: FRE 
* Forum Juli,” and the birth-place of Agricola, but it is 
now a-fmall fortified town, containi ng acathedral, a parifh 
church, and 4 convents. is fituation is marfhy and infa- 
lubrious to the left of the Argens, about half a league from 
f en Sean 12 N.W. of 
e remains oe a 
a in the province of 
Tra los Montes; 15 miles S. a Mi randela. 
FREIXIERA, a town of ee in the province of 
mi . of Amarante. 
FREMONA, a town of Ab yflinia, in the kingdom of 
Tigré, where the Portugucefe miffionaries took up their firit 
refidence ; 50 miles N.E. rof Siré. N. lat. 14°40". I. long. 
8° 18. 
: FREMONT, v’Anrancourt, Nicnonas pe, in Bio- 
srapt, hy, flourifhed towards the clofe of the 17th century. 
He was nephew of Perrot d’Ablancourt, who undertook 
the pe of his education, to which the young man did 
credit by an early difplay of his knowledge and great 
In 1663 inte ; 
edi& of Nantes he was oblige 
count of his ftead Pe ae to the Proteftant caufe. 
‘From the prince and ae of Orange he eae a pen- 
fion as hiftoriographer: ied in 1693. an author 
. Ke added -uncle’s one ion of Lucian, ‘te dialogue 
ed to his 
between the letters cf the alphabet, and the fapplement to 
: ah : 
moirs concerning the hiftory of er from the treaty of 
the Pyrenees to 1668. ?? Moreri. 
R,. in Geography, a river ot France, which runs 
FREMU 
into the Englifh channel. N. lat 35’. W. lon 
23 NCH, ame gad ay ufed, ignites the lan- 
gua e of the pee ople of Fra 
e French, -as it now flands, i is no otiginal, or mother- 
rs ‘but a medley of feveral: there is fcarcely any 
men from which it has not borrowed words, or perhaps 
ph rafe 
. The languages that prevail a -and that are, as it were,” 
the bafes ther elie: ; whether that 
in aul. 
OF thefe three en in de Pace of about fees 
hundred years, was’ ions e prefent French seine fuch a 
is now found. Its progrefs was very flow; and both ie 
Italian and. Spanifh were regular gees ious before the 
French. . 
afqui er obferves, it was under Philip de Valois that the 
French tongue firft began to be p 
the regifter “of the.chamber of accounts of that time, there 
is a punity perceived almoft equal to that of the prefent 
age. 
r, the French was ftill a very imperfect en e 
od jes ne of FraniesJ. The cuftem of {peaking Latin’ 
the bar, and of writing the public aéis and inftruments 
of the courts ae juftice ia that language, had made them 
e-. the 
. in feveral courts of Europe, French is almoft a 
7 re 
to kno 
any thing; and the generals regarded little, whether or oa 
= valle oa ere politely, provided they could but 
ght we 
cis I. oe was the pelloree of learning, and the 
father of a. learned, changed the face of things; and, after 
his time, Iicury 5 tephens~ printed his book, “ Dela Precel- 
lence du Langage Francois.” 
- Pesce was become very confpicuous at the end of 
the fixteenth century; and under Henr Amyot, 
Conftom, sh med contributed towards bringing 
t to its perfe which the cardinal de Richelieu com- 
eet i the cha inanent of i French academy ; an al- 
fembly, wherein the moft diftinguifhed perfons of the cee. 
the {fword, and the gown, have been members. 
Nor did the long reign of Louis XIV. eonteibate a little 
to the improvement of “the | language: the e erfonal erat 
of that sai and his tafte for the polite arts, and that of 
the aes the blood, rendered his cou urt the polite in 
Eur Wit and magnificence feemed to vie; and eg 
gener a might have difputed with the Gi Rom 
&c. the glory of writing well, if they could not that of fight- 
ing. 
From court, the elegance and purity of the language foon 
{pread itfelf into the provinces; and now there is {carcely 
ood French. 
natural and eafy. 
fame order as the idéas in our minds; in which it 
differs exceedingly from the Greek and Latin, where the 
inverfion of the natural order of words is reputed a 
beauty. Indeed ae Hebrew furpaffes even the rien ch in 
this point ; but then it comes fhort of it in copioufnefs and 
be added, however, that as to the analogy of 
rammar, and the firnplicity with which the moods of verbs 
are formed, the Englith has the advantage, not only over the 
French, but over all tke known languages in the world ; 
but then the turns, the expreflions, and the idioms, of the 
Englith, are fometimes fo quaint and extraordinary, that it 
lofes a good de deal of the ee which its grammatical fim- 
plicity a it over the r 
The nch has but few sacs ere: wherein it 
differs =e from the Greek, High Dutch, and Englith. 
This the French authors own a great diacan itage in their 
language; the Gfeek and Dutch deriving a great part of 
their force and energy from the compo ofiti tion of words, 
-and frequently expreiling that in one panes word, whica 
’ the French’ cannot exprefi by a periphrafis. he 
diminutives in the French are as fe the compounds ; 
the greateit paz thofe remaining in ufe having: loft 
their diminutive fignification; but what diftinguifh . the 
French moft are its Ne purity, accuracy, and inane 
"French i is the moft univer fal and extenfive aes in Eu. 
rope. The policy of ftates and courts has gee it ne- 
cefiary for the minilters of princes, and their. 
and the tafte cf arts and ances has had me fare effea with 
ea to the lear: 
ermany, ca “elfewher ere, _ princes and. perfons of 
ition value themfelves én scan French ; ‘and 
much known 
as the language of the country ; though the oad of Vienna 
Oo is 
diftin 
