GESNER, Solomon, author of the death of Abel, and many other works in the German language, was born at Zurich in the year 1730. In his early age he showed few signs of superior abilities; and his progress in the rudiments of education was so slow, that his master gave him up as incapable of any greater attainments than writing and the four elementary rules of arithmetic. He was then placed under the care of a clergyman in the neighbourhood, a relation of his father's, who showed himself better acquainted with the art of discovering the natural inclinations of his pupils. This gentleman often carried young Gesner with him into the fields, where he made him observe the beauties of nature; and finding that he took great pleasure in such lessons, and seemed to listen to them with peculiar attention, he occasionally repeated some of the most striking passages of the ancient authors, who have written on these subjects in the most agreeable and pleasing manner. By this ingenious artifice, the mind of young Gesner began to open, and its powers to expand; and it is perhaps owing to this circumstance that he became so fond of the language of Virgil and of Theocritus. When he arrived at a proper age to think of following some pursuit or business, Gesner made choice of that of bookseller, which was the profession of his father, and in some measure of his family. Of five houses at Zurich engaged in the printing and bookselling business, two were occupied by Gesners; one belonged to two brothers of that name; and the other, that in which our poet had a share, was known by the denomination of Orel, Gesner, and Company. It was known also by the extent of its correspondence, and by the choice and elegance of the works which it gave to the public.
Though Gesner was a bookseller, he did not, however, damp his genius by submitting to the drudgery of business. He indulged himself freely in pursuing his favourite object, and his partners never envied him that time which he devoted to meditation and study. In 1752, he made a tour through Germany, not so much for the purpose of extending his commerce, as to see and become acquainted with those authors who had done honour to their country. The following circumstance, which occurred during this tour, deserves to be mentioned, as it is strikingly characteristic of the timidity which often accompanies true genius. When Gesner was at Berlin, he was admitted into a literary society, of which Gleim and Lessing were members. Each of the authors who composed it used to read in turn some pieces of their own composition, and Gesner felt desirous of submitting to these able critics a small work, which was his first attempt; but he was far from resembling those poets whom Horace and other satirists have ridiculed, and who stun every one they meet by reciting their verses. As each of the members had done reading, Gesner was observed to move his hand with a kind of tremor towards his pocket, and to draw it back again without bringing out the manuscript which he ought to have produced. Having not as yet published
any thing, none of the company could guess the cause of a motion which his modesty prevented him from explaining. The work which he had not the courage to show was his small poem entitled Night, which he published on his return to Zurich in 1753. It was considered as an original, of which no model is to be found among the moderns; but in the opinion of the author, it was only a piece of imaginary painting, or, to use an expression of his own, in one of his letters to Huber, who has translated his works, "a caricature composed in the moments of folly or intoxication." In this little poem he has introduced a short episode on the origin of the glow-worm, containing a poetical explanation of this natural phenomenon, which has all the beauty of Ovid's Metamorphoses, without their prolixity. The success of this essay emboldened the too timid muse of our young bookseller, and he published a pastoral romance called Daphnis, in three cantos. The applause which was deservedly bestowed upon this performance induced the author to publish, some time after, his Idylls and other rural poems, in imitation of those of Theocritus. Pastoral poetry, which at this time was little known in Germany except by translations from foreign poets, began to find many partisans, and to be preferred to every other kind. Desirous, therefore, of tracing out a new path for himself, our poet thought that he could not do a more acceptable service to his countrymen than by painting the felicity and innocence of rural life, and the tender emotions of love and gratitude. The only author worthy of notice who had preceded Gesner in this career was Rost of Leipzig, whose pastoral poems appeared for the first time in 1744. This writer polished the language of the German shepherds; and he had address enough to unite spirit and simplicity in a kind of writing which is insipid without the one, and which becomes unnatural and disgusting if it want the other. He sometimes throws a delicate veil over those images which are deficient in decency, but it is to be regretted that it is often much too light. Such was the antagonist against whom Gesner had to contend. Our poet, however, pursued a different course. Instead of placing, like Rost, his scenes in modern times, he goes back, with Theocritus, to that happy age which we are fond of reviewing when our passions are calm, and when, freed from those anxious cares which hurry us beyond ourselves, we contemplate amidst tranquillity the beauty and fertility of nature. The characters of Gesner's Idylls, therefore, are taken from those societies which exist no longer except in the remembrance, or rather the imagination. His shepherds are fathers, children, and husbands, who blush not at these titles so dear to nature, and to whom generosity, beneficence, and respect for the Deity, are sentiments no less familiar than love. These Idylls were the principal and favourite object of his pursuit, and that part of his works which acquired him the greatest reputation, especially amongst his countrymen. His Death of Abel, which is well known, was published for the first time in the year 1758. It is written, like the rest of his pieces, in poetical prose, and was so much sought after, that it went through no less than three editions in the space of a year, without speaking of the spurious ones which appeared in Holland, at Berlin, and in France. The French edition was followed by several others. One came out in Italian; another in the Dutch language; another in the Danish; and, lastly, two in English, one of them in prose and the other in verse. Amongst the pieces which Gesner published after the Death of Abel was his First Navigator, a poem in three cantos, which many people in Germany consider as his masterpiece. He made an attempt also in the pastoral drama, but not with the same success as in other kinds of rural poetry. He produced likewise, in the same style, Evander and Alcinne, in three acts; and Erastus, a small piece of one
act, which was represented with some applause in several societies, both at Leipsic and Vienna.
But though poetry was Gesner's darling pursuit, and though he enriched the literature of his country with works which will render his name immortal, he did not confine himself to one manner of imitating nature; he in turns took up the pencil and the pen, and his active genius equally directed both. In his infancy he had received a few lessons in drawing, and he had afterwards pursued this study, but without any intention of becoming an artist. At the age of thirty he felt that violent desire which may be considered as the voice of genius; and this was in some measure excited by the sight of a beautiful collection formed by Heidegger, whose daughter he had married. To please his father-in-law, he studied this treasure, composed principally of the best pieces of the Flemish school; and to this new taste he had almost sacrificed every other. Gesner at first ventured only to delineate some decorations for the frontispieces of curious books printed in his office; but by degrees he acquired the courage to make other attempts. In 1765, he published ten landscapes etched and engraved by himself, and dedicated them to his friend Watlet. Gesner owed him this mark of respect for the care which he had taken to ornament with beautiful vignettes Huber's translation of his Idylls. Twelve other pieces appeared in 1769; and after these attempts, Gesner executed ornaments for many works which came from his presses, amongst which were his own works, a German translation of Swift, and several other productions.
Were we to judge from Gesner's enthusiasm for his favourite pursuits, and from the time and attention which he bestowed upon them, we should be apt to conclude that he had found but little leisure for discharging his duty as a citizen. The contrary, however, was the case; for he passed almost the half of his life in the first employment of the state. In 1765 he was called to the grand council, and in 1767 to the lesser. In 1768 he was appointed bailiff of Elibach, in 1776 head of the four guards, and in 1781 superintendent of waters, which office was in 1787 continued to him for six years. In all these stations Gesner discharged his duty with the most scrupulous fidelity, and died of a paralytical disorder, lamented by his countrymen and by those who had the pleasure of his acquaintance, on the 2d of March 1788, at the age of fifty-six.