Jean François de la, a distinguished French littérateur of the eighteenth century, was born at Paris in 1739. Some Sisters of Charity found him abandoned by his parents in the Rue de la Harpe, whence he took his name. They took care of his early years, till he was admitted as a bursar into the Collège d'Harcourt, where he distinguished himself by his zeal and success in his studies. On leaving it he wrote a pasquinade against the masters, and was especially severe on his own old tutor, from whom he had experienced nothing but kindness. This ingratitude landed him in the house of correction at For l'Eveque, where he was detained for some months. Society was now closed against him, both by the accident of his birth and his own misconduct, and he betook himself to literature as the only career open to him. In 1763 he produced his tragedy of Warwick, which had great success on the stage. Grimm characterized it very truly when he said of it, "On dirait que c'est le coup d'essais d'un jeune homme de soixante ans. J'aimerais bien mieux y remarquer plus d'inégalité et de force et moins de sagesse." His other works in the same vein, Timoléon, Pharamond, and Gustave Wasa, were total failures. On the strength of his Warwick, La Harpe had married in 1764, and he now went to Ferney and lived there with Voltaire, who described him as "un fou qui chauffe toujours, et ne cuit jamais." A quarrel with the patriarch of French literature, however, once more drove him to Paris, where he earned a precarious livelihood by writing éloges and essays on subjects open to competition, as well as a large number of dramas and translations from the Greek and English. In 1770 La Harpe became editor of the Mercure de France, and involved himself in quarrels with many fellow-littérateurs from the bitterness and personality of his criticisms. These qua- Harper's Ferry

Harper's Ferry was especially manifest in his correspondence with the Grand Duke Paul of Russia, in which he dwells with acid bitterness on all his rivals, while he expatiates with an amusing self-complacency on his own merits. But the work which above all the rest has preserved La Harpe's name, is his *Lycée ou Cours de Littérature*. Till within a few years past, the death in French literature of what are called *overages de haute critique*, maintained La Harpe's work in its high place; but it is now being gradually superseded. Even still, however, it is a useful guide to students of French literature, of which it traces the history from the earliest times to the beginning of the nineteenth century.

The first part of the work is of little value, and the portion devoted to contemporary writers is worse than valueless. Malebranche professed to see all things in God; in the men of his time La Harpe could see nothing except through the distorting prism of his vain and intolerant jealousy. Grimm said of him in 1779,—"La Harpe has much more wit than knowledge, much less wit than talent, and much less imagination than taste." It is unfortunate that circumstances have always forced him to waste his time in speaking evil of his neighbours, and in defending himself from the enemies whom he thus raised up against himself every day. When the Revolution broke out, it had no more ardent supporter than La Harpe. But when on his refusal to countenance the extremes to which the republicans were going he was cast into prison, his views experienced a complete change, and he became a staunch supporter of church and crown. His new politics he soon found more dangerous than his old, and he was at length forced to fly for his life. After the 18th Brumaire, he resumed his lectures at the Lycée, which he continued till within a short time of his death. His boldness of speech displeased the First Consul, who appointed him his future residence at Orleans. La Harpe, however, soon after returned to Paris, where he died February 11, 1803.

Harper's Ferry, a village in the state of Virginia, North America, at the confluence of the Shenandoah with the Potomac, where the united stream breaks through the Blue Ridge, 53 miles N.W. of Washington. The scenery is highly picturesque, and the river is here spanned by a fine bridge about 800 feet in length. There is here a national arsenal containing from 80,000 to 90,000 stand of arms, and an armory employing 250 persons, and producing annually about 10,000 stand of arms. Pop. (1850) 1747.