Friedrieh Bouterwer, a German metaphysician and writer on aesthetics, born at Oker, near Goslar, April 15, 1766, died at Gottingen, Aug. 9, 1828. He began the study of law at the university of Gottingen, but soon neglected it to devote himself to literary pursuits, and wrote a number of poems and a romance, Graf Donamar (republished at Gottingen in 1800). In 1787 he went to Hanover and afterward to Berlin; but, discouraged at the cold reception of his works, he returned in 1789, and applied himself to philosophy and literary history. He became a supporter of Kant, and delivered a course of lectures on his doctrines. In 1797 he was appointed adjunct professor of philosophy at Gottingen, and in 1802 full professor. From a disciple of Kant he became an ardent follower of Jacobi, his Lehrbuch der philosophischen Wissenschaften (2 vols., Gottingen, 1813; 2d ed., 1820) and his Religion der Vernunft (Gottingen, 1824) supporting opinions exactly opposed to those of his Ideen zu einer allgemeinen Apodiktik (1799). His principal and most famous work was his Ge-schichte der neuern Poesie und Beredsamkeit (12 vols., Gottingen, 1801-'19). The section of this work relating to Spanish literature has acquired an especially wide reputation; it has been translated into Spanish, and into English (2 vols., London, 1823). He also published Aesthetik (1806; with large additions, Leipsic, 1824) and Kleine Schriften (1818).