BAR 



tranfcript, it was by fome contrivance and with the help of 

 a retentive memory that he wan able to bring away a fpeci- 

 men of the moft ancient mode of writing praftifcd by tlie 

 Greeks. On his return to Rome he gained great applaufe 

 for a new and ingenious explanation of the famous mofaic 

 at Paleftrina, the ancient Prxntfle, which, according to 

 him, related not to Sylla, but to the emperor Adrian. la 

 1757, Barthelem.y returned with his patron M. de Stainville 

 to Paris, who, on his acceflion to the office of prime mini- 

 fter in 1758, anticipated arid more than gratified his wiflies, 

 which wtre moderate, by various penfions, and at length 

 by the place of fecretary-general of the Swifs. When his 

 patron Choifeul was ban'fhed, in 1771, to his feat of Chan- 

 teloup, in order to make way .for D'Aiguillon, Barthele- 

 my accompanied him in his exile, and as he determined to re- 

 iign his fccretnrvdiip, an accommodation took place, by 

 wliich he retained a penfion of 10,000 livres on the poll. 

 His income was now about 35,000 livres per annum, which 

 he reduced, by feverril grants to indigent men of letters, to 

 25,000. This income he enioyed with liberality; and he de- 

 roted a great part of il to the benefit of his family, and to 

 the purchafe of an ample and weli-Wcdled library. Thus 

 twenty years of his life were fpent in literary a.lluence ; but 

 in advanced a^e he found himfcif reduced, by the fuppref- 

 fion of places and penf rns, to mere nectfTaries ; and thcfe 

 he was obliged to procure by parting with his library. This 

 reverfe of condition, however, he fupportcd not only with- 

 out complaint, b;!t even with gaiety. Hi« celebrated work, 

 " Tlie Travels of the younger Anacharfis," had been the 

 labour and amufement of thirty years ; its plan was laid in 

 1757, and it was publiflied in 1788. It was received with 

 univerfal applaufe, and in confequence of it he was admitted 

 into the French academy by acclamation. Declining the 

 office of king's librarian, which was offered to him in 1790, 

 he continued to employ hmifelf in the cabinet of medals, 

 which had been augmented under his direftion, fo as to 

 have doubled its number of ancient medals. It was his wifh 

 to have pubhfhed a catalogue of its treafures, with fuitable 

 engravings, for the information of the leaj-ned throu.ghout 

 Europe ; but though he had obtained, in 17S7, the concur- 

 rence of the miniflry, the embarraflTment of the finances, and 

 the critical events that diflreffed the countr)', prevented the 

 execution of this favourite projett. In 1792, the infirmi- 

 ties of age crowded upon him ; and the calamities of the 

 times, wliich a perfon of his age and charafter might have 

 hoped to efcape, aggravated his other complai.its. Having 

 been dtnot;nccd under pretence of the cri'ne of ariftocracy 

 by a clerk belonging to the hbrary whom he had never fccn, 

 he was arrefted, and reinoved from the houfe of Mad. de 

 Choifeul, on the 2d of September i 79 v to the prifon of 

 the Macdelonettes. Vrijili fucii fingular patience did he 

 fubmit to his fate, that when he was conducted to the 

 cell that had been prepared for him, he quietly repofed. 

 An order, however, was foon itTued for h.is liberation, and 

 he was awaked out of flcep, and carried back to the 

 houfe of his kind and liberal patronefs. By v/ay of repa- 

 ration for this unmerited aggrtiiiou, he was ofttred the place 

 of chief librarian ; but his increafir.g in'irmitits were a fuf- 

 ficient apology for declining it. His decay was gradual ; 

 but the feverity of the winter of i 79J haflened the termi- 

 nation of his life, wliich happened on the 30th of April, 

 on which day, two hours before his death, he was rerding 

 Horace, till the book fell from his cold hands. He then 

 appeared to go to flecp, and in that Hate expired ; having 

 attained to tlic commencement of his 8cth year. His cor- 

 poreal form is faid to liavc been imprtlTcd Vvith an antique 

 Vol. III. 



