* HEIBERG, JOHAN LUDWIG, a Danish metaphysician and comic dramatist, was born at Copenhagen on the 14th of December 1791. At the age of eight years he lost the care of his father [Halszno, PETER ANDREAS], who was banished for sedition, and emigrated to France. The next two years of the boy's life were spent under the roof of his father's friend, the indefatigable Knud Lytle Rahbek, whose house was at that time the usual place of assem blage for half the literary men of Copenhagen. From Rahbek'a ha went to school, and at the age of thirteen took up his residence with his mother, who, remaining in Denmark after the banishment of her husband, had married another banished man, the Swedish Count Ehrensvtird, one of the conspirators against Gustavus III., who resided at Copenhagen under the name of Gyllenborg. The house of Madame Gyllenborg was the favourite resort of Oehlenschlager and Oersted, and young Heiberg found himself again surrounded with the best literary society. In 1811 he produced his first drama, Tyge Brahes Spaadom,' or Tycho Braha's Prediction ;' and in 1816 another, `Julespog och Nytaarsloier ' (' Christmas Fun and New Year's Laughter'). He had taken a degree at the university iu 1809, and in 1817 he wrote a characteristic dissertation for the attainment of the doctorate in philosophy : De poeseos dramaticm genera Hispanico at prmsertim de Petro Calderone de la Berea, principa dramaticorum.' At the age of twenty-seven he was still without a profession, and afterwards said that he did not know himself if be should become "a poet or a critic, a physician or a naturalist, a diplomatist or a Bur veyor." From this embarassment he was relieved by receiving from government a travelling pension, which enabled him to pay a short visit to London, and to stop three years at Paris, where he lived at his father's, and saw much of the beat Parisian society. At Paris he earned part of his living as a professor of the guitar ; and ou his return to Denmark in 1822 he obtained the post of professor of the Danish language at the University of Kiel, iu Holstein. The dullness of a residence in the provinces was insupportable to him, and ha threw up the situation after three years. In the meantime he had directed his attention to metaphysics, and took a trip to Berlin to make him self personally acquainted with Hegel and the Hegelian philosophy, but was returning home unable to comprehend it when, according to his own account, the "central thought" of the whole system flashed on him all at once iu a moment at Hamburg. Another thought which
occurred to him about the same time was, to try to introduce on the Danish stage an imitation of the French vaudevilles. The first drama of the kind—' King Solomon and the Hatter,' produced in November 1825—had the most brilliant success, and was acted more than fifty times. It was speedily followed by several others—' The Danes in Paris," No,' &c., and in 1828 by 'Elverhiii; or The Fairies' Hillock,' a play in five acts : the success of all of which was so decided that in 1829 he received the appointment of Royal Dramatic Poet and Translator, an important official post connected with the theatre. Two years after he married Johanna Louisa Patges, a rising actress, who is now, as Madame Heiberg, considered the principal ornament of the Danish stage. In 1830 ha was appointed teacher of logic, Diabetics, and Danish literature at the Military High-School. Since that period Heiberg has produced several works of reputation in both the drama and philosophy, and is still one of the leading personages of Danish literature. In his 'Now Poems,' published in 1841, ' A Soul after Death' was particularly noticed. His Outlines of the Philosophy of Philosophy, or Speculative Logic,' were followed by a periodical under the name of 'Perseus, or a Journal for Speculative Ideas,' commenced in 1837, but which was not of long duration. A periodical of a different kind, The Flying Post of Copenhagen,' which was edited in 1827 and 1828 and also at a later data by Heiberg, was eminently popular. In it first appeared, anonymously, the 'Every-Day Story,' which is considered ono of the finest of Danish novels, the authorship of which and of those which followed it by the same hand was often attributed to Heiberg himself till it was ascer tained that they were from the pen of his mother, Madame Gyllenborg. The position of women in society has been one of the subjects that have recently engaged his attention, and several pamphlets for and against the doctrines which he advocates have testified to the interest which his views awaken in the Danish public. A collection of his works up to that time was published more than ten years ago.