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much depth or erudition, display good sense and penetration. 
The style is lively, but sometimes obscure and affected. His 
comedies are insipid, and his poetry consists of mere vers de 
societe, which would have been little noticed had they not 
been first handed about in manuscript among persons of 
fashion. His works were published collectively at London, 
in 3 vols. 4to., 1705, and at Paris, in 10 vols. 12mo., 1740, 
and in 12 vols, 12mo., 1753. Moreri. Now. Diet. 
Mist. 
1*. SAINT-FOIX (Germain-Frangois Poulain de), a French 
dramatic and miscellaneous writer, was born of noble parents 
at Rennes, in 1698. He was brought up to the military 
service, and entered early into the Mousquetaires, whence he 
removed to the cavalry. He had previously, however, 
imbibed a taste for letters, and especially for the theatre; and 
whilst yet a mere youth he composed two or three light 
pieces which were represented with success. When war 
with the emperor broke out in 1733, Saint-Foix went with 
his regiment to Italy, where he was aide-de-camp to Marshal 
Broglio, and acquitted himself of that office with reputation. 
He solicited a troop in the cavalry, as due to his services; and 
not being able to obtain it, at the conclusion of the war he 
left the army in disgust, and purchased a post of master of 
the waters and forests. This he exercised from 1736 to 1740, 
when he finally fixed his residence in the capital. 
Saint-Foix possessed in a high degree that fiery and 
headstrong disposition which is reckoned national to the 
Bretons, and he became involved in several quarrels which 
terminated in duels. He was impatient of contradiction, 
and therefore not very fit for the society of men of letters, 
who were in his time not a little tenacious of their own 
opinions, and prone to dispute those of others. He was, 
however, upright and generous, and a modest estimater of 
his own talents; and he passed through his literary career 
with success and credit. The petulance of his temper 
scarcely appeared in his writings, which 1 are in general 
elegant, delicate, and agreeable. From 1740 to 1761 he 
produced twenty comedies, which were all successful on the 
stage. Their character is peculiar: they turn for the most 
part upon the passion of love in a young and ingenuous 
mind, ignorant of the nature of this affection. They are 
natural and easy, but without much strength or variety of 
painting. The most applauded were “ Les Graces,” 
“ L’Oracle,” and “ Le Sylph et les Hommes.” Of his other 
writings were “ Lettres Turques,” a kind of imitation of the 
Lettres Persanes of Montesquieu, but much inferior in 
merit; “ Essais Historiques sur Paris,” an amusing mixture 
of manners and antiquities; and “ Histoire de l’Ordre du 
Saint-Esprit,” consisting of biographical anecdotes of the 
knights of the Holy-Ghost: this last work he composed in 
his quality of historiographer of the royal orders, a post 
conferred upon him in his old age. He died at Paris in 
1776 at the age of 74. Necrologe Fr. Nouv. Diet. Hist. 
SAINT-GELAIS (Octavian de), an early French writer, 
was born of a noble family at Cognac, in 1466. He studied 
at Paris, and entered into the ecclesiastical order, but devoted 
himself more to poetry and gallantry than to the duties of his 
profession. Through the favour of King Charles VIII., 
however, he was nominated by Pope Alexander VI. to the 
bishopric of Angouleme in 1494; and in 1497 he went to 
reside in his diocese, where he died in 1502. He was 
the author of various works in verse and prose, of which 
the most valuable were his French translations of 
Virgil’s iEneid and Ovid’s Epistles. A translation of 
Terence’s Comedies has also been attributed to him, but 
upon dubious authority. It is a remarkable trait of the 
times, that his full title, as the Reverend Father in God, 
Bishop of Angouleme, is prefixed to some of his amorous 
publications. Moreri. Now. Diet. Hist. 
