his feet, and whom he used to feed with his own hand. This man was continually uttering incoherent expreffions, which Tycho obferved and noted down, from a perfuafion that the mind, in a ftate of emotion, was capable of predicting future events; and he even believed, if any inhabitant of the island was taken ill, that this madman could predict whether he fhould live or die. He maintained, that the cabala and magic, if

they did not act to the offence of God or man, could lay open many abftrufe things by figures, images, and marks.

"But to turn from the unfavour able to the brighter parts of his character, we may affent to the truth of the following eulogium given by his panegyrift; that to him his ftudies were life; meditation his delight; fcience riches; virtue nobility; and religion his constant direction *.”

HARLES William Scheele, the fon of a tradefiman, was born at Stralfund, in December 1742. He received the earlieft rudiments of education at a private fchool, and afterwards in the feminary of that town. Having at a very early age expreffed a ftrong defire to follow the profeffion of an apothecary, he was bound apprentice to Mr. Bauch, of Gotheborg, with whom he continued till 1765. There he laid the foundation of his chymical knowlege. He was remarkably quiet and ferious, extremely attentive to the medical and chymical preparations, and ufed afterwards to repeat the procefs in his own apartments. He feems to have been firft excited to the ftudy of chymiftry, by the perufal of Neuman's chymiftry, recommended by Grunberg, an apprentice in the fame thop. He alfo met with Lemerie and Stahl's works, and Kenckell's Laboratory, which feems to have been his favourite book.

"In 1765, he departed from

Gotheborg, and ferved different apothecaries; firft, Karlftroem, of Malmoe; fecondly, Scharenberg, of Stockholm; and, in 1773, obtained an appointment with Loock of Upfala.

"At Upfala he increafed his know, ledge by forming an acquaintance with the learned men of the univerfity, particularly the ftrictest friendship with profeffor Bergman, and by having free accefs to the public laboratory,

"In 1775, he was appointed by the medical college apothecary at Kioping, where he finifhed his days.

"The reader will find, in Wells's Chemifche Annalen for 1787, a lift of the works and principal difcoveries of Scheele; alfo in the Gentleman's Magazine for April, 1789.

"His character as a chymift, is fufficiently known by his great and numerous difcoveries in that fcience.

"Scheele had ftruggled during his whole life againft narrow circum ftances;

ftances; and when appointed apothecary of Kioping, he involved himfelf in debt in order to purchase the stock which had belonged to his pred ceffor. He had been for fome time engaged to marry his predeceffor's widow; but waited until he had difcharged his debts, and had collected a moderate provinon for her in cafe of his death. He had fcarcely effected his purpose, and received the offer of an annuity of 300l. per annum, if. he would fettle in England, which would have afforded him more leifure, and a fufficient income to purfue his chymical difcoveries, when his health declined. His diforder began with an inflammation in his eyes, arifing probably from the intenfe zeal with which he carried on his chymical experiments, and ended in a total debility, which hurried him to the grave on the 21ft day of May, 1786, in the fifty-fifth year of his age. Two days before his death, he was married to the perfon to whom he had been fo long betrothed, and left her the little money he had been able to fave.

"The union of virtue and knowledge is doubly meritorious; and it is a pleafing fatisfaction to add, that the morals of Scheele were ftrict, and his conduct as irreproachable as his morals in all feafons of life.

"Scheele had neither time nor inclination to form common acquaintances; for moft of the hours which he could fpare from his fhop and the dutics of his office, he employed in his laboratory and library; but he was greatly attached to a few congenial friends, and fond of converfing with them on subjects of chymistry. He was to them extremely open, and

of a communicative difpofition, never in the leaft defirous of withholding his information, or concealing his discoveries.

"Before he adopted any opinion, he was particularly cautious; but when he had once formed it, he was de ifive, and defended it with firmnefs, yet without heat. He was, how ever, always open to conviction; and more than once retrated his opinion, whenever he was convinced by argument or experiment.

"Scheele understood no other languages but the Latin, German, and Swedish; fo that he had not the advantage of being benefited by the early intelligence of difcoveries made by foreigners, and was forced to wait until the information was conveyed to him in the flow and uncertain channel of tranflation. Even his acquaintance with the Swedish was not fufficient to write the treatifes he fent to the Swedish academy of fciences in that tongue, but he was accustomed to compofe them in German, from whence they were tranflated into Swedish.

