John George, a philosophical writer of distinction, was born at Winterthur, in the canton of Zurich, on the 16th of October 1720. He was the youngest of twenty-five children. At the age of sixteen, when he went to the university of Zurich, he had not the smallest notion of the sciences or of elegant literature, and consequently no taste for study. The first incident that developed a hidden germ of philosophical genius, was his meeting with Wolf's Metaphysics. This was the birth of his taste for science; but he wanted a guide. The clergyman with whom he lodged was an ignorant man; and the academical prelections were, as yet, above the reach of his comprehension. On the other hand, a sedentary life was not suitable to his taste; and a sociable turn of mind often led him into company, where he lost much time in frivolous amusements, yet without corrupting his morals. Who, that observed him at this period, says Mr Forney in his Eloge, would have thought that Sulzer would one day be numbered among the most knowing and wise men of his time? John Gesner, who became an eminent naturalist, was the instrument of Providence that rendered Sulzer's inclination to study triumphant over his passion for amusement and company. Assisted by the counsels and example of this fellow-student, he applied himself to philosophy and mathematics with great ardour, and resumed the pursuit of Greek literature and the oriental languages. He was settled as a pastor in a rural district. In 1741 he published Moral Contemplations on the Works of Nature; and in the following year an Account of a Journey through the Alps, which showed at the same time his knowledge of natural history, and the taste and sensibility with which he surveyed the beauties of nature, and the grandeur and goodness of its Author. He afterwards became private tutor to a young gentleman at Magdeburg. This procured him the acquaintance of Euler, Maupertuis, and Sack, which opened to his merit the path of preferment, and advanced him successively to the place of mathematical professor in the Gymnasium of Berlin in 1747, and to that of member of the Royal Academy in 1750. In this last quality he distinguished himself in a very eminent manner, enriched the class of speculative philosophy with a great number of excellent memoirs, and was justly considered as one of the first-rate metaphysicians in Germany. But his genius was not confined to this branch of science. His universal Theory of the Fine Arts is a valuable production. A profound knowledge of the arts and sciences, and a perfect acquaintance with true taste, are eminently displayed in this work, and will secure to its author a permanent and distinguished rank in the republic of letters. The first volume of this excellent work was published in 1771, and the second in 1774. His Remarks on the Philosophical Essays of Hume is a work of real merit, which does justice to the acuteness, while it often detects the sophistry, of the Scottish philosopher. The moral character of Sulzer was amiable and virtuous; sociability and beneficence were its characteristic lines; and his virtues were animated by that sacred philosophy which forms the Christian, ennables man, and is the only source of that heart-felt serenity and sedate fortitude which support humanity, when every other object of confidence fails.

He died at Berlin on the 27th of February 1779.