SAINT-GELAIS (Melin de), a French poet, said to have 
been natural son of the preceding, was born in 1491. He 
studied at Poitiers and Padua, and obtained so much re¬ 
putation by his Latin verses, that he was called the French 
Ovid. Francis I. conferred upon him the abbey of Reclus, 
and Henry II. made him his almoner and librarian. He was 
jealous of the rising fame of Ronsard, and is said purposely 
to. have read a poem of his before the king so ill as to disgust 
him with it. The two poets, however, afterwards became 
good friends. Saint-Gelais died at Paris in 1559. He is said 
to have been the first introducer of the sonnet into French 
poetry, from the Italian; from which language also he 
translated the tragedy of Sophonisba. He excelled in epigram, 
and was much given to raillery, which gave rise to a kind of 
roverb, “ Beware the pincers of Saint-Gelais.” His poems 
ave been several times printed; the last edition was that of 
Paris, in 1719. Moreri. Now. Diet. Hist. 
ST. GEORGE, a small island forming part of the group 
of the Azores, near the western, coast of Africa. It forms a 
long narrow ridge, about 10 leagues in length, and two in 
breadth, the sea being visible on both sides from its high 
grounds. The best anchorage is at Porto de las Velas, on 
the beach of which stands a neat little town, adorned with 
churches and convents. There is a good deal of cultivation 
on this island; but in 1808, it was ravaged by a terrible 
volcano, which, but for a sudden change of course, would 
have destroyed the town of Ursula. It ruined several hun¬ 
dreds of the best acres, covering them with lava, scoriae, and: 
ashes, besides killing numerous herds of cattle. Since this- 
time, the island has retained a gloomy aspect, though the 
attachment of the inhabitants to their native spot, has been 
sufficient to prevent any extensive emigration. Lat. 38. 39. 
N. long. 28. W. 
SAINT-GERMAIN (Robert), Count de, was bom in 
Franche-Compte, in the year 1708. He was educated 
among the Jesuits, but upon his leaving their seminary he 
entered into the military service of his country, and became 
distinguished in the wars of 1741 and 1757. At length, 
disgusted with the treatment which he received from his 
superiors, he entered into the Danish service, and was made 
a field-marshal. Having lost the greater part of his property 
by the bankruptcy of a house at Hamburgh, he retired to a 
small estate in Alsace, but after the accession of Lewis 
XVI., he was drawn again into public life, and was made 
minister of war. He died in 1778, having just finished 
“ Memoirs of Himself,” which were printed in the following 
year. 
ST. JAGO, an island near the coast of Africa, the largest 
of the group of the Cape de Verd islands. It is about sixty 
miles in circumference, mountainous, but fertile and well 
cultivated; so that, according to Captain Porter, it affords 
grain sufficient to be an object of exportation to Madeira and 
the Canaries. It yields also sugar, indigo, coffee of supe¬ 
rior quality, orchilla wood for dyeing, and most kinds of 
tropical fruits, as oranges, guavas, cocoa-nuts, limes, plan¬ 
tains, pine apples, tamarinds, and a species of apple called 
custard apple. Vegetables are rather scarce, particularly in 
dry seasons; yet a few cabbages, yams, pumpkins, and 
sweet potatoes, are always to be procured. Cotton is pro¬ 
duced in great plenty, and manufactured throughout the 
island, particularly into a species of shawl, remarkably neat, 
which is made almost in every family; and there is a consi¬ 
derable exportation of it to the continent of Africa. Cattle, 
particularly bullocks and mules, are also very plentiful; and 
the chief trade of the island consists in supplying vessels with 
these and other articles of provision. The Portuguese go¬ 
vernment, however, has vested in a company the exclusive 
privilege of selling cattle to ships, and European goods to 
the inhabitants. A number of mules of an excellent breed, 
are sent to. the West Indies. The original Portuguese inha¬ 
bitants consisted chiefly of convicts, who, intermarrying with 
the negro population, are now scarcely to be distinguished 
from them. The only inhabitants who can at all be classed 
as white, are a few priests and officers of government. The 
lower orders have the character of being thievish and pro¬ 
fligate. 
ST. JAGO, or Ribeira Grande, a town of St. Jago, 
formerly the capital, and containing the residence of the go¬ 
vernor ; but since this, as well as the trade, has been trans¬ 
ferred to Porto Praya, St. Jago has lost its former importance. 
It contains indeed a large church, and a convent with twenty- 
four 
