The preceding letters or confessions, in which Reinhard gives an account of his education for the sacred office, with various other particulars, were first published at Sulzbach, in 1810. On the 6th of Sept. 1812, at about three o'clock in the morning, this truly venerable man expired. That quick and painless exit which the wise so eagerly covet, and, as the king of terrors cannot overtake them unawares, deem one of the best favors of heaven, that easy transition of the soul from earth to the hands of its Creator, with which his dearly beloved Heynet was so richly blessed, did not fall to his lot. His passage to the tomb was long and dreary, and marked with disease and pain; and death, when it came, seemed rather to deliver him from his bodily anguish, than to put an end to his existence. That blending together of the images of life and death, however, which every where crowd themselves upon us, of which he himself has spoken so in

*The following particulars respecting Reinhard's life, writings, &c., are drawn chiefly from Bö tiger's Delineation of his Character, Zeichnung von Reinhard, Dresden, 1813, but are interwoven with various remarks drawn from other sources.

+ Probably, Christian Gottlob Heyne, a celebrated philologist, teacher, and general scholar, a native of Chemnitz, and Professor of Eloquence at Göttingen, where he died of a fit of apoplexy, July the 14th, 1812.

structively in one of his sermons,* produced no other effect upon him than to render him auxious to distinguish every moment of suffering by doing something useful; nor was he, as has been publicly asserted, daily and painfully engaged in earnest importunities to God for the salvation of his soul, until nature herself became exhausted. To labor in the extensive sphere of usefulness allotted to him, and fulfil the duties of his high calling, constituted his support, his oil in the lamp of life, and bread of heaven in the desert. To this effect he often expressed himself to those around him. 'I will willingly bear every variety of pain and bodily suffering,' said he, if, in the mean time, I may only be permitted to mount the pulpit and preach as I

have hitherto done.'

In general, this Christian sage exhibited no inclination to die magnanimously, as it is common for thousands to do, nor, though he believed far more extensive and consoling views burst upon the departed Christian,† did he say any thing of the soul's being released from her prison house, the body; and it was only when he considered his usefulness at an end, that he looked upon death as desirable. At length the messenger of peace made his appearance, and kindly beckoned hiin away. After his departure, a heavenly smile stood upon his lips, then, for the first time, silent, which erased from his emaciated countenance almost every appearance of disease and pain, and overspread it with that heavenly serenity which had always pervaded his breast.

Having, in 1803, while on an official journey through Erzgebirg, fallen from his horse, and broken one of his legs, he was confined by the accident to the house of the Superintendent in Chemnitz,‡ for nearly three months, and so intimidated, that, notwithstanding the earnest importunities of his friends, he would never afterwards. venture to mount a saddle; the consequence of which was, his deprivation of suitable exercise, and the aggravation of various diseases to which he had for some time been subjected. In 1811, an obstinate hemor

* Predigten, 1804, Th. II. S. 104 ff.

† See Reinhard's Ch. Moral, Th. V. S. 183 f. See the Sermons of 1804, Pred. I. S. 2 ff.

rhoidal complaint had so far got the upper hand of him, as to induce him to form the hazardous resolution of submitting to a painful and dangerous chirurgical operation, in which he shared not only the well-known skill, but the sympathy and constant attention of Hedenus, the royal surgeon. Every thing at first seemed to promise the happiest success, but soon the operation was found, instead of eradicating the disease, to have driven it to more vital parts. In the midst of the most excruciating pain, however, he not only performed all the duties of his office, but continued to preach almost every Sunday, without intermission, until the end of the winter of 1812, when the gout attacked one of his feet, and disqualified him for all public duties. He never ascended the pulpit after the fast on the 28th of February; though, considering preaching as he did, the very soul of Protestantism, and the business to which every thing else should be made subordinate, it filled him with inexpressible sorrow. He did not remain inactive, however, for while he was afflicted with his lame foot, he examined candidates for the ministry for fourteen days in succession, beginning immediately after Easter. This was the last time he performed this service; and long will the youth of Saxony who were present, with pleasure call to mind the exercises by which he consecrated them to the ministry, while he sought to enkindle in their hearts the flame of devotion, and fill them with those doctrines by which the two worlds are connected together, listened to and criticised, though not with great efforts, their first attempts at sermonizing, and attended again, though not without painful suffering, every session of the ecclesiastical council and chief consistory.*

Not having visited the Upper Palatinate since 1804, he felt anxious to see his beloved native country once more, before he died. With the hope therefore of reducing the complicated diseases which preyed upon him, and strengthening himself for the journey, he commenced the

The reader will find much information respecting various customs referred to in this work, in the several articles upon Germany published in the first volume of the Bibl. Repos.

