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836 COXE’S TRAVELS IN RUSSIA.
tained with the performance. ‘The theatre isa circular room, neatly painted with trees
in imitation of a landfcape, and feemed capable of containing four hundred fpectators,
The pieces were, La Servant Maitrefe, and L’Oracle, both performed in the French
tongue ; the firft by young ladies of fixteen or feventeen years of age, and the lait: by
others of ten or twelve. Both parties acted with fpirit, and difplayed great propriety in
gefture and elocution. I was greatly aftonifhed at the purity with which they pro-
nounced the French tongue. ‘The reprefentation was conluded by a ballet, and various
dances, adapted to the ages and ftrength of the feveral performers. The national
dance was introduced; it is executed by two perfons, who continue nearly on the-
fame fpot, but ufe a variety of movements with the arms, body, and head, while their
fhoulders are elevated and depreffed in exact meafure. It is expreflive of a courthip ;
firft languifhing looks, coynefs, refufal, and invitation; at length the two dancers,
having once or twice changed places, make a couple of circles brifkly, and conclude
with an embrace.
The play was followed by a ball and fupper, to which were admitted. feveral of the:
nobility and foreign gentlemen, anda few of the cadets. At twelve a collation was
ferved on feveral tables, at which parties promifcuoufly ranged themfelves. As I was-
walking about the room, one of the young ladies obferving a foreigner unprovided
with a feat, quitted the table where fhe was fitting, and politely invited me to make one
of her party, an invitation I immediately accepted. I withdrew, with. the reft of the
company, at two o’clock in the morning, highly delighted with the eafe and innocent:
vivacity of my fair entertainers, whofe politenefs and affability befpoke the elegant:
fpirit of the inftitution.
a
Cuap. XVIIL.—Anecdotes of Profefor Pallas.—His Travels and Works.—Circumftances -
of Dr. Samuel Gmelin’s Death.— Memoirs of Guldenftaedt.—His Travels into Georgia- °
and Imeretia.—Reception at the Courts of the Princes Heraclius and. Solomon.—Works
of Guldenftaedt.
THE eminent naturalift and traveller, Peter Simon Pallas *, is fon-of Simon Pallas, .
a native of Johannifburgh in Pruffia, who was profeflor of furgery at Berlin, and
diftinguifhed himfelf among the writers of phyfic, by a Treatife on the Operations of
Surgery, publifhed in 1763; and by a Supplement on the Difeafes of the Bowels, in
1770, in which year he died, at the age of feventy-fix.
Peter Simon Pallas was born at Berlin, on the 22d of September 1741. He re-
ceived the early part of his education from private tutors in his father’s houfe, under
whom he made an aftonifhing progrefs. Among the preceptors to whom the great na-
turalift expreffes his particular obligations, mult be diftinguifhed John Martin Sheyling,
who behaved to him more like a friend than a mafter. Sheyling being not an inelegant
writer, and particularly attached to poetry, the young fcholar imbibed from his
mafter’s inftructions and example a tafte for poetry, and compofed feveral pieces in
verfe, which have been given to the public. To the fame perfon he was. likewife in-
debted to a very early attachment to entomology. Being deftined to ftudy phyfic fo
early as the thirteenth year of his age, he attended a courfe of le€tures on anatomy,
® Tam indebted to Mr. Pallas:himfelf, for many anecdotes of his early life, and for fome part of the
remaining account of the learned profeffor to my ingenious friend Dr. Pulteney, well known te the public
by his « General View of the Wnitings of Linnzus.””
phy-
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