JOHN CHRISTOPHER, a very eminent German grammarian, philologer, and general scholar, was born at Spantekow in Pomerania, on the 30th of August 1734. He acquired his elementary instruction at the public school of Anclam, and that of Closterbergen, near Magdeburg, and completed his academical education at the university of Halle. In the year 1759 he was appointed professor at the gymnasium of Erfurt, but relinquished this situation two years after, and went to reside in a private capacity at Leipzig, where he continued to devote himself for a long period to the cultivation of letters, and particularly to those extensive and laborious philological researches which proved so useful to the language and literature of his native country. In 1787 he received the appointment of principal librarian to the elector of Saxony at Dresden, with the honorary title of Aulic Counsellor. Here he continued to reside during the remainder of his useful life, discharging with diligence and integrity the duties of his situation, and prosecuting his laborious studies to the last with indefatigable industry and unabated zeal. He died at Dresden on the 10th of September 1806, at the age of 72.

The life of a mere scholar is generally destitute of interest; and that of Adelung, which was spent entirely in literary seclusion, presents no variety of incident to the pen Adelung, of the biographer. Of his private character and habits, few memorials have been preserved; but in these few he is represented as a man of an amiable disposition. He was never married. His constitution, which was remarkably robust, rendered him capable of the most intense and unremitting application to study, insomuch that, down to the period of his death, he is said to have devoted fourteen hours of every day to literary labour. He was a lover of good cheer, and spared neither pains nor expense in procuring a variety of foreign wines, of which his cellar, which he facetiously denominated his Bibliotheca Selectissima, is said to have contained no less than forty different kinds. His manners were easy and affable, and the habitual cheerfulness of his disposition rendered his society most acceptable to a numerous circle of friends.

The works of Adelung are very voluminous; and there is not one of these, perhaps, which does not exhibit some proofs of the genius, industry, and erudition of the author. But although his pen was usefully employed upon a variety of subjects in different departments of literature and science, it is to his philological labours that he is principally indebted for his great reputation; and no man ever devoted himself with more zeal and assiduity, or with greater success, to the improvement of his native language.

In a country which is subdivided into so many distinct sovereign states, possessing no common political centre, and no national institution whose authority could command deference in matters of taste,—in a country whose indigenous literature was but of recent growth, and where the dialect of the people was held in contempt at the several courts,—it was no easy task for a single writer to undertake to fix the standard of a language which had branched out into a variety of idioms, depending in a great measure upon principles altogether arbitrary. Adelung effected as much in this respect as could well be accomplished by the persevering labours of an individual. By means of his excellent grammars, dictionary, and various works on German style, he contributed greatly towards rectifying the orthography, refining the idiom, and fixing the standard of his native tongue. Of all the different dialects, he gave a decided preference to that of the margravate of Misnia, in Upper Saxony, and positively rejected everything that was contrary to the phraseology in use among the best society of that province, and in the writings of those authors whom it had produced. In adopting this narrow principle, he is generally thought to have been too fastidious. The dialect of Misnia was undoubtedly the richest, as it was the earliest cultivated, of any in Germany; but Adelung probably went too far in restraining the language within the limits of this single idiom, to the exclusion of others, from which it might have, and really has, acquired additional richness, flexibility, and force.

His dictionary of the German language is generally allowed to be superior to our English dictionary by Dr Johnson. It is eminently so in its etymologies; and is, perhaps, upon the whole, the best work of the kind of which any nation can boast. Indeed, the patient spirit of investigation which Adelung possessed in so remarkable a degree, together with his intimate knowledge of the ancient history and progressive revolutions of the different dialects from which the modern German is derived, rendered him peculiarly qualified for the successful performance of the duties of a lexicographer.

It would greatly exceed our limits, and lead us into far too wide a field, were we to attempt to present our readers with an analysis of the several productions of this voluminous author; but we should do injustice to his memory, were we to pass over in total silence his last very learned work, entitled Mithridates, or a General History of Languages, with the Lord's Prayer, as a specimen, in nearly five hundred languages and dialects. The hint of this work appears to have been taken from a publication, with a similar title, published by the celebrated Conrad Gesner in 1555; but the plan of Adelung is much more extensive. Unfortunately, he did not live to finish what he had undertaken; but the work has been continued with much ability by that eminent philologist, Professor Vater, formerly of Halle, now of Königberg. The first volume, which contains the Asiatic languages, was published immediately after the death of Adelung; the second, which comprehends the European dialects, was published by Professor Vater in 1809; the first part of the third volume, which is almost entirely the work of the last-mentioned scholar, appeared in 1812. This third and last volume contains the languages of Africa and America, and is enriched with some very valuable materials, communicated to the editor by Baron Humboldt.