"When we confider the number and accuracy of Scheele's experiments, we fhould naturally prefume that his chymical apparatus was very complete, and his laboratory large. On the contrary, his laboratory was extremely confined, and his apparatus extremely inconvenient, owing, probably, to the fcantinefs of his circumftances.

"If he made fuch important and accurate difcoveries with a fcanty and inconvenient apparatus, and without any affiftance, what would he have done, if his circumftances: and his fituation had been different?"

RNEST John Biron was de

"E fcended from a family of

mean extraction. His grandfather, whofe name was Buren, or Bieren, was head groom to James the Third, duke of Courland, and obtained from his master the prefent of a fmall eftate in land. His fon accompanied prince Alexander, youngeft fon of the duke of Courland, in a campaign into Hungary against the Turks, in quality of groom of his horfe, and with the rank of lieutenant. Prince Alexander being killed before Buda, in 1686, Biron returned into Courland, and was appointed mafter huntsman to the duke.

"Erneft John, his fecond fon, was born in 1687, received the early part of this education in Courland, and was fent to the univerfity of Konigsbergh in Pruffia, where he continued until fome youthful imprudences compelled him to retire.

"In 1714, he made his appearance at St. Petersburgh, and folicited the place of page to the princefs Charlotte, wife of the tzarovitch Alexey; but being contemptuously rejected as a perfon of mean extraction, retired to Mittau, and chanced to ingratiate himself with Count Befuchef, mafter of the houshold to Anne, widow of Frederic William duke of Courland, who refided at Mittau. Having through his means obtained the office of gentleman of the chamber, and being of a handsome figure and polite addrefs, he foon gained the good-will of the dutchefs, and became her chief fa

I

vourite. The firft ufe which he made of his favour, was to obtain the difgrace and removal of his benefactor Beftuchef. He foon gained fuch an entire afcendency over the affections of his mistress, that his will became her's, and the upstart favourite offended by his arrogance the whole body of the nobility of Courland.

"Having efpoufed Mademoiselle de Trenden, a lady of noble family, and maid of honour to the dutchefs, he endeavoured, by means of that alliance, and favour of his mistress, to be admitted into the body of the nobles; but his folicitations were rejected with great contempt.

"His afcendency over the duchefs, his fpirit of intrigue, and his extreme arrogance,were fo notorious, that when Anne was declared fovereign of Ruffia, one of the articles propofed to her by the council of state at Mofcow, expressly ftipulated, that the fhould not bring Biron into Ruffia. She confented, but inftantly broke her word; for fhe had scarcely arrived at Moscow, before he made his appearance at her court.

"By his fecret advice, the empress formed a strong party among the Ruffian nobility, gained the guards, and brought about the revolution, which reftored to the crown defpotic authority.

"But when the whole plan was ripe for execution, Anne hesitated, and was alarmed, till Biron took her by the hand, and led her to the door of the apartment in which the council of ftate,fenate and principal nobility were aflembled; and fhe was declared abfolute fovereign. 66 With

"Within the space of a few months, Biron was appointed gentleman of the bed - chamber, knight of the order of St. Andrew, and lord high chamberlain, and, as Manstein fays, was omnipotent in the govern ment; for, during the whole reign of Anne, and fome weeks after her death, he ruled with defpotic fway the vaft empire of Ruffia.

"On the death of Ferdinand Ketler, in 1737, the emprefs difpatched general Bismarck, governor of Riga, to Mittau, at the head of a confiderable army. The nobles having af fembled in the cathedral, Bismarck furrounded the church with troops, and compelled them elect for their fovereign the fame Biron whom they had refused to admit into their corps. But his new dignity did not prevent him from keeping his poft of high chamberlain, and his wife that of first lady of the bedchamber.

"Biron governed Courland with the fame defpotic fpirit with which he governed Ruffia; and the nobles, who had been accustomed to great freedom of debate in their diets, were fuddenly restrained. Thofe who ventured to oppose his will, or to fpeak with their ufual freedom, were privately feized by perfons in maiks, forced into kibitkas, and conveyed to Siberia.

"Of a violent and fanguinary temper, Biron ruled Ruffia with the knout in his hand, and compelled his imperial mistress, who was naturally of a mild and merciful difpofition, to order acts of the most atrocious cruelty, though the oftentimes interceded, but in vain, with tears in her eyes, for the unhappy victims of his fufpicion and vengeance.

