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Leben des Erasmus von Rotterdam. Mit einleitenden Betrachtungen über die analoge Entwickelung der Menschheit und des einzelnen Menschen. Von Adolf Müller. Eine gekrönte Preisschrift. Hamburg, bei Friedrich Perthes. 1828. pp. 394. 8vo.

On the third of August, 1826, the Philosophical faculty in the University of Berlin, offered a premium for the best work upon the life and literary influence of Erasmus. The prize was awarded in the following year to the work before us, composed by a young man of Berlin, of whom we know nothing, but the fact which he mentions in the preface, that he is totally blind. Of this volume, eighty-six pages are occupied with a treatise on the analogy between the progress of human society, and that of the individual man. That this disproportionate mass of abstract disquisition is wholly irrelevant and foreign from the subject, we have the author's own authority for saying. He apologizes, in his preface, for this large excrescence, confessing that it was appended to his book precipitately, and before he had allowed himself to see that it was inappropriate. It is clear, too, although he does not say it, that the discovery when made, was made too late, and that his parental fondness, as an author, forbade the sacrifice of his misplaced abstractions. With these Prolegomena we shall not meddle, but proceed to the life itself. Even on that, however, we shall offer little in the way of criticism, but rather avail ourselves of its assistance, in pre

senting a compendious view of the life of the great man, whom it commemorates. The biography of Erasmus is, by no means, a new subject; but must always be an interesting one. His merit as a writer and a scholar, in itself considered, would suffice to give him a high rank among modern literati, an elevation much enhanced by the part which he bore in the revival of letters, and the relations in which he stood to the Reformers and the Reformation. In the dif ferent accounts of his life and character which have been given, there is some discrepancy, confusion, and obscurity. Erasmus was too deeply involved in the absorbing and momentous controversies which disturbed his times, to maintain the pacific neutrality at which he aimed. He was not without enemies, nor without imprudent friends. His picture has, therefore, been often overdrawn. Malice has exaggerated all his faults; partiality has softened all his foibles, and both at the expense of historical and moral truth. It is gratifying, therefore, to find the subject treated dispassionately and impartially, by one who has given much attention to the subject, and in a work which comes recommended by the preference and sanction of a learned faculty in one of the first Universities of Europe. It was not to be expected that any thing essential or important could be added to the facts already known; nor is such the case in relation to this work. But that doubtful questions should be solved, contradictions reconciled, falsehoods detected, obscurities elucidated, and the truth exhibited at equal distance from the opposite extremes of favour and dispraise, were all desiderata. How far they are accomplished in the work before us, we shall not pretend to say, but shall make use of what it has accomplished, to exhibit an impartial, though concise, account of the subject to our readers. In so doing, we shall state the leading facts chronologically, without unnecessary disquisition, or minute and scrupulous detail.

Erasmus was the illegitimate son of one Gerard, a young man of respectable connexions at Gouda, a considerable village near to Rotterdam-and of Margaret, the daughter of a neighbouring physician. The intended marriage of his parents was opposed with great violence by Gerard's relations, who used every method to induce him to become a monk. At first, however, they succeeded only in driving him from home by their opposition to his wishes. To avoid their im portunities, he betook himself to Italy, where he was residing when his celebrated son was born at Rotterdam on the 28th of October, 1467. After this event, the unfortunate mother seems to have experienced more favourable treatment from the family, as we find her afterwards engaged in bringing up the infant, in amicable union with the mother of Gerard. To Gerard, meantime, information was conveyed, that his mistress was no more; in consequence of which intelligence, he instantly took orders. Returning, however, on a visit to his friends, he found to his astonishment, that he had been deceived; but refused to abjure or violate his vow. He thenceforward devoted his attention to the child, whom he called after himself, Gerard. This title his son afterwards exchanged for Desiderius Erasmus, Latin and Greek words, equivalent in meaning to his Dutch baptismal name.

From the circumstances which attended this illicit amour, and especially the efforts made to drive Gerard into a convent, the manner in which it was finally accomplished, and the consequent prevention of his marriage with the mother of Erasmus, there naturally resulted in the minds of both, a deep and embittered hatred to monastic institutions. This feeling would, of course, insinuate itself into the lessons which they taught their child; and to this source our author very plausibly attributes the invincible dislike to monks and monasteries, which Erasmus manifested from a boy, and which was abundantly confirmed and strengthened, by his own personal experience.

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Bayle and other writers have insisted warmly that Erasmus must have given, and actually did the clearest tokens of superior genius. his fifth year, admitted a singing-boy into the choir of the Cathedral church at Utrecht. Why such a situation should have been selected for a child which exhibited so early, indications of extraordinary aptitude for learning, is a point which these writers have left involved in mystery. For our own part, we incline to think with the author of the work before us, that the best explanation of the fact is furnished by the tradition still prevalent in Holland, that so far from exhibiting a precocity of intellect, the infant Erasmus was singularly stupid and unpromising. Even to this day, the parents of dull children comfort themselves with the recollection, that the great man of Rotterdam was at first appa. rently a dunce. It is probable, therefore, that the contrary hypothesis has rather been deduced by a fanciful analogy, from subsequent events, than founded upon fact.

But whatever may have been the child's capacity for other studies, he seems, at least, to have been destitute of musical abilities. After four years of unprofitable residence at Utrecht, in the study of an art, for which, as he says himself, he was not born, he was removed to the celebrated school at Deventer, where his mother also took up her abode, in order to be with him. This institution was established in the fourteenth century, and at the time of which we speak, was among the best existing, though involved in a portion of the darkness which still brooded over Europe. It was in the hands of a number of ecclesiastics, who lived together in society, though they were bound by no vow, and formed no regular religious house. The principal was Alexander Hegius, and among the teachers was John Sintheim, memorable for his efforts to import into his native country the reviving zeal for letters, which had already been enkindled in Italy. The school was also visited occa

sionally by Agricola, the most learned German of his time, and one whose whole soul was devoted to the propagation of learning and the sciences among his countrymen. These two distinguished men soon discovered the abilities of young Erasmus. The attention of Agricola was first excited by a Latin theme presented by the lad, when he was on a visit to the school; on which occasion he is said to have predicted, with great confidence, his future greatness; and our author seems inclined to think, that the impression which this prophecy originally made, and the recollection of it afterwards, largely contributed to its accomplishment. For notwithstanding Erasmus's frequent disavowals of all ambition and love of praise, it is certain that in this, and many other instances, he shewed himself both pleased and proud laudari a laudato viro. During the two years which he spent at Deventer, he completed the circle of scholastic philosophy, Logic, Physics, Metaphysics, and Ethics, and committed to memory the whole of Horace and of Terence. The latter author was his favourite, and he has somewhere said, that the elegance and purity of the Latin language can in no way be better learned than by perusing Terence.

He was thirteen years of age when the plague deprived him of his mother; and as the whole household was infected, he returned to Gouda. There, he soon after lost his father, who is said to have died of grief, and with his death began the trials of Erasmus. The estate which Gerard left, though moderate, was quite sufficient for his son's support. Unluckily, however, he committed it to men who shamefully abused the trust. As they were also the guardians of the heir, they proposed that he should go into a convent. This he peremtorily declined, and insisted upon being sent to complete his education at some university. These conflicting schemes resulted in a constant struggle, similar to that maintained by Gerard with his relations. Every art was made use of to subdue the invincible aversion of Erasmus

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