VERE, Maximilian, Freiherr von Schele De, scholar, born near Wexio, Sweden, 1 November, 1820. He was educated in Germany, and entered the military and afterward the diplomatic service of Prussia. He came to the United States in 1842, and in 1844 accepted the chair of modern languages in the University of Virginia. At the beginning of the civil war he entered the Confederate service as a captain, and was afterward appointed commissioner to Germany, to explain and further there the cause of the Confederacy. He lived for some time in Europe, mainly in Italy, devoting himself to literary and social studies, but returned to this country after the war and resumed his professorship. Professor De Vere is a member of various historical and scientific societies, and was one of the founders of the American philological society. Besides contributions on historical, literary, and scientific subjects, to English, American, and German periodicals, he has published" Outlines of Comparative Philology" (New York, 1853); " Grammar of the Spanish Language" (1854) ; "Stray Leaves from the Book of Nature" (1856) ; " Studies in English," "First French Reader," and" Grammar in French" (1867) ; "The Great Empress," a novel (Philadelphia, 1869) ; "Wonders of the Deep" (New York, 1869); "Introduction to the Study of French" (1870) ; "Romance of American History" (1872); "Americanisms, or the English of the New World" (1873) ; and "Modern Magic" (1874). He has translated into English Spielhagen's" Problematic Characters" (New York, 1869) ; " Through Night to Light" (1869); and "The Hohensteins" (1870) ; and has edited an edition deluxe of Saintine's " Myths of the Rhine," illustrated by Dord, and several volumes of the " Illustrated Library of Wonders." He has recently begun a revised and annotated edition of some of the masterpieces of French literature.