KIRCHER, Athanasius, a Jesuit, and one of the most learned and laborious men that this celebrated order has ever produced, was born on the 2d of May 1602, at Geysen, a small town near Fulde in Germany. His parents were humble, but respectable, and exerted themselves to give him a good education. Having finished his studies, he entered the society of the Jesuits, where he found new means of satisfying his passion for learning, and applied himself to physics, natural history, mathematics, and ancient languages, embracing with equal ardour almost every department of knowledge. Being appointed to teach philosophy, and afterwards the oriental languages, in the college of Wurtzbourg, he acquitted himself of this double duty in the most satisfactory manner. But the Thirty Years’ War, having interrupted his useful labours, and disturbed his repose, forced him to quit the country where he had already distinguished himself. He retired into France, and first settled in the Jesuits’ College at Avignon, where he passed two years, entirely occupied with the study of antiquities. It was during his residence in this city that he became acquainted with the learned Peiresc, who advised him to attempt the explication of the Egyptian hieroglyphics; a task to which he afterwards applied himself with great zeal, though, unfortunately, with but indifferent success. Having received an appointment to the professorship of mathematics at Vienna, be was preparing to return to Germany, when he received an order to repair to Rome, whither he accordingly proceeded without delay. In 1637, the pope charged him to accompany Cardinal Frederick of Saxony to Malta, where he was received by the grand-master of the order of knights of St John and Jerusalem with much distinction. He next visited Sicily and the kingdom of Naples, and then proceeded to take possession of the chair of mathematics in the Roman College; a situation which he filled for eight years, at the end of which he obtained permission of his superiors to discontinue teaching in order to apply himself to other pursuits. He had a dispute with Father Maignan respecting the invention of an optical instrument; but though the affair made some noise, the question of priority remained undecided. Kircher died at Rome, on the 28th of November 1680, the same day on which Bernin and Grimaldi expired. He was a man of extraordinary but ill-digested erudition, without critical judgment. He was gifted with a strong imagination, vast memory, and indefatigable patience; but, notwithstanding his persevering application, be found himself unable to verify the facts stated in his works; and he had, besides, the folly to attempt to explain everything, by which means he fell into serious errors, and his fidelity was even brought into question. For an account of his fanciful and abortive efforts to penetrate the mystery of the Egyptian inscriptions, the reader is referred to the introductory section of the article Hieroglyphics in this work. Several sovereigns, and amongst these Augustus duke of Brunswick, furnished him with the sums necessary for his experiments, and also transmitted to him rare and curious articles, with which he formed one of the most valuable cabinets which had yet been seen; whilst the most distinguished foreigners who visited Rome failed not to pay their respects to the learned Jesuit. The works of Kircher are very numerous, and would merit a detailed notice; but all that is consistent with the object of this notice of his life is merely to subjoin a list of the more important. They may be divided into three classes, according as they relate to the physical sciences and mathematics, languages and hieroglyphics, history and antiquities, not to mention some smaller productions of an ascetic character, which cannot be included under any of these heads. And they are as follow, viz. 1. Ars Magnetica, sive Conclusiones Experimentales de effectibus Magnetis, Wurtzbourg, 1631, in 4to; 2. Magnes sive de arļe magnetica Opus tripartitum, Rome, 1641, in 4to; 3. Magneticum Naturae regnum, sive Disceptatio physiologica de triplici in natura rerum magnete, Rome, 1667, in 4to; 4. Ars magna Lucis et Umbrae in x. libros digesta, Rome, 1645, 1646, in folio; 5. Misurgia universalis, sive ars magna consoni et dissoni in x. libros digesta, Rome, 1650, in two vols. folio; 6. Phonurgia nova de prodigiosis sonorum effectibus et sermocinatione per machinas sono animatas, Kempten, 1673, in folio; 7. Mundus Subterraneus, in quo universae naturae majestas et divitiae demonstrantur, Amsterdam, 1664 or 1668, in two vols. folio; 8. Primitiae Gnomonicae Catoptricae, hoc est horologiographiae novae specularis, Avignon, 1633, 1635, in 4to; 9. Specula Melitensis encyclica, sive syntagma novorum instrumentorum physicomathematicoum, Messina, 1638, in 12rao; 10. Arithmologia, sive de occultis ι Numerorum mysteriis, Rome, 1665, in 4to; 11. Tarifla Kircheriana, sive mensa Pythagorica expansa, Rome, 1679, in 12mo; 12. Itinerarium extaticum quo Mundi opificium nova hypothesi exponitur, Rome, 1656, in 4to; 13. Iter extaticum qui et Mundi subterranei prodromus dicitur, quo geocosmi opificium sive terrestris globi structura exponitur, Rome, 1657, in 4to; 14. Diatribe de prodigiosis crucibus quae non pridem post ultimum incendium Vesuvii montis Neapoli com-paruerunt, Rome, 1681, in 8vo; 15. Scrutinium physicomedicum contagiosae luis quae pestis dicitur, Rome, 1658, in 4to; 16. Ars magna sciendi seu combinatoria, in xii. libros digesta, Amsterdam, 1669, in folio; 16. Prodromus Copticus sive Aegyptiacus, in quo linguae Coptae sive Aegyptiacae, quondam Pharaonicae, origo, actas, &c. exhibentur, Rome, 1636, in 4to; 18. Lingua Aegyptiaca restituta, sive Institutiones grammaticales et Lexico Copticum, Rome, 1644, in 4to; 19. Obeliscus Pamphilius, hoc est Interpretatio nova, et huc usque intentata Obelisci hieroglyphici ex hippodromo Caracallae, in forum agonale translati, Rome, 1650, in folio; 20. Oedipus Aegyptiacus, hoc est universalis Hieroglyphicae veterum Doctrinae, temporum injuria abolitae, instauratio, Rome, 1652, in folio; 21. Obeliscus Chigius, Rome, 1666, in folio; 22. Sphynx mystagoga, sive diatribe hieroglyphica de mumiis, Amsterdam, 1676, in folio; 23. Polygraphia, 1680; 24. Historia Eustachii Mariana, Rome, 1665, in 4to; 25. China Illustrata, Amsterdam, 1667, in folio; 26. Latium, id est nova et parallela Latii tum veteris tum novi Descriptio, Amsterdam, 1671, in folio; and many other works, (a.)