"The cruelties exercifed upon the most illuftrious perfons of the country almoft exceed belief; and Manftein conjectures, that " during

the ten years in which Biron's power continued, above 20,000 perfons were fent to Siberia, of whom fearcely 5,000 were ever more heard of." "The violence of his temper would break forth in a manner moft difrefpectful to the emprefs. Once in particular, while the duke of Bevern had an audience, Biron burst into the apartment without ceremony, theatening, with the moft horrid imprecations, that he would no longer be vexed and tormented by her fervants, but would retire into Courland. Having uttered thefe words, he quitted the room, and shut the door with great violence. The emprefs, in the highest confternation, lifted up her hands to heaven, then clafped them together, and being almoft ready to faint, fhe opened the window for fresh air. While the continued in this agitation, the dutchefs of Courland, accompanied with her children, entered the room, kneeled down, and entreated the emprefs to forget and forgive the paffionate behaviour of her husband. Anne in this, as in every other inftance, relented, and bore with his infolence.

"His influence over his imperial miftrefs was fuch, that during the fitting of the cabinet council, fhe used frequently to repair to an adjoining room, in which her favourite remained, to receive his advice, or rather his orders. She had no table of her own, but ufed to dine with his family.

"He knew only two languages, the German, and his native jargon fpo ken in Courland; fo that he governed the extenfive empire of Ruffia, without even understanding its language. He even piqued himself on his ignorance of that tongue, having once faid in the prefence of the empress Anne, that he would not learn the Ruflian, because he

could

could not bear to read before her majefty all the reports and memorials which were daily tranfmitted to him.

"Biron was undoubtedly a man of very great capacity; during his whole adminiftration, the external fplendour of the Ruffian empire, and its internal tranquillity, announced the wifdom of his meafures; and he fhewed his judgment in employing fuch a statesman as Ofterman, and fuch a general as Munich.

"He was a fincere friend and an implacable enemy; and it was juftly faid of him, that he seldom forgot a benefit, and always remembered an injury.

"He amaffed an enormous fortune in money and jewels; and on public occafions his magnificence far exceeded the magnificence of the emprefs.

"He had fo long directed the affairs of a great empire, that he could not brook retiring into Courland. He accordingly prevailed upon the emprefs, on her death-bed, to appoint her great nephew prince Ivan, her fucceffor, and himself regent, until the prince had attained the age of feventeen; and he managed this whole tranfaction which fo much art, that he feemed only to accept the regency at the earneft requeft and recommendation of Munich, the chancellor Osterman, and the principal Ruffian nobility, as it were for the good of the empire, and not to fatisfy his own ambition. "Having thus fecured the regency, to the exclufion of Anne, the mother of the young emperor, the first act of his power in that capacity, was to obtain for himself a clear revenue of 500,000 roubles per annum, and the title of Imperial Highnefs.

"But the power which he had thus acquired by intrigue, he at empted to fecure by repeated acts

6

of arrogance, perfecution, and crt. elty. Fiquets were placed in the ftreets to prevent commotions. The numerous fpies which he entertained brought him vague accounts of contemptuous expreffions, and illformed plots. Such numbers were arrefted, that fcarcely a day passed in which perfons fufpected were not imprisoned and tortured in order to force confeflion. But instead of difarming the envy and jealoufy of the natives, who were difaffected at being governed by a foreigner, he increafed his own unpopularity by the haughtinefs of his demeanour, and treated even the parents of his fovereign with the most extreme brutality.

"It was natural that prince Anthony Ulric and the princefs Anne, the father and mother of the infant emperor, fhould be difaffected at being fet afide, and a foreigner preferred to the regency; and Anthony Ulric, who was a prince of great fpirit, even expreffed his difapprobation in the strongest terms to the regent himfelf.

"The duke of Courland, fefpecting that the prince was forming cabals against his government, called on him early one morning unexpectedly, and without being announced; "your highness," he faid, "does not deal fairly with me; for you promifed to inform me if any difaffected perfons caballed against me, and you now know what intrigues are car. rying on against me." " I know not," replied the prince," that any thing is now in agitation which will be detrimental to the emperor and the country." "I will take care," returned Biron, "to place this empire in fuch a fituation, as no other perfon is capable of doing; for I am neither deficient in knowledge or in power." "The nobles muft aflift you," said the

prince,