Among other disorders, he had long been troubled with a complaint of the bladder.

use of ass's milk, it having been found very salutary in chronic complaints. To avail himself of this kind of diet without disturbance, he retired to Tharant, where he spent five weeks. This is one of the most pleasant bathing places in the region of Dresden. At that time, however, it presented him with a double attraction, from the fact, that it daily enjoyed the refreshing visits of his much esteemed physician and friend, Dr. Kapp, a man, distinguished alike for his scientific knowledge, experience, and practical skill, surrounded by his grand children, and like Lucian's Demonax, passing from house to house, welcomed wherever he went. The company and conversation of this engaging man, furnished Reinhard with an agreeable compensation for his constrained inactivity, which, of all the afflictions God had laid upon him, he found the most painful to bear. The summer, however, proved rainy and unpleasant, and did not permit Reinhard often to avail himself of the bath. The only effect of his dieting, was to drive his complaint to his lungs, which had hitherto remained unaffected. A consumptive cough succeeded, which deprived him of all sound repose, or if he ever slept quietly, seemed to render it the means of aggravating all the symptoms of his complaint. His body gradually consumed away, and finally began to break down altogether. The oldest and most experienced physicians of Dresden, connected with him by the tenderest_ties of friendship, among whom that excellent old man, Dr. Pezold then in his fiftieth year, the royal physician and aulic councillor Kreisig, and the surgeon Hedenus, should be particularly mentioned, having all been consulted, had exhausted their utmost efforts to procure him relief. Reinhard attended to the various prescriptions, which, from time to time, after much reflection they prepared for him, merely from a sense of duty, and not from a conviction that they were able to do him any good.

With that sure prophetical presentiment which some politicians possess, he always evinced, and death often seems only to quicken, he calculated for his approaching end. With deep interest he thought of his ordinary course of life, his domestic circle, and the scene of his labors, and, leaving his retirement, hastened to his garden seat, in

one of the nearest suburbs of Dresden. Here, among his favorite plants, in the open air, he derived some pleasure from warming himself in the rays of the sun, whenever it shone forth mild and pleasant; and as it fatigued him too much to walk, he refreshed himself about noon by resorting to his green house, which was surrounded with herbs. and flowers. On such occasions, his friends, seeing the vivacity with which he took part in discussions of a public or private nature, often felt themselves animated with new hopes of his recovery. It was natural that they should hope for the best, but he always refused to assent to their opinion, and replied by shaking his head and appealing to appearances.

But however great the exhaustion of the sufferer might be, accustomed as he always had been, to struggle for the victory over himself, he did not willingly give himself up to it or long remain inactive, though it was only at broken intervals that the mind was able to cbtain the victory over the body. He still continued to rise early in the morning, though an hour later than formerly, as it was not until towards morning that he could obtain sound repose,dressed himself, and immediately resorted to his delightful tasks. It was not until the last fortnight of his life, that he would so far yield to the importunities of the friends around him, as to continue sitting in an easy posture in his night dress, on the sofa. To lie on the bed in the day time, was a thing to which he refused to assent, to the very last; so great was the control of his mind over a body which had almost refused to serve. On the meeting of the diet in 1811, the magnanimous classes of the kingdom had granted an extraordinary contribution for the institution at St. Afra. A new building had been commenced in that place, and a plan of instruction drawn up, to the perfection of which Reinhard was desired to contribute by his remarks, which he accordingly did, notwithstanding his weakness, and aided in various other ways, in which he proved to this alma mater of a Gellert and Lessing, what he had previously, to that at Pforte, a paternal counseller and friend. But a few days before his death, he drew

*The building was consecrated on the 17th of Nov. and devoted to the solemnization of Reinhard's death on the 17th of Dec. 1812.