Biographical and Literary Anecdotes of Haller; from Coxe's Travels in Switzerland, vol. ii.

ERNE has produced few men highly eminent in literature; but has established her glory in being the birth-place of the celebrated Haller.

Albert Haller, the youngest of five brothers, was born on the 16th of October 1708. His father, Emanuel Haller, a citizen of Berne, practifed the law as an advocate with great fuccefs; and in 1713 removed from the capital to Baden, where he was appointed fecretary of that bailliage.

Although many accounts are ufually related concerning the early genius of diftinguished perfons, which do not always deferve implicit credit; yet the premature abilities and application of Haller are inconteftably proved. When he had scarcely attained his fifth year, he was accustomed to write the new words, which he recollected to have heard in the course of the day. His progrefs in the languages was fo rapid, that in his tenth year he could tranflate from the Greek, and compofed for his own private ufe a Chaldaic grammar, a Greek and Hebrew lexicon. His paffion for letters was alfo fo general and ardent, that, VOL. XXXII.

about the fame period, he abridged from Bayle and Moreri an historical dictionary, comprifing above two thousand lives, and diftinguished himself by a fatire in Latin verse againft his preceptor Abraham Baillodz, a perfon of confiderable learning, but of a capricious and morofe difpofition.

Such unwearied application, and fuch astonishing progrefs, in a youth of his years, ought to have enfured the approbation and encouragement of his family. On the contrary, his father, who had deftined him to the law, reproved his growing tafte for polite literature, was particularly offended at his inclination for poetry, as likely to draw him from the feverer occupations, and objected to the variety of his purfuits as too defultory and fuperficial. He did not confider, that, during childhood, the principal requifite of education is to infufe a tafte for application in general; and, that when the base of education is rendered as broad as poffible, it may always, like a pyramid, be reduced to a point. But neither his father's repeated exhortations, nor his preceptor's fevere admonitions, could oblige the youth, to confine his ftudies to one object, or check his infatiable thirst for general information.

In this manner he was educated B until

until 1721, when, on his father's death, he was removed to the public school at Berne. He was placed in a clafs far above his age; and ufaally wrote in Greek the exercife, which he was expected to compofe in the Latin tongue.

In 1723, he obtained permiffion to accompany a young friend to Bienne, in order to be inftructed in philofophy by the father of his companion, who was a celebrated phyfician. But his new preceptor being a bigot to the Cartefian fchool, Haller foon rejected with difdain that logic and philofophy, which tended to cramp his genius rather than extend his knowledge; and continued to cultivate hiftory, poetry, and polite literature, but with as little order and method as might be expected from his years.

Haller, during his refidence at Bienne, began a custom, which he afterwards followed through life, that of writing his opinion of the books which he perufed, and making large extracts from them. His genius being alfo awakened by the romantic fcenery of the country to poetical enthufiam, he compofed various pieces in the epic, dramatic, and lyric ftyles. He was at this time fo entirely abforbed in this favourite ftudy, that, on a fire breaking out in the houfe in which he refided, he rushed into his apartment, and refcued his poetry from the frames, leaving his other papers, with little regret, to deftruction. Afterwards, when a more mature age had ripened his judgment, he was frequently heard to fay, that he had preferved from the flames thofe compofitions which he then thought the fineft productions of human genius, in order at a future +

period to confign them to deftraction as unworthy of his pen.

In this period of life, Haller compares himself to a wild plant, which is left to grow without pruning; and this very circumftance was probably the principal caufe of his future proficiency, and the foundation of that univerfal knowledge, to which he afterwards attained.

He had been originally intended for the law: but his active mind could not fubmit to follow a profeffion which would limit his ingtiries; which entirely depended on precedent and authority; and which, to ufe his own quotation from Horace, in a letter to his friend Bonnet, obliged him,

Jurare in verba magiftri.

And although he could not fubmit to the fhackles of that narrow philofophy, fo ftrongly recommended and enforced by his new preceptor, yet he appears to have been principally determined by his advice to dedicate himself to phyfic; the ftudy of which comprehends fuch a variety of literary purfuits, as feemed congenial to the zeal and activity of his capacious mind. He had no fooner formed this refolution, than he adopted a more regu lar and uniform plan, than he had hitherto been able to purfue. For this purpofe he removed, towards the end of 1723, to the univerfity of Tubingen, where he profecuted his ftudies with that unwearied ap plication, which never forfook him, under the profeffors Elias Camerarius and Du Vernoy. From Camerarius he learned thofe found principles of rational philofophy, which teach us firit to doubt, and afterwards to believe; and which

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are as far removed from credulity on one hand, as from fcepticism on the other. From the lectures of Du Vernoy he imbibed his first tafte for botany, and made fo rapid a progrefs in the ftudy of anatomy, that his mafter predicted, from feveral differtations, his future proficiency in that line. Notwithftanding, however, his ftrong and invariable attachment to thefe two branches of natural history, he reprefents himself as ftudying invitá minerva, against nature; anatomy though he could not fupport bad fmells, and botany though he was extremely fhort-fighted. At Tubingen he alfo diftinguished his knowledge in mineralogy, by refuting the error of Tournefort, in afcribing to foffils a vegetating power.

During his continuance in that univerfity, he gave an inftance of his early controul over his paffions; a difficult conqueft for a young man of ftrong feelings and lively imagination. A fingle deviation into excefs, into which he had been hurried by the example of fome of his fellow-pupils, fo greatly affected a perfon like him, no lefs enamoured of virtue, than fufceptible of ingenuous fhame, that he inftantly formed a refolution to abstain from wine; and adopted a ftrictness of morals, which renders highly probable the affertion of his French encomiast, the Marquis de Condorcet, that he was defcended from a family, in which piety might be faid to be hereditary.

In 1725, Haller repaired to Leyden, to which place he was drawn by the great reputation of Boerhaave. Here he found a more ample field for a difplay of his abilities, and the improvement of his mind.

He became the favourite fcholar of Boerhaave, by whofe example and encouragement he ftrengthened his growing inclination for botany. He noted down his master's lectures on the Inftitutes of Medicine with fuch precifion, as afterwards gave birth to one of his moft ufeful publications. He continued his anatomical ftudies under Albinus, juft then rifing into fame, and the venerable Ruych, who fo highly improved the art of injecting anatomical preparations.

The precarious ftate of his health, probably occafioned, or at leaft increafed, by his intenfe application, induced him to accompany two of his countrymen through part of Germany. On his return, in 1726, he received his doctor's degree, though only in the nineteenth year of his age; and published on that occafion his inaugt al differtation de Dučtu falivali Cofchrviziano.

In 1727 he visited England, was favourably received by Chefelden, Douglas, and Sir Hans Sloane; and improved his knowledge of medicine and furgery under the aufpices of those celebrated men, and by diligently attending the hofpitals.

At Paris, whither he next directed his course, he ftudied botany under Geoffroy and Juffieu; anatomy under Le Dran and Winflow, a celebrated furgeon. Winflow was indeed his favourite master, to whom he particularly attached himself; whom he propofed to his difciples as the beft model for their imitation, as an anatomift who, fhackled by no fyflem, defcribed fimply and faithfully what he himself observed in his diffections.

Haller had proposed to continue his travels to Italy, that country where medicinal knowledge first

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revived