PROFESSOR SOPHOCLES' CAREER.

Professor Sophocles stood by collegiate seniority, third in the list of the Faculty of Harvard college, being between Professor Loveting and Professor Torry. Some printed authorities place the date of his birth 1807, one going so far as to say the 8th of March, but there is reason to doubt the accuracy of this, although it is undoubtedly nearly correct. He would never in his life give any information about himself for publication. In 1838 he published "A Greek Grammar for the Use of Learners," which reached a third edition in 1847, and in 1862 had attained a sale of 40,000 copies. Reviewers spoke very highly of it. While writing English that was compact and pure to a surprising degree, the author, being a modern Greek, had a living connection with the ancient language which gave a certainly and ease to his treatment and explanation of grammatical structure. C. C. Felton said of it in the North American Review, that he thoroughly commended it, and that it was likely to bring about a new era in the acquisition of the Greek language. The same magazine, when the second edition of the grammar came out in 1840, took occasion to say that Mr. Sophocles was well known as a gentleman of extraordinary attainments in Greek literature, and that his book was unsurpassed in the English language. In 1837 Yale College conferred upon him the degree of A. M., and Harvard did the same in 1847, afterwards giving him the degree of LL. D. in 1868. The wide sale of the grammar called forth other books, and in these the same careful, skillful hand left its marks, and the same sound judgment was manifested.

In 1849 he visited Greece, and upon his return in 1850 immediately began collecting material for the Greek dictionary. He put forth what was a sort of precursor to that work, 'A Glossary of Later and Byzantine Greek' in 1860. Alibone says of his contribution in this kind of learning, that "it was a peculiar boon to scholars and must occupy a place with the glossaries of Ducange and Charpentier." In 1860 he received the appointment to the professorship of Ancient, Byzantine, and Modern Greek which he held until his death. He again visited Greece in 1860. In 1870 he got out a subscription edition of his 'Greek Lexicon of the Roman and Byzantine Periods.' It is a work of authority still in use, and many inquiries for it in recent years have been referred to the list of subscribers in the hope that thus might be discovered a copy left, perhaps by death, unused and uncherished. A continuation of the Lexicon, comprising the period from 1100 A. D. to the present, was in course of preparation in Prof. Sophocles' hands until within a few years, when infirmity arrested his zeal and he showed a disinclination to allow his friends to get it into type. A knowledge of the condition in which this work will be found to have been left win be awaited with interest.

Of Professor Sophocles' power as a teacher it may be said he was not well adapted to the general work of instructing undergraduates; for advanced scholars, however, his influence was very stimulating, and his great knowledge of Greek literature gave him a wealth of ready and familiar illustrations. He was a great admirer of the 'Arabian Nights' and knew the whole of it, some almost believe, by heart. He has sometimes mentioned as the three best books, the Bible, the 'Arabian Nights,' and 'Don Quixote.' They contained the most, he is supposed to have thought, of the philosophy of life. He was a man who admitted very few persons to his confidence. He has always lived in Cambridge in a college dormitory. He was genial, however, and visited frequently in the families of his friends. Living as he did, his income was little used for his own needs, but he was not at all a miser. His gifts in charity were large, and he found many ways to extend a helping hand to his fellowmen. One noticeable act of generosity was his giving to his native village in Greece a system of public water-works, the need of which he saw upon his visit there. He conducted courses of study in the college until, at the beginning of last year, sickness compelled him to give up a course he contemplated giving. He had again become about well last summer, but the coming again of winter confined him to his room. He is little known to undergraduates of the present day in Cambridge, but will be greatly missed, nevertheless, from the university. [Evening Post.