KLAPROTH, JULIUS HEINRICH VON, one of the most illustrious of modern orientalists, was the son of the famous chemist, Martin Heinrich Klaproth, and was born at Berlin in 1783. His father's desire was to train him to his own profession, but at a very early age his instincts led him to study the eastern tongues, and in his zeal for them he neglected everything else. So completely was he absorbed in them, that, when he was called up for examination by the master of the gymnasium, he failed to answer the simplest questions, "You know nothing, then?" said his examiner. "Sir, I know Chinese," was the reply. "Chinese! who taught you?" "No one; I learned it alone." He brought forward the most indubitable proofs of the truth of his statement, and his father, vexed as he was to see his pet scheme thwarted, agreed to let his son take his own way. In 1801 he sent him to Halle, on the ex-
press condition that he would there master the classical languages. In a few months the young Klaproth exhausted the resources of the place, and in 1802 removed to Dresden, publishing in that year the first number of his Asiatisches Magazin. Among others who were amazed by the erudition of the young philologist was the learned Count John Potocki. By his interest Klaproth was admitted into the service of Russia, and in 1804 was called to St Petersburg, where he joined the Academy of Sciences as associate for the languages of Asia. Next year, when it was determined to send an embassy to Pekin, Klaproth was fixed upon as the interpreter of the party before even the ambassador was selected. The choice at last fell upon Golowkin, while Potocki was charged with the scientific part of the expedition. These arrangements were still pending when Klaproth set out alone to make observations in the less known parts of the Russian empire. Passing by Cazan and Perm, he crossed the Ural Mountains, reached Ekaterinburg, followed the course of the Irtysh from Tobolsk to Omsk, crossed the great steppes to Tomsk, and thence to Irkutsk, near the shores of the Lake Baikal, the rendezvous of the embassy. His object in taking this circuitous route was to visit the Finnish and Tartar tribes of Siberia, and study their manners, languages, and ethnology. From Kiachta they crossed Mongolia to the Chinese frontier, but had only advanced a very short way into the country when they learned that the emperor had refused to receive them. Golowkin, a weak and haughty man, had declined to go through the ordinary forms of the Chinese court ceremonial, and his obstinacy defeated the whole purpose of the embassy. Leaving his companions to return home as they chose, Klaproth spent some months in wandering among the savage tribes of Southern Siberia, studying their languages and customs. After an absence of twenty months he returned to St Petersburg in the spring of 1807, and communicated to the Academy the results, both scientific and political, of his mission. So valuable were these considered, that, in the same year, he was again despatched to prosecute his inquiries in the Caucasus, and on his return in 1809 he was loaded with honours and rewards by the Russian government. He took rank among the nobility by being made a knight of the order of Vladimir. The emperor himself gave him the title of Aulic councillor, and the academy waved its usual formalities in making him an extraordinary member. Great as these distinctions were, however, they fell short of what Klaproth seemed to regard as his due; and when the government secretly suppressed his intended publication of his travels, he began to find his stay in St Petersburg uncomfortable. Leaving the capital, he retired to Wilna, and, at the request of the Prince Czartoriski, drew up the plan of a special course of the eastern languages, in connection with the university of that city. He also drew up a catalogue of the Chinese and Manchu books in the library, and in 1811 went to Berlin for the purpose of carrying it in person through the press. Here he tendered his resignation to the Russian government, though he knew that by so doing he forfeited all his honours, privileges, and pensions. Strange rumours got afloat as to the real reasons of this infatuated act. It was even whispered that some valuable manuscripts and foreign books had disappeared from the library, and that Klaproth knew more about them than he cared to tell. At all events, in 1812, his official connection with Russia closed for ever. His first care now was to publish his travels in the Caucasus; and he retired to Warmbrunn, a small village on the confines of Bohemia and Silesia, to continue his studies in peace and quiet. When the great continental wars again broke out in 1813, even this nook became an unsafe retreat, and Klaproth was obliged to fly. In his wanderings he became acquainted with some of the generals of Napoleon, and by them he was taught to admire the great em-
peror. So great indeed was his admiration, that when Napoleon was caged in Elba, Klaproth visited the island for the express purpose of beholding his idol. He was well received, and promised a place under government by the imperial prisoner if he should ever regain his throne. The promise was made in all sincerity; but during his second reign of the "Hundred Days" the emperor was too busy to remember it, and Klaproth retired to Florence, where he lived for a time in great straits. Returning to Paris in 1815, he there met his old friend Potocki, and by his advice resolved to establish himself there as a litterateur. By this means he obtained a scanty livelihood; but his prospects were gloomy indeed, when he had the good fortune to fall in with his countryman, William Von Humboldt. By this distinguished scholar, whose studies had lain very much in the same direction with his own, Klaproth was brought under the notice of the king of Prussia, and nominated royal professor of the Asiatic languages and literature, with a handsome salary. He was, besides, presented with a large sum of money to defray the cost of printing his works, and was allowed to remain in Paris so long as he thought fit. Thus provided for, Klaproth prosecuted his researches with renewed vigour, and it was after this date (1816) that he produced nearly all the works on which his fame depends. He had acquired at the Russian court a love of pleasure and refined society, and such time as he could now steal from his books and manuscripts was spent in gratifying this taste. In the intellectual and social excitements of Paris he was in his element, and he plunged into both with an ardour far beyond his strength. In 1833 frequent palpitation of the heart seemed to indicate that disease was sapping the centre of life. Symptoms of dropsy next began to show themselves. He derived a little benefit from a journey to Berlin in 1834, when he was received with open arms by the king of Prussia and the scholars of that country. On his return to Paris he again grew worse, and his malady was aggravated by occasional fits of mental alienation. All the medical skill of Paris was of no avail. After great and protracted suffering, he died August 27, 1835. His remains were followed to the grave, in the cemetery of Montmartre, by nearly all the learned and scientific men then in Paris. Conspicuous among them was Alexander Von Humboldt.
