D'ALEMBERT. 461 



them and forbade them to come within ten leagues of the 

 capital. This work of D'Alembert, the ' History/ is only 

 remarkable for its calmness and impartiality. He gives 

 the amplest praise to the dispersed body, and allows 

 them to be alone, of all the monastic orders, distinguished 

 for their genius as well as learning, while of the others 

 the only ones not sunk in ignorance were the Mendicant 

 orders and the Benedictine ; the former of whom were 

 only scholastic writers, the latter literary compilers. lie 

 also shews that the Jansenists, the implacable enemies 

 of the Jesuits, were exposed to great censure, and had 

 acted like rigorous persecutors ; and he takes the sound 

 and rational course of maintaining that the destruction 

 of one order could only be defended on principles which 

 lead to the destruction of all other orders of monks, 

 and in every state. In other respects the merit of the 

 ' History' is but moderate. There is nothing very happy 

 in the narrative, which, indeed, is unconnected, and has 

 the worst of historical faults, proceeding by way of allu- 

 sion more frequently than of plain and direct recital. 

 There is nothing very original or profound in the remarks. 

 There is nothing striking in the descriptions. The style 

 has the excellent qualities of all D'Alembert's writings, 

 clearness and simplicity, and this is the principal praise 

 to which the work is entitled. 



His translation of select passages of Tacitus, executed 

 with great zeal, as might be expected from his exagge- 

 rated admiration of that classic, and the kind of delusion 

 respecting him under which he laboured, is certainly 

 much better than his critical opinion on the original. 

 But his ideas of a translator's duties are singularly 

 incorrect. He complains of the common run of trans- 



