist, M. Say, was born in 1767 at Lyons, where his father was a respectable merchant, who afterwards removed to Paris about the commencement of the revolution. He himself was educated for commercial pursuits, and was in business for some time, but soon relinquished it, with a view to devote himself entirely to literary labors. He made his début as a poet in the "Almanach des Muses." Shortly after, he was engaged by Mirabeau as one of his collaborateurs in the "Courier de Province"; subsequently he became secretary to Clavière, the minister of finance. At the most stormy period of the revolution, when men's minds were entirely engaged with the events of the day, he attempted to recall the public attention to matters of pure speculation, and with that view established, in conjunction with Chamfort and Ginguené, a periodical work under the title of "Décade Philosophique, Littéraire, et Politique." He was very soon, however, deprived of his two associates by the revolutionary persecutions, but was joined by several others, such as Andrieux, Amaury-Duval, &c. with whom he continued this journal, which was undoubtedly one of the most remarkable literary productions of that period. The part which M. Say took in it began to draw