That he resided at Darmstadt, some 250 or 275 miles from Berlin, did
not make it impossible for him to visit the latter place. The account given
of him in the Biographie UniverseUe is as follows :

"Starck {Jean Auguste de), Preacher of the Court of Hesse-Darmstadt,
born at Schwerin, the zpth of October, 1741, was son of the President of
the Consistory of that city. Brought up in the Lutheran faith, he applied
himself by turns to theology, belles-lettres and the study of the oriental
languages, and distinguished himself by his acumen and aptitude. In 1761,
he became a member of the Teutonic Academy of Gottingen, and in 1762,
was invited to occupy the chair of Oriental Languages and Antiquities in
the College of St. Peter at Petersburg, which place he filled with distinc-
tion during two years and a half."'

Pleading a desire to travel, in order to perfect himself in his studies,
he resigned his chair and went to Paris, with recommendations from the
French Minister in Russia to the Bishop of Orleans, and others. He ar-
rived at Paris in October, 1765, and abjured Protestantism on the 8th of
February, 1766. He was offered the post of Director of the College of
St. Peter at Petersburg, and a chair in the University of Rostock; but
preferred to obtain one at Paris ; failing in which, he returned to Ger-
many, where his abjuration not being known, he resumed the exercise of
the Protestant religion.
