BAY 



BAY 



argumentation he had fpent his Vii-i in acquirinn;." The text 

 is concil'e ; but the notes, which contain much valuable in- 

 formation, are fpun out to a tircfomc and uninterefting 

 length. This didtionary, generally fo well received, and 

 containing a variety of unexceptionable matter, difplayed 

 freedoms of fcvenil kinds, both as to lentiment and ditlion, 

 which were not liii^ly to efcape cenfure. Jurieu, the avowed 

 and implacable antagoniil of Bayle, attacked it from the 

 prefs, and endeavoured to procure its condemnation from 

 the ecclelialb'cal afTemblies. The confiflory of the Walloon 

 church of Rotterdam contented itfelf with the detail of fe- 

 vcral objections againft particular articles, for which indeed 

 no fatisfaiilory apology can be offered ; but fatisiied with 

 Mr. Bayle's promife of amendment in a fecond edition, they 

 proceeded no further. In 1702, Mr. Bayle pubhfhed a fe- 

 cond edition, with many additions. In the following year 

 he wrote a volume entitled, " Reponfe aux Qnellions d'un 

 Provincial," containing an entertaining and inltruftive vari- 

 ety of liii^orical, critical, and hternry obfcrvations, to which 

 he added a fecond and third volume in 170J, and a fourth in 

 1706. In 1704, he publiihed " A Vindication of his 

 Thoughts on Comets," which involved him in utw difpntes, 

 particularly v^'ith the ingenious and learned Le Clerc. With 

 his fame his adverfaries multiplied ; and attempts were made 

 to prejudice lord Sunderland, the Enghih minilter of ftate, 

 againil him, and to procure his e.xclufion from the United 

 States, as a man who was not only an enemy to religion, but 

 chargeable with trealon againft the government. The ilorm, 

 however, was diverted by the influence of lord Shaftelhury. He 

 was offered atthis time a liberal provifion and hofpitable refuge 

 by feveral perfons of diftintf ion in England ; but he declined 

 all thefe generous propofals. The decline of his health made 

 him averfe from changing his htuation ; and towards the 

 clofe of the year 1706, he was reduced by a pulmonaiy 

 diforder, which was hereditary, to a very weak ftate. The 

 approaches of death were regarded by him with philofo- 

 phical firmnefs, nor did he intermit his literaiy labours to 

 the lall period of his life. In the morning of December 

 28, 1706, when his landlady entered his chamber, he aiked 

 her in a faint voice if his tire was kindled, and immediately 

 expired ; having attained the age of fomewhat more tlian 

 59 years. 



By his panegyrifts, Mr. BayU's talents, learning, and 

 powers of reafoning have been undnly extolled ; by his ad- 

 verfaries they have been no Icfs unjuftly degraded. M. le 

 Clerc, who belongs to tlie latter clals, and whofe judgment 

 is evidently biaflcd by prejudice, has not allowed him the 

 merit to which he is unqueltionably entitled. He reprefents 

 him as fo ignorant of geometry, that, according to his own 

 confefTion, he could never underiland the demonftration of 

 Euclid's tirll problem, and as hiving written in the latter 

 period of his life againil the evidence of mathematical de- 

 monftration. As a reafoner, he fays, he had no fettled prin- 

 ciples, and he argued only with a defign to puzzle the un- 

 learned readers. His arguments, he adds, contain much 

 more froth and empty words than found reafoning. He 

 was unacquainted with the books written in England upon 

 experimental philoiophy, and undcrftood only a little of the 

 philofophy of Des Cartes. He had perufed only a few 

 tranflations of EngHfli books upon metaphyfical fubjefts. 