Since Klaproth's death his fame has continued to rise, and his works are now appreciated at their full value. His merits as a philologist are very great; but his merits as a linguist are greater still. It may be safely averred, that of the great linguists of his day (and they were many), none stood higher than he. His memory, both for comprehensiveness and accuracy, was unrivalled, and served him so well that most of his papers were written without other aids than that of an occasional note. His versatility and activity of mind were equally remarkable; and, though his style was often careless and incorrect, the substance of his writing was both clear and well arranged. In whatever he wrote he aimed at accuracy above all things, and so intolerant was he of errors, that, even when the mistake was committed by a personal friend, he looked upon it as a duty to expose the offender without mercy. To quackery and charlatanism, especially in his own proper walk, he was an implacable foe; and there never was any thing, in its own way, more complete than his exposure of a Pretended Translation of the Works of Confucius from the Original Text, a literary imposition from the Works of Dr William Schott. This pamphlet was written to expose the pretensions of Schott, who had given out that, to understand the text of Confucius, he had called in the aid of two learned Chinese recently arrived in Germany. The persons in question were indeed Chinamen, but the one had been a cook and the other a mechanic near Canton. When Dr Schott found them, they had been earning a scanty liveli-
Klaproth, Martin Heinrich hood by showing themselves for money in the various towns of Germany. The Prussian government had engaged them to teach their native tongue at Halle. Klaproth proved beyond a doubt that the pretended version of Schott had been taken, not from the original text, but from the English translation of Marsham, published at Serampore, the numerous inaccuracies of which had been exposed by the French orientalist Rémusat. The severity with which he punished the impostors was great; but he often showed a similar, if not equal rigour, in cases where it was by no means so well deserved. Indeed, the irascibility of his temper caused him to be hardly less dreaded by his friends than by his enemies.
Klaproth's works are very numerous; so numerous, that, in his life, by his friend Eyriès, in the Biographie Universelle, the mere enumeration of them occupies ten pages. Even this long list is far from exhausting them, and the reader is referred for further particulars to the catalogue of them prepared in 1839 by M. Merlin, a Parisian bookseller. The great majority of them, however, it must be remembered, are merely short essays, pamphlets, and review articles. The subjoined list contains the most important of them:—
Aristisches Magazin, Weimar, 1802, 2 vols. 8vo, to which Klaproth contributed the most important papers; Reise in den Kaukasus, Halle and Berlin, 1812-14, 2 vols. 8vo, to which two supplements were afterwards added, one on the languages of the country, and another on the geography of the Eastern Caucasus; Abhandlung über die Sprache und Schrift der Uiguren, Paris, 1829, 8vo; Archives de la Littérature, de l'Histoire, et de la Linguistique de l'Asie, St Petersburg, 1810, 4to; Supplément au Dictionnaire Chinois du Père Basil de Glemont, Paris, 1819, fol.; Asia Polyglotta, Paris, 1823, 4to, in which the Asiatic nations are distributed according to their Idioms, which are divided into twenty-three classes; Mémoires relatifs à l'Asie, contenant des recherches Historiques, Géographiques, et Paléographiques sur les Peuples de l'Orient, Paris, 1826-28, 3 vols. 8vo, with maps and plates; Vocabulaire et Grammaire de la Langue Gorgienne, Paris, 1827, 8vo; Études Critiques des travaux de M. Champollion jeune sur les Hiéroglyphes, Paris, 1832, 8vo; Chrestomathie Mandchou, Paris, 1828, 8vo; Notice d'une Mappe-monde et d'une Cosmogonie Chinoise, Paris, 1833, 8vo; Lettre à M. le Baron A. de Humboldt sur l'origine de la Bouddha, Paris, 1834, in which he proves that the compass was in use among the Chinese many centuries before it became known to the western world; Tableau Historique, Géographique, Paléographique, et Politique, du Caucase et des provinces limitrophes entre la Russie et la Perse, Paris, 1828, 8vo, a work which has often been laid under contribution by subsequent writers on that country. Among the many works which Klaproth edited, may be mentioned Guldinatti's France in Georgia and Incurritia, and his Description of the Caucasian countries; Timakowski's Voyage à Pékin à travers la Mongolie en 1820 et 21, Paris, 1827, 2 vols. 8vo; Count Potocki's Travels in the Steppes of Astracan and the Caucasus, and his New Voyage round the Eurasie, Paris, 1829, 2 vols. 8vo; Oratio della Penna's Brief Notice of the Kingdom of Tibet, Paris, 1835; besides many other works bearing chiefly upon Central Asia. His contributions to the periodical press of France and Germany would fill many volumes. Many of these, especially his papers in the Biographie Universelle, are in their way almost unique, and of very great value.