and on the other the date of the happy reformation of the Ruffian Empire. This prefent the Emprefs accompanied with a letter, written with her own hand, containing these remarkable words :-" To "M. ZIMMERMAN, Counsellor of State, "and Phyfician to his Britannic Majefty, " to thank him for the excellent Precepts "he has given to Mankind in his Treatife 66 upon SOLITUDE."

OF

ZIMMERMAN.

JOHN GEORGE ZIMMERMAN, the Author of the following Treatise on Solitude, which we now present to the public in a more correct and fplendid form, was born, on the eighth day of December, 1728, at Brugg, a small town fituated on the borders of the river Aar, near the caftles of Windich and Altemberg, in the canton of Berne, about seventeen miles to the north-weft of the city of Zurich, in Swifferland.

His father, John Zimmerman, whose ancestors had, for a series of years, defervedly obtained the applause and admiration of their fellow citizens, by their perfonal merits, and patriotic exertions for the interefts of the Republic, was eminently distinguished as an able and a 6 eloquent

eloquent member of the provincial council. His mother, who was equally respected and beloved for her good fenfe, easy manners, and modeft virtues, was the daughter of the celebrated Pache, who refided at a beautiful villa near Morges, in the fame canton, and whose extraordinary learning and great abilities had contributed to advance him to a feat in the parliament of Paris.

The father of Zimmerman, anxious for the future eminence of his fon as a fcholar, undertook the arduous task of fuperintending his education, and, by the affiftance of the ableft preceptors that could be procured, inftructed him in the rudiments of all the ufeful and ornamental fciences until he had attained the age of fourteen years, when he fent him. to the University of Berne, where, under Kirchberger, the hiftorian and profeffor of rhetoric, and Altman, the celebrated Greek profeffor, he ftudied, for three years, Philology and the Belles Lettres, with unremitting affiduity and attention. Scarcely, however, had he

entered

entered on his courfe of ftudy, when his industry was for a while interrupted by the fudden death of his affectionate father; a misfortune which bereaved him of his ableft inftructor, and tore his heart with the feverest affliction; but as time foftened his filial forrows, he renewed his ftudies with unceafing diligence and ardour.

The various and frequently complicated fyftems of philofophy which have been from time to time introduced into the world, excited his curiosity, and stimulated his induftry; and, to render himself a perfect mafter of this extenfive branch. of learning, he placed himself under the tuition of Brunner, one of the most zealous disciples of the Baron de Wolf; but the profeffor, unfortunately, was only skilled in the metaphyfical doctrines of his great master; and, instead of leading the mind of his pupil into the broad and flowery paths of real ethics, he bewildered him in the dark and thorny mazes of vain and useless learning, until M. Tribolet and F. Stapfer, two minifters of the

gofpel,

gofpel, equally renowned for exalted piety, ardent genius, and extensive knowledge, happily extricated him from this dangerous labyrinth, and taught him, as he frequently afterwards acknowledged with the warmeft gratitude, the found doctrines of true philosophy.

Having paffed nearly five years at the university, he began to think of applying the ftores of information he had acquired to the purposes of active life; and, with a view of confulting his mother refpecting the profeffion he fhould choose, he vifited, towards the end of the year 1746, his maternal relations at Morges, where fhe then refided. But, alas! the. kind affiftance which he fondly hoped to derive upon this important fubject from her judgment and opinion, death had rendered it impoffible for him to obtain. Diftreffing, however, as this unexpected event was at fuch a juncture, it afforded him the advantage of following more freely his own unbiaffed inclination; a circumftance which is generally conceived to contribute to fuccefs; and, after mentioning