adopted, for their great utility, in other universities. Among these we may notice his "Rituum Romanorum tabulæ," "Orbis antiqui, monumentis suis illustrati, primæ lineæ ;" "Artis diplomaticæ primæ lineæ;" "Literarum omnis ævi fata," &c.

Among the dissertations which the duties of his professorship required, were four curious ones, containing a historical view of the attempts made in all ages to unite seas and rivers by means of canals. These were published collectively in 1775, under the title of "Jungendorum marium fluminumque omnis ævi molimina." Another of his printed dissertations, printed in 1773, had for its subject "De Latinæ linguæ medii ævi mira barbarie." Others appeared in the "Miscellanea Argentoratensia," which he conducted from 1770 to 1773, particularly a treatise on the value of money among the ancient Romans, in which he entered into a rigorous examination of Eisenschmid's calculations of the coins, weights, and measures of antiquity. During a visit to his brother in the mountains of Lorrain, he amused himself with studying the patois of the natives, and in an "Essai sur le Patois Lorrain," &c. 1775, 12mo, showed its derivation from the language of the ancient Romans, and its relation to the other patois, and to the old French.

In 1778 he obtained a release from the labours of his father's school, by being appointed professor extraordinary in the university, with a salary which indemnified him for the loss of his other place; and in March 1782, he suc+ ceeded to the chair of logic and metaphysics, which office he retained as long as the old university existed. To his publications he added between these years, an edition of "Vibius Sequester de fluminibus, fontibus," &c. 1778, 8vo; an edition of Ovid's "Tristia;" "Glossarium Germanicum medii ævi, potissimum dialecti Suevica," 1781-1784, 2 vols, fol: from the papers of professor Sherz, with illustrations and several dissertations on subjects of German antiquity; and å splendid and correct edition of Horace, 1788, 4to. In 1780 he first printed his Strasburgh almanack, and an almanack of the department of the Lower Rhine. Soon after the French republicans had begun their disorganizing work, Oberlin suffered in the calamities inflicted upon his native city, which he bore with resignation. In his latter days, life passed in more tranquillity, and during some visits he made to Paris, he was received as his great merit

deserved. He died at Strasburgh, Oct. 10, 1806, in his seventy-second year.

He was a man of great simplicity of character, cheerful, benevolent, and virtuous. His whole life was a course of unintermitted occupation, which he rendered easy to himself by an exact order in the minutest concerns, and the regular distribution of time and business. He was never opulent, but by a prudent economy was enabled to live in a decent competence. Literary honours were justly bestowed on him. He was a corresponding member of the French academy of inscriptions and belles lettres, and of the academies of Rouen and Cortona, the Societies of Antiquaries of London and Cassel, and of the National Institute, &c.

To the works already mentioned, we may add his excellent editions of "Tacitus" and " Cæsar's Commentaries," and his "Annals of the Life of John Guttemberg, the inventor of printing," in which he endeavoured to ob viate all the objections that had been brought against Schoepflin's assertion that Guttemberg was the first who em ployed moveable types. '

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Ulric

OBRECHT (ULRIC), a learned German, was descended from a family, which came originally from Schlestadt, and had been raised to nobility in the person of his great-grandfather by the emperor Rodolphus II. in 1604. was born, July 23, 1646, at Strasburg, where he had the first part of his education, and then proceeded to study the sciences at Montbelliard and Altorf. He inherited both the inclination and taste of his ancestors, who were all distinguished by the posts they held, either in the university, or in the senate of Strasburg. The study of the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew tongues was almost the first amusement of his infancy; and he learned, with equal facility, French, Spanish, and Italian. At fifteen, he was so good a rhetorician, that he composed and pronounced a Latin speech in public, with universal applause. The method prescribed by his preceptors was, to suffer him to read only the ancient authors, and to derive the principles nies used by him on the creation of John Crusius, poet-laureat, at Strásburgh. Here, also, our count was a professor of law in 1616.

It is perhaps Thomas Obrecht, whose instrument of creation as count Palatine may be seen in Selden's "Titles of Honour;" where there is a curious extract of the forms and ceremo

From his Life by Winckler in the Athenæum, vol. II.-Dict. Hist.-Saxii Onomast. vol. VIII.

of eloquence from the purest sources, Demosthenes, Cicero, Quintilian, Longinus, &c. He also pursued the same plan, in his course of philosophy; Plato, Aristotle, and Pythagoras, being principally recommended to him. His general knowledge at length settled in jurisprudence and history: in both which he excelled, and filled the chairs of both in the university with great distinction, being admired, not more for the great extent of his knowledge, than for his perspicuity in communicating it. He gave an account of all ages as if he had lived in them; and of all laws as if he had been the maker of them. With all this, he spoke of such subjects as he knew best, like a man who sought rather to be informed than to decide. As soon as he had taken his licentiate's degree, he resolved to travel for farther improvement. In this view, he went first to Vienna in Austria, with Mr. Kellerman, the Muscovite ambassador, and visited the libraries and learned men wherever he came. He commenced author at nineteen, when he published a kind of "Commentary upon Scipio's Dream," and "A Dissertation upon the Principles of Civil and Political Prudence."