Many of the works of Adelung were published anonymously, but we believe the following list will be found to be complete and correct.

1. Neue Schaubühne der vorfallenden Staats-Kriege und Friedenshändel.—Erfurt, 1759–61, 8vo.—2. Neues Lehrgebäude der Diplomatik, aus dem Franz. übersetzt, und mit Anmerk. versehen. Vols. i. ii. iii. Erfurt, 1760–63, 4to.—3. Neue Denkwürdigkeiten der gegenwärtigen Geschichte von Europa. 1761, 2 vols. 8vo.—4. Geschlechte der Streitigkeiten zwischen Dänemark und den Herzögen von Holstein-Gottorp. Frankf. Leipzic, 1762, 4to.—5. Pragmatische Staatsgeschichte Europas von dem Ableben Kaiser Karls des 6ten an. Vols. i.–ix. Gotha, 1762–9, 4to.—6. Ausserordene Staatsschreie. Gotha, 1763–4, 3 vols. 8vo.—7. Vollständige Geschichte der Schiffahrten nach den Südländern. Halle, 1767, 4to.—8. Mineralogische Beleuchtungen. Vols. i.–vi. Copenhagen and Leipzic, 1767–71, 8vo.—9. Einleitung zur allgemeinen Weltgeschichte. Berlin, 1767, 2 vols. (The first volume by Prof. Franz.)—10. Werke des Philosophen von Sans Sonci. (Translated from the French.) Erfurt, 1768.—11. Staatsmagazin, 14 Stücke. Leipzic, 1768–9.—12. Geschichte der Schiffahrten und Versuche, welche zur Entdeckung des nordöstlichen Weges nach Japan und China unternommen worden. Halle, 1768, 4to.—13. Versuch einer neuen Geschichte des Jesuiten-ordens. Vols. i. and ii. Berlin and Halle, 1769–770, 8vo.—14. Naturliche und bürgerliche Geschichte von Californien. (Translated from the English.) Lemgo, 1769–70, 3 vols. 4to.—15. Unterweisung in den vornehmsten Künsten und Wissenschaften, zum Nutzen der niederen Schulen. Frankfort and Leipzic, 1771, 8vo.—16. Glossarium Mannaeum ad Scriptores medice et infimae Latinitatis, ex magnis Glossariis Caroli du Fresne Domini Duanges et Carpintarii, in compendium redactum, multique verbis et disendi formulae sanctae. Tomi v. Halle, 1772–78.—17. Versuch eines vollständigen grammatisch-kritischen Wörterbuchs der Hoch Deutschen Mundart, mit beständiger Vergleichung der übrigen Mundarten, besonders aber der Oberdeutschen. 1774–75, 5 vols. 4to.—18. Wallarius Chemis. (Translated from the Latin.)—19. Allgemeines Verzeichniss meiner Bücher, mit kurzen Anmerkungen, nebst einem gelehrten Anzeiger. Leipzic, 1776–81, 8vo.—20. Schauspiel der Balzischen Erbfolge Kriegs u. s. w. Leipzic, 1778, 1780, 4to.—21. Militärisches Taschenbuch auf das Jahr 1780. Leipzic, 12mo.—22. J. Williams Ursprung, Wachsthum und Gegenwartiger Zustand der Nordischen Reiche. (Translated and corrected from the English.) Leipzic, 1778–81, 2 vols. 8vo.—23. Kurzer Begriff menschlicher Kenntnisse und Fertigkeiten, sofern sie auf Erwerbung des Unterhalt's, auf Vergnügen, auf Wissenschaft, und auf Regierung der Gesellschaft abzielen. Leipzic, 1778–81, 4 vols. 8vo.—24. Über die Geschichte der Deutschen Sprache, über Deutsche Mundarten und Deutsche Sprachlehre. Ibid. 1781, 8vo.—25. Über den Ursprung der Sprache und den Bau der Wörter. Ibid. 1781, 8vo.—26. Deutsche Sprachlehre, zum Gebrauch der Schulen in den Königl. Preuss. Landen. Berlin, 1781.—27. Auszug aus der Deutschen Sprachlehre für Schulen. 1781, 8vo.—28. Lehrgebäude der Deutschen Sprache, zur Erläuterung der Deutschen Sprachlehre für Schulen.—29. Tindals und Mores Anmerkungen zu Rapins Geschichte von England. (Trans- It is observed by Madame de Stael, that the English are much better acquainted than the French with the literature of Germany; but we have met with very few possessed of any knowledge of the works of this learned and celebrated writer; and, with the exception of one or two of his smaller essays, none of them, we believe, has ever been translated into the language of this country. In the above list there are more works than one which might probably be published with advantage in the English tongue.