BAR 



chara£ler ; and his buft, fculptured by Houdon, and ex- 

 prtffive of the fimple tranquillity and candour of a great 

 mind, might fuitably be placed between thofe of Plato and 

 Arillotle. The principal work of this truly eminent perfon 

 is his " Voyage de jeune Anacharfis en Grece," 3 vols. 4to. 

 or 7 vols. 8vo., which details the hiftor)-, manners, cuftoms, 

 literature, &c. of Greece, under the form of the fuppofcd 

 obfervations of a traveller Anacharfis, a defcendant of the 

 ancient Scythian philofopher of this name. (See An AC H ar- 

 sis.) This perfon (fee the author's advertifement prefixed 

 to the work) is reprefcnted as vifiting Greece in the year 

 363 B. C. and fixing his refidence at Athens, whence he 

 makes excurfions, not only to the other Grecian cities, but 

 to Egypt, Afia Minor, Perfia, and the iflands of the 

 iEgean fea. On this bafis of fidion is formed a real and 

 inliruftive hiftoiy, fupportcd by the authority of the moft 

 approved ancient writers and by citations from their works. 

 The narrative of Anacharfis is addreffed to Arfames and 

 Phedime, a Pciiian fatrap and his lady, whofe cliaraders 

 are meant as portraits of the duke and duchcfs of Choifeul. 

 It is preceded by an intiodudion, in which is given a rapid 

 but luminous view of the previous hiltory of Greece. The 

 "elegance of ftyle, the beauties of narration, and the judi- 

 cioufnefj of refleftion, render this the fidl work (fays a 

 biographer of approved judgment and tafle) in point of en- 

 tertainment and inftruftion, that fo brilliant a fubjtd ha» 

 produced. It has added a capital piece to the literary ca- 

 binet of Europe, and its value has already been recoguifcd 

 by various editions, and trandations into different languages. 

 To the Englifli edition in feven volumes Svo. is added'an 

 eighth in 4I0. containing maps, plans, vicv/s, and coin', i!iuf- 

 trative of the geography and antiquities of ancier.t Greece. 

 An anonymous writer (fee Monthly Review, Appendix to 

 vol. Ixxxi.) has fuggefled, that the'learned author of Ana- 

 charfis may have taken the hint of his plan ti.ni the 

 " Athenian Letters," confiiling of the imagiaarv corre- 

 fpondenceof a fet of Grei.k gentlemen, the contemporaries 

 of Socrates, Pericles, and Plato ; but in reality the aftnal 

 correfpondence of a fociety of ingenious perfjns of the 

 univerfity of Cambridge, who, in this affumed mode, com- 

 municated to each other the rcfult of their rtfearches into 

 ancient hiflory, and produced the bell commentary on Thi;. 

 cydides that ever was written. However, the abbs Ear- 

 thelemy having fecn this in France, f?ys theEnghH) tranlla- 

 tor, wrote a letter in confequence to M. Dutens, a i-efi;c£t- 

 able foreign gentleman refiding in London, in which h.j af- 

 fures him that "it was not till after the publication of his 

 work, that he heard of the Ather.ian letters; and that • 

 chance alone gave him the idea of it." A collection of 

 mifccllnneous pieces of the abbe Barthelemr, in 2 vols. Svo. 

 was publifhed at Paris in 1790. Gen. Bio'T. 



Barthelemy, St. in Gcogr.ij-.hy, a town of France, io 

 the department of the Lot iaid Garonne, and ciiitf place 

 of a canton in the diilritl 01 Laufun, 2 | leagues north of 

 Tonneins. 



BARTHIUS, Caspar, in Bkgrnphy. a learned philo- 

 logical writer of the fixtcaith cn!t->!ry,"was horn at Cuiliin, 

 in Brandenburg, in 1587, and received his education at 

 Gotha, i-nd in ftveral ether academies both in Germany and 

 Italy. His talents and attainments attrafled notice at a vtry 

 early period. At the age of 12 years he traiiflated David's 

 pfslms into verfe, and in 1607 he printed a coUtCiion of all 

 his Latin poems, written from his 13th to his 19th year. 

 In his i6'h year he compofed a learned differtation on the 

 mcthodof reading the Ron;an aut'urt, ard at 18 he wrote 

 a commentarj- on the jEneis of Virgil. His acquaintance 

 4 Y with 



