3G0 



B A Y L E. 



Bayle. request. And, accordingly, M. Bayle'* Critique 

 v * Generate was burnt by the hands of the hangman, 

 and prohibited from being sold under pain of death. 

 This sentence proved as impolitic as it was oppres- 

 sive ; for, being made as public as possible, it ex- 

 cited the curiosity of the people, and determined 

 every one to peruse a volume which the king had 

 thought worthy of such a hard fate. Mr Bayle en- 

 deavoured to conceal that he was the author ; and so 

 very different was the style of his " General Criti- 

 cism'' from that of his " Letter to the Sorbonne 

 Doctor," that nobody could ever have suspected 

 them to be written by the same hand. But the se- 

 cret was very soon revealed by accident. M. Ju- 

 rieu also wrote an Answer to Maimbourg : but, 

 though able and conclusive, it was so inferior to Mr 

 Bayle's, in the public opinion, as to be almost whol- 

 ly neglected. This circumstance was a mortal of- 

 fence to Jurieu, which he ungenerously imputed to 

 Mr Bayle, and which he seems never to have for- 

 given. 



About this time Mr Bayle was powerfully solicit- 

 ed to marry. The lady who was proposed to him, 

 and who had consented to be his wife, was young, 

 beautiful, sensible, amiable, and rich. But Mr Bayle, 

 who had no ambition for wealth, and was afraid that 

 the cares of a family would interrupt his studies, po- 

 sitively refused to enter into the matrimonial connec- 

 tion. 



In 1683, he published a new edition of his Letter 

 on Comets, under the title Pcnsees Diverses ecrites 

 h I' occasion de la Comete qui parut au mois de De- 

 cembre 1680 ; and also edited, at the request of 

 some friends, several controversial pieces relating to 

 the dispute between the Catholics and the reformed. 

 In the following year he collected a number of fugi- 

 tive pieces on the Cartesian philosophy, and gave 

 them to the world. in a volume entitled, Recued de 

 quclques pieces curiew,es concernant la philosopkie de 

 Mr Descartes. He introduced them with a preface, 

 in which he gives a succinct account of each of the 

 treatises, and makes some enlightened, pertinent, and 

 feeling remarks on the degraded state to which the 

 press was reduced in France by the law of royal pri- 

 vilege, aud on the mischievous consequences which 

 must attend such an inquisitorial and oppressive rule 

 wherever it is established. 



In 1 684 he began a literary journal. This mode 

 of spreading knowledge, which now prevails so uni- 

 versally, and which has done more than any thing 

 else to enlighten the world, was first introduced by 

 Mr de Sallo, ecclesiastical counsellor in the parliament 

 of Paris, who published the Journal des Scavans in 

 1665. This work, wh'ch received great applause, 

 was imitated at Rome in 1668 by Abbot Nazari in 

 his Journal, and at Leipsic in 1682 by Menkenius, 

 in his Acta Eruditoritm. Mr Bayle was surprised 

 that nothing similar had been attempted in Holland, 

 where booksellers and learned men abounded, and 

 where so much freedom was enjoyed, and he resolved 

 to supply such an important desideratum in that 

 country. About the beginning of the year 1684, in- 

 deed, a journal was begun at Amsterdam with the 

 title of Mercurc Scavant, by one de Blegny, a sur- 

 geon of Paris : but it was so abusive and so excep- 



tionable in a variety'of points, that, so far from seem- 

 ing to Mr Bayle to supersede the necessity of the un- 

 dertaking he had in view, it only stimulated him to 

 commence it without delay. Accordingly, in the 

 month of May the first number of his Journal came 

 out, under the title of Nouvct/cs dc la Rcpublique 

 des Lettres. This work, which continued to be 

 published monthly, was divided into two parts ; the 

 first, consisting of copious extracts from other publi- 

 cations ; the second, containing a catalogue of new 

 books, accompanied with ingenious criticisms, and in- 

 teresting anecdotes and accounts of the authors. It 

 was calculated to gratify both the learned and the 

 polite world. At first it was rather profuse in its 

 commendations ; but it assumed by degrees a less 

 mild and flattering tone. Though strictly prohibited 

 from being circulated in France, many copies of it 

 were sold in thai kingdom every month : and where- 

 ever it appeared it was read with great eagerness and 

 universal applause. 



This year he had an offer from the states of Fries- 

 land of a professorship of philosophy in the univer- 

 sity of Franeker: but though the salary there was 

 nearly double of what he had at Rotterdam, and 

 though the offer was a disinterested tribute to his 

 literary merits, he declined accepting their invitation. 

 His Critique Generate was in so much request, that a 

 third edition was necessary. He published it with 

 considerable amendments, particularly in the style, 

 freeing it from those ambiguities and rhymes which, 

 he observes, it is extremely difficult to avoid in writing 

 the French language. Of this work he published a 

 continuation in 1685, under the title of Nouvelles 

 Lettres de I'Auteur de la Critique Generate, &c. 

 The continuation was not so successful. The fears 

 which the author had expressed in his advertisement 

 were realised. It was misunderstood, disliked, and 

 neglected. His journal, which had been anonymous 

 during the first year of its existence, he now thought 

 proper explicitly to avow ; not so much, he said, to 

 procure distinction to himself, as to shew that the 

 magistrates of Rotterdam, from whose new illustrious 

 school it proceeded, honoured the muses with their 

 protection. 



Mr Baylewas deeply affected by the revocation of 

 the edict of Nantes, and the horrid persecutions to 

 which the reformed in France were consequently sub- 

 jected ; and felt still more indignant when he ob- 

 served the popish writers boasting of their clemency, 

 and celebrating the immortal glory which Louis the 

 Great had acquired by rendering France entirely ca- 

 tholic. After speaking of these things in his Journal 

 with more caution than was natural to him, he at last 

 (1686) gave vent to his feelings in a little book, enti- 

 tled, Ce que c'e.'t que la France toute Catholique sous 

 le regne de Louis le Grand, in which he passes the se- 

 verest censures on France for the injustice, the 

 treachery, the cruelties which it had practised to- 

 wards the votaries of the protcstant religion. This 

 was followed by another volume written with the 

 same general view, and in a more argumentative 

 strain. Its title was Commentaire p/iilosop/iique stir 

 ces paroles de Jesus Christ conlruignez les d'entrer, &c. 

 This work should be read by every statesman and 

 divine, for the sound and liberal ideas of toleration 



Bayle. 



