IVETAUX (NICHOLAS VANQUELIN, seigneur des), a French poet, was born of a respectable family at la Fresnaye, a castle near Falaise. He discovered early a taste

for poetry and the belles lettres, and, after having distinguished himself as a student at Caen, succeeded his father as lieutenant-general of the city; but the marechal d'Estrées persuaded him to resign his post and go to court, where he placed him with M. de Vendôme, son of the celebrated Gabrielle d'Estrées. It was for this young prince that des Ivetaux wrote his poem of "L'Institution du Prince," in which he gives his pupil very sensible, judicious, and even religious advice. After this he was preceptor to the dauphin, afterwards Louis XIII; but his licentious way of life displeased the queen, and occasioned him to be excluded from the court a year after Henry IV. died. A pension and several benefices were, however, given him; but he afterwards resigned his benefices, on being reproached by cardinal Richelieu for his libertinism. Thus free from all restraint, des Ivetaux retired to an elegant house in the fauxbourg St. Germain, where he spent the rest of his days in pleasure and voluptuousness, living in the Epicurean style. Fancying that the pastoral life was the happiest, he dressed himself like a shepherd, and led imaginary flocks about the walks of his garden, repeating to them his lays, accompanied by a girl in the dress of a shepherdess, whom he had picked up with her harp in the streets, and taken for his mistress. Their whole employment was to seek refinements in pleasures, and every day they studied how to render them more exquisite. Thus des Ivetaux passed his latter years; and it has been said that he ordered a saraband to be played when he was dying, to sooth his departing soul; but M. Huet, on the contrary, affirms, that he repented of his errors at the point of death. However that may be, he died in his ninetieth year, at Brianval, near Germigni, in 1649. Besides the poem above mentioned, des Ivetaux left stanzas, sonnets, and other poetical pieces, in the "Délices de la Poésie Françoise," Paris, 1620, 8vo.1

1 Moreri.-Dict. Hist. de L'Avocat.

KABEL. See CABEL.

K.

KAEMPFER (ENGELBERT), an eminent traveller, was born Sept. 16, 1651, at Lemgow in Westphalia, where his father was a minister. After studying in several towns, and making a quick progress, not only in the learned languages, but also in history, geography, and music, vocal and instrumental, he went to Dantzick, where he made some stay, and gave the first public specimen of his proficiency by a dissertation "De Divisione Majestatis," in 1673. He then went to Thorn, and thence to the university of Cracow; where, for three years, studying philosophy and foreign languages, he took the degree of doctor in philosophy; and then went to Koningsberg, in Prussia, where he stayed four years. All this while he applied himself very intensely to physic and natural history. He next travelled to Sweden, where he soon recommended himself to the university of Upsal, and to the court of Charles XI. a great encourager of learning; insomuch that great offers were made him, upon condition that he would settle there. But he chose to accept the employment of secretary of the embassy, which the court of Sweden was then sending to the sophi of Persia; and in this capacity he set out from Stockholm, March 20, 1683. He went through Aaland, Finland, and ingermanland, to Narva, where he met Fabricius the ambassador, with whom he arrived at Moscow the 7th of July. The negociations at the Russian court being ended, they proceeded on to Persia; but had like to have been lost in their passage over the Caspian sea, by an unexpected storm and the unskilfulness of their pilots. During their stay in Georgia, Kæmpfer went in search of simples, and of all the curiosities that could be met with in those parts. He visited all the neighbourhood or Siamachi; and to these laborious and learned excursions we owe the many curious and accurate accounts he has given us in his "Amoenitates Exotica," published at Lemgow, in 1712.

Fabricius arrived at Ispahan in Jan. 1684, and stayed there near two years; during all which time of his abode in the capital of the Persian empire, Kæmpfer made every possible advantage. The ambassador, having ended his negociations towards the close of 1685, prepared to return into Europe; but Kæmpfer did not judge it expedient to return with him, resolving to go farther into the east, and make still greater acquisitions by travelling. With this view he entered into the service of the Dutch East-India company, in the quality of chief surgeon to the fleet, which was then cruising in the Persian Gulph, but set out for Gamron Nov. 1685. He stayed some time in Sijras, where he visited the remains of the ancient Persepolis, and the royal palace of Darius, whose scattered ruins are still an undeniable monument of its former splendor and greatness. As soon as he arrived at Gamron he was seized with a violent fit of sickness, which was near carrying him off; but, happily recovering, he spent a summer in the neighbourhood of it, and made a great number of curious observations. He did not leave that city till June 1688, and then embarked for Batavia; whither, after touching at many Dutch settlements, in Arabia Felix, on the coasts of Malabar, in the island of Ceylon, and in the gulph of Bengal, he arrived in September. This city having been so particularly described by other writers, he turned his thoughts chiefly to the natural history of the country about it. He possessed many qualifications necessary for making a good botanist; he had a competent knowledge of it already, a body inured to hardships, a great stock of industry, and an excellent hand at designing. In May 1690, he set out from Batavia on his voyage to Japan, in quality of physician to the embassy, which the Dutch East-India company used to send once a year to the Japanese emperor's court; and he spent two years in this country, making all the while most diligent researches into every thing relating to it. He quitted Japan in order to return to Europe, Nov. 1692, and Batavia, Feb. 1693. He stayed near a month at the Cape of Good-Hope, and arrived at Amsterdam in October.