At his return from Italy, he married at Strasburg the daughter of Boecler, the famous professor of eloquence and history, whom he succeeded afterwards in that station; and he also collected the most finished pieces of his fatherin-law. Among others, he published "Animadversiones in Dissertationem de ratione status in imperio," &c. a concise piece of criticism upon a book, which had made a great noise in Germany, under the fictitious name of Hyppolitus of Pierre; where the author had represented the power of the house of Austria as dangerous, and even fatal, to the liberties of the empire. This family, therefore, acknowledged their obligations to Obrecht, for vindicating them from so injurious a suspicion; and omitted nothing which might engage him in their interest.

In the mean time, his growing reputation increased the number of his scholars from all parts of Germany, to whom he read lectures in law and history. This employment left him few spare moments to his own studies; and he never thought of offering anything to the public but from necessity, or in compliance with the intreaties of his friends. Having made great proficiency in the study of medals, there was presented to him a very curious one of Domitian, upon the reverse of which appeared a goddess, which he

conjectured to be the figure of Isis; and on this occasion he published his "Conjectures," in 1675, with the title of "Epistola de Nummo Domitiani Isiaco." After this, he turned his thoughts to the "Augustan History," and collected and arranged all its writers in a new edition, accompanied with important notes: accordingly, the piece appeared in print, under the title of "Prodromus rerum Alsaticarum," in 1680. It was, indeed, only an introduction to a larger work which he was meditating upon Alsace, in order to discover the origin, limits, rights, customs, wars, revolutions, &c. of that country; but the multiplicity of his employments obliged him to lay this aside. He printed, however, some detached treatises, as that upon the right of bearing the standard of the empire, "De Vexillo Imperii;" to which honour the republic of Strasburg claimed an equal share with the dukes of Wirtemberg, who were in possession of it. He published also another piece, concerning the treaties which the states and princes of the empire make in their own names, "De Imperii Germanici ejusque Statuum fœderibus:" and, lastly, one more upon the rights of war, and the guarantees of peace, "De jure belli, et sponsoribus pacis."

Hitherto Obrecht had professed the Protestant religion; but the king of France having made himself master of Strasburg, he was induced, by the persuasions of the Jesuits, who were established at Strasburg by Lewis XIV. to abjure his religion in 1648, at Paris. Upon his return to Strasburg, he resumed his profession in the law; and it was about this time that he wrote the notes which we see in some editions of Grotius, "De jure belli ac pacis." In 1685, the king of France nominated him to preside, in his majesty's name, in the senate of Strasburg, with the title of prætor-royal, in imitation of the old Romans; and from that time Obrecht applied himself entirely to public affairs. The judges of Strasburg, according to the princi ples of the reformed religion, were empowered to dissolve marriages in case of adultery, and to enable the injured party to marry again. In opposition to this custom, Obrecht translated, into the German tongue, St. Austin's book of adulterous marriages; and obtained from the king a prohibition, upon pain of death, either to tolerate or solemnize the marriage, for the future, of any persons that were separated or divorced for adultery. This edict was made in 1687; and, in 1688, Obrecht translated into High

Dutch the treatise of Father Dez Primier, rector of the Jesuits at Strasburg, entitled "The Re-union of the Protestants of the Church of Strasburg to the Catholic Church."

Although, by the rights of his prætorship, every thing done in the senate must necessarily pass through his hands, yet he was so expeditions, and so good a manager of time, that there was some left for his studies, which served to him as a relaxation from public business. During these intervals he published an edition of "Dictys Cretensis," with notes, in 1691. He afterwards intended to give a more correct edition of "Quintilian," by the help of an excellent manuscript which he had recovered. He finished it, and had prepared the notes for the press, which were afterwards added to Burmann's valuable edition of 1720, 2 vols. 4to. In 1698, Obrecht was deputed to the court of France, to manage the interests of the city of Strasburg, and the king appointed him in 1700 his commissary and envoy to Francfort, upon affairs relating to the succession of the duchess of Orleans. Here also he undertook a most arduous task, respecting the eventual succession of the duke of Anjou to the crown of Spain; and made it his business to collect all the pieces that had been written, either by civilians or historians, upon the subject of establishing or regulating the rights of succession to that vast monarchy all with a design to prove that the pretensions of the house of Austria were not well founded. The title of his work was "Excerptorum historicorum et juridicorum de natura successionis in Monarchiam Hispaniæ, mense Dec. 1700," in 4to. Our author likewise drew up the plan of a particular treatise upon the succession to the duchy of Milan: the impression of which waited only for the publication of the emperor's manifesto. His last publication was "A Translation of the life of Pythagoras," from the Greek of Jamblichus. The multiplicity of these Jabours at length impaired his health, and after he had passed sentence upon the rights of the duchess of Orleans, he ordered himself to be conveyed to Strasburgh, where he died Aug. 6, 1701.

- Among his other publications, not hitherto mentioned, were, "Dissertatio de abdicatione Caroli V. imperatoris;' "De electione Imperatoris Romana Germanici;" "De unitate reipublicæ in sacro Romano imperio;" "De Clenodiis S. Rom. Imperii ;" "De legibus agrariis Pop. Ro