 His knowledge of divinity was Jerived from his catechifm, 

 from fermons, or from a few French books. In ecclefiafti- 

 cal antiquity, and in that of Greece and Rome, he was in- 

 differently (killed ; law and phyfic were to him hidden trea- 

 fures ; and his knowledge of modern hiftory was partial and 

 imperfect. He had coUefted with great labour a thoufand 

 literary trifles and inconfiderable circumftances ; and though 

 he wrote in a very agreeable manner, it was only when he 



was not in a pafTicn. R?iurin fays of him, that he was one 

 of thofe extraordinary men, v.'hofe oppofite qualities leave 

 room to doubt whether we ought to look upon him as the 

 bed or the worft of men. On the one hand, he was a great 

 philofopher, knowing how to diftinguifli truth from falfe- 

 hood, and perceiving at one view all the confequences of a 

 principle and their conneftion ; and on the other hand, a 

 great fophift, confounding truth with falfehood, and deduc- 

 ing falfe inferences from his affumed principles. On the one 

 hand, a mail of learning and knov/ledge, who had read all 

 that can be read, and remem.bered all that can be remem- 

 bered ; and on the other, ignorant, or feigning ignorance, 

 with regard to the moft common uibjciits, propofuig diffi- 

 culties which have been a thoufand times f;)lved, and urging 

 objections which a (chool-boy conld nut make without blufti- 

 ing. On the one hand, attacking the moll eminent men, 

 opening a large field for their labours, and giving them a 

 great deal of trouble to vai.q'.'.ifti him ; and on the other, 

 ufing the worft authors, to wliom he was lavifli of his praifes, 

 and difgracing his works by fuch names (meaning probably 

 Brantome and Rabelais) as a learned mouth never pronounced. 

 On the one hand, free, at leaft in appearance, from all the 

 pafiions which are inconfiftent with the fpirit of Chriftianity, 

 grave in his difcourfes, temperate in his diet, auftere in his 

 manner of hving ; and on the other, employing all the 

 ftrength of his genius to overthrow the foundations of mo- 

 ral virtue, and attackiag as much as lay in his power, chaf- 

 tity, modcfty, and all the Chriftiau virtues. On the one 

 hand, appealing to the throne of the moft fevere orthodoxy, 

 going to the pureft fpiings, and borrowing his arguments 

 from the leaft fufpefted writers ; and on the other, following 

 the paths of heretics, propofmg again the objedlions of the 

 ancient herefiarchs, lending them new arms, and collettino- 

 together in one age all the errors of pall ages. The elo- 

 quent preacher clufes this detail with the following benevo- 

 lent wilhes : " May that man, who had been endowed with 

 fo many talents, be acqultted^before God of the ill ufe he 

 made of them ! May that Jcfus, v/hom he fo often attacked, 

 have expiated his fins!" 



Voltaire, fpjaking of his Critical Ditlionary, fays, " It 

 is the firft work of the kind in which a man may learn to 

 tliink." He cenfnres, however, thofe articles which con- 

 tain only a detail of minute fails, as unworthy either of 

 Bayle, an intelligent reader, or pofterity. " In placing 

 him," adds this author, " among the writers who do ho- 

 nour to the age of Louis XIV. although a refugee in Hol- 

 land, I only conform to the decree of the parliament of 

 Touloufe ; which, wlien it declared his will valid in France, 

 notwithftanding the rigour of the laws, exprefsly faid, " that 

 fuch a man could not be confidered as a foreigner." " With- 

 out a country, or a patron, or a prejudice," fays Gibbon in his 

 " Mifcellaneous Works," Bayle claimed the liberty, and 

 fubhrted by the labours of his pen. The inequality of his 

 voluminous works is explained and excuftd by his alternately 

 writing for himfelf, for the bookfellers, and for pofterity ; and 

 if a fevere critic would reduce him to a fingle folio, that relic, 

 hke the books of the Sibyl, would become ftill more valua- 

 ble. The ancient paradox of Plutarch, continues this writ- 

 er, that atheilm is lefs pernicious than fuperftition, acquires 

 a tenfold vigour when it is adorned with the colours of his 

 wit, and pointed with the acutenefs of his logic. His " Cri- 

 tical Dictionary" is a vaft repofitory of fafts and opinions, 

 and he balances the falfe religions in his fceptical fcales, till 

 the oppofite quantities, adopting the language of algebra, 

 annihilate each other. The wonderful power which he fo 

 boldly exercifed of aflembhng doubts and objections had 

 tempted him jocofely to alFume the title of the vtf'.Xr.y.^i'M 

 Ziv;, the cloud-compcU'w^ Jove ; and in a converfation witli 



tlie 



