Jean Frederic, a celebrated philanthropic pastor, was the son of a teacher, and was born at Strasburg on the 1st August 1740. Under the religious instructions of his mother, and of a devout Lutheran preacher named Dr Lorentz, he imbibed that spirit of pious zeal which determined his future career. Before the age of twenty he had formally dedicated himself to God; and at the close of his university course he became a minister of the French Protestant Church. The great work of his life, however, did not commence until, in 1767, he was appointed to the curacy of Waldbach in the valley of Ban de la Roche in Alsace. He then found himself among a few ignorant and half-savage parishioners, who were shut up from the civilized world within the cold bosom of their native mountains, were scattered over a stony uncultivated valley, lived upon wild apples and pears, and shivered in filthy cabins of turf. His first act was an attempt to induce the natives to open up their country by making regular highways. But he soon found that all his ardent expositions of the advantages of trade could not excite their sluggish desires. He therefore seized a mattock, and began to make a road with his own hands. This action struck the peasants like an electric shock. They could not stand idly by while their delicately-nurtured pastor was sweating in their behalf; young and old came flocking to give their assistance; highways began to traverse the valley; a bridge was thrown over a turbulent stream that interrupted all intercourse with Strasbourg; and in a short time commerce was beginning to circulate through the country. The same mode of teaching by example was used to introduce agriculture. The pastor brought a patch of ground that was by the wayside under cultivation; the fine crop, as it grew ripe, excited the envy of all that passed by; they came in crowds to learn the secret of his agriculture; he gave them both instruction and assistance; and the result was that the desert of Waldbach soon began to "blossom as the rose." To improve the domestic economy of his parishioners was the next endeavour of Oberlin; and he did it like one who, after the example of the Divine Master, deems it a sacred task to relieve even the meanest want of humanity. He assisted the men in building comfortable cottages; despatched the idle boys to the neighbouring districts to learn farming or the mechanical trades; set the unemployed girls to knitting, straw-plaiting, and cotton-spinning; and instructed the housewives in using certain common plants for food and medicine. The love and gratitude which the natives felt for all these benefits, opened their hearts to receive the higher lessons of their pastor. His homely sermons on Sabbath, his prayer-meetings during the week, his habit of blending religion with all the duties of common life, and his humble and active piety—all contributed to soften down their rough and stubborn dispositions. He induced them to start an itinerant library, to establish the first specimens of infant schools that had ever existed, and to build an ordinary school at each of the five villages in the parish. It was not even thought impertinent when he kept a register of their moral characters, and inquired into the most paltry of their family affairs. In fact, he had now come to be considered the father of his flock; and no circumstance in his large household was thought too trifling to demand his loving attention. The latter half of Oberlin's life was spent in superintending the social organization which he had established in his parish, in entertaining the many pious individuals who came from different parts of Europe to visit him, in circulating copies of the Bible throughout France, and in advancing the cause of missions in heathen countries. He died on the 1st June 1826, and was interred with great honour, and in the presence of a great concourse of people, at the village of Foudal. The name of Oberlin was associated for some time afterwards with the active piety of Louisa Schepler, a humble woman, who had lived in his house for fifty years in the capacity of servant and housekeeper. This simple-hearted peasant continued till her death in 1837 to teach in the schools of the valley, to consecrate all her little earnings to Christian charity, and to wait without remuneration on the children of her beloved master. (Brief Memorials of Oberlin, by the Rev. Thomas Sims, M.A., London, 1830; and Memoirs of Oberlin, with a Short Notice of Louisa Schepler, London, 1838 and 1852.)

Jeremie Jacques, a learned antiquary and philologist, the elder brother of the preceding, was born at Strasburg in 1735, and entered the university of his native place. His career was distinguished from the very first by an unwearied devotion to antiquarian research. At the end of his philosophical course, he produced a thesis, entitled De Veterum Ritu Condiendi Mortuos. Then, commencing a theological curriculum, he turned his attention exclusively to the archaeology of the sacred writings. Nor were his favourite studies discontinued when he was appointed assistant and successor to his father in the laborious duties of an elementary teacher in the gymnasium. He requested and obtained permission from the university of Strasburg to deliver a course of lectures on the Latin tongue; he prelected and published manuals on archaeology and ancient geography; and he made frequent excursions into various provinces of France to investigate the antiquarian remains and the provincial dialects of the country. At length, in 1782, his appointment to the chair of logic and metaphysics at Strasbourg brought his philosophical activity into full play. He published Dissertations sur les Minnesingers in 1782-89; an edition of Horace in 1788; and Observations concernant le Patois et les Meurs des Gens de la Campagne in 1791.

The troubles of the French revolution interrupted his studies; and in 1793 he was imprisoned for some time at Metz; but on the restoration of tranquillity he returned with fresh zest to his books. His edition of Tacitus appeared in 1801; and his edition of Caesar in 1805. He was engaged in editing Justin, when he was cut off by a stroke of apoplexy in 1806.