April 1694, he took a doctor of physic's degree at Leyden, on which occasion he communicated, in his thesis, some very singular observations, which we shall presently notice. At his return to his native country he intended immediately to digest his papers and memoirs into proper VOL. XIX. S

order; but, being appointed physician to his prince, he fell into too much practice to pursue that design with the vigour he desired. He married the daughter of an eminent merchant at Stolzenau in 1700. The long course of travels, the fatigue of his profession, and some family-uneasinesses, arising (as it is said) from the debts he had contracted, had very much impaired his constitution; so that, after a variety of ailments, he died Nov. 2, 1716.

His inaugural dissertation, before noticed, and published at Leyden in 1694, is entitled "Decas observationum exoticarum." Of this an unique copy is preserved in Sir James Smith's library. The subjects on which it treats are, 1, the agnus Scythicus, or Borometz; 2, the bitterness of the Caspian sea; 3, of the native mumia, or bitumen, of Persia; 4, of the torpedo, or electrical fish of the Persian gulph; 5, of the drug called dragon's blood, produced by the fruit of a palm; 6, of the dracunculus of the Persians, a sort of worm proceeding from a tumour in the skin; 7, on the andrum, or endemic hydrocele of the Malabars; 8, on the perical, or ulcer of the feet among the same people; 9, on the cure of the colic amongst the Japanese by puncture with a needle; 10, on the moxa, or actual cautery, of the same people and the Chinese. These subjects are, as Haller observes, all of them probably treated more fully in his "Amanitates Exoticæ," so often quoted by Linnæus for its botany, as well as other authors for its authentic details, relating to the history and manners of Persia, and other parts of the east. His History of Japan is well known by the English translation in folio, and is extremely valued for its accuracy and fidelity. It was published in 2 vols. fol. Lond. 1728. Kaempfer, we have remarked, was skilled in the use of the pencil; and some botanical drawings of his, made in Japan, are preserved in the British museum. Of these sir Joseph Banks, in 1791, liberally presented the learned world with 59 folio engravings at his own expence. Many of the plants are still undetermined by systematic botanists.

1

KAHLER (WIGAND, or JOHN), a learned and indefatigable German writer, and Lutheran divine, was born January 20, 1649, at Wolmar, in the landgraviate of HesseCassel. He was professor of poetry, mathematics, and divinity at Rinteln, and member of the society of Gottingen.

Niceron, vol. XIX.-Gen. Dict.-Moreri.-Haller, Bibl. Bot.-Rees's Cyslopædia.-Life prefixed to his History of Japan.

ters.

He died May 17, 1729, leaving two sons and four daughA great number of his "Dissertations" are collected in two volumes, printed at Rinteln, 1700, and 1711, under the title of "Dissertationes Juveniles;" the principal are, "De oceano ejusque proprietatibus et vario motu; De libertate Dei; De terra; De reflexione luminis ejusque effectu; De imputatione peccati alieni, et speciatim Adamici; De Poligamiâ," &c.1

KALDI (GEORGE), a learned Jesuit, was born in Tirnaw in Hungary, about 1572, was received into the Jesuits' order at Rome, and returning to his own country, was Danished into Transylvania, with the other members of the society, during the commotions which, at that time, agitated the kingdom. After this he discharged the duty of theological professor in the university of Olmutz, and filled some other important posts in different places. His last retreat was to a college which he built at Presburg, where he died in 1634. He was regarded as one of the most eloquent preachers in Hungary, and published some sermons, but he is chiefly celebrated for having completed a translation of the Bible from the Vulgate into the Hungarian tongue, which was printed at Vienna, in 1626.1

KALE, or KALF (WILLIAM), a painter of still life, was born at Amsterdam in 1630, and was a disciple of Hendrick Pot, a portrait and historical painter; of whom he learned the practice of the art, but from whom he varied in the application of it; and applied his talents, which were very considerable, in a close imitation of objects in still life; which he composed with great beauty and effect. In the gallery of the Louvre at Paris, are two exquisite works of his, in which he is said to unite the merits of Rembrandt and Teniers. He possessed an eye informed with the power of Rembrandt's arrangements and contrast of light and shade, and a hand, that managed the pencil with the neatness and correctness of Teniers. He died in 1693.3 KALKAR. See CALCAR.

1

KALM (PETER), a very celebrated naturalist, was a native of Finland, and was born in 1715. Having imbibed a taste for the study of natural history, it appears that he pursued his inclination with much zeal and industry. His first researches were rewarded by the discovery of many new plants in Sweden, of which he gave some account to