£799.] De Sales’ Philofphical Sketch of the Progrefs of Literatnre: 70% 
‘great undertaking, to fpeak of academies 
which no longer exift, but are revived in 
our literary inftitution ; and I fhall difguife 
neither the incalculable benefit they ‘have 
been of to letters, nor the failings by 
which they have been attended. . This 
€ufhon naturally induces me to bie 
the tone of a critic: but from a fpirit of 
tolerance, I would with my obfervations 
to be fuppofed to attach rather to faéts, 
than to perfons; and when I fhall be 
obliged to difclofe, the veil which covers 
their foibles, and on which public opinion 
is always apt to put the worft con- 
firuétion, I would wifh to draw my exam- 
ples from fome diftant epoch, to filence 
contemporary vanity, under the venerable 
names of antiquity, and prefent truth to 
the mind of the refined fcholar, through 
the medium of fable. 
This work fhall be free, it cannot be 
otherwife, fince the object of its author is 
true and enlightened literature; it is im- 
potible for him to breathe the fpirit of 
flavery, who has. pronounced with fo 
much energy ‘the name of freedom. 
Thirty years hasthe Philofophy of Nature 
exiffed. . But this love of independence 
favors not the advocates of licentious 
Manners: I admire not the apolile of li- 
berty, unlefs in his original purity. The 
moment that devotees difer ace, or traitors 
mutilate it ; or, above all, that factious 
men make it fubfervient to their’ own 
finifter defigns, I think it right then to 
fubmit it to the ordeal of the moral cru- 
cible, tu feparate the virgin gold of nature 
from the vile drofs with which. man has 
contaminated it. 
In giving a true philofophical defcription 
of men of letters, it is neceflary to confider 
them either as ifolated, or forming an intel- 
le€&tual conftellation by their union in fome — 
inftitution, literary fociety, or academy. 
The folitary labors of a literary man 
ought to yield in priority to thofe of him 
whofe ® views and talents are enlarged by 
liberal converfe with men of letters: juft 
as in a gallery of pictures, an artift 
exaniines not a portrait, till he has feafted 
his eyes on the hiftoric pi€tures which fur- 
round him. 
After thefe preliminary obfervations, 
the reader may fee what train of ideas has 
led me to the plan of this work. It 
fetms proper, that I fhould fir begin by 
a prand and rapid furvey of all thole phi- 
lofentiic : and literary affociations,’ hae 
have extended the fphere of human khov 
ledge, refined the arts, and en lightened 
the world by the concentration of its nu- 
merous rays. -And, asthe human mind, 
“MoytTRLY Mac, No, Ls 
any where running a long career, muft 
leave fome traces behind; it would be pro- 
per perhaps to fearch for the origin of thofe 
affociations amonge the Chaldee writers, 
the literary focieties of China, the facer- 
dotal colleges of Egyptian Thebes, or of 
-Memphis, the academy of Bénares, and 
in all the Lyceums of the fitft ages. 
The brilliant age of Pericles would 
alfo be ufeful to affitt this inquiry, which 
was never equalled, at leaft till the time 
of Montaigne, and that I am bold enough 
to call, by way of diftinlion, the age “of 
reafon. 
The conneétion of events leads me to 
{peak of Rome, which, during the {pace 
of feven hundred years, was acquainted with 
no other fcience but that of military murder, 
and diplomatic intrigue; and which, hav- 
ing arrived at the completion of her ame 
bitious wifhes, confoled the world for all 
the miferies the had occafioned, by adopt- 
ing the art’ of the conquered nations, and 
eftablithing the age of Auguftus, next in 
excellence to Praet of Pericles. «She drew, 
however, from Athens almoft all her 
brighteft ornaments, except Horace and 
Tacitus. 
We may fee fome traces of an enlight- 
ened combination of mep among the Ara- 
bian califs, during the reign of Charle- 
magne and “Aaron Rafchild, which for a 
fhort time illuminated the horizon of {ci- 
ence: hiftory has reprefented jthe revival 
of letters in the middle age, under the 
tutelary guardianfhip of the houfe of Me- 
dici, as more permanent ; but it was not 
till the commencement of the immortal 
age of Louis the z4th, that it received 
true ftability,—an age ornamented by the 
genius of Corneille, Molliére, and Fenelon, 
and capable, by its. luftre, of .obfcuring 
even the crimes of, Richelieu. 
A defcription of the various focieties of 
literary men, from the firft ages, to the 
inftitution’ of thofe original academies 
after which all thofe of modern Europe 
feem modelled, that is to fay, the Royal: 
Bouse ty) of London, and the French Aca- 
demy, cannot be given but in the.aggre- 
gate. 
Here the hiftory of literature prefents 
one regular procefs, of the \human mind, 
advancing towards perfection ; and re- 
quires to be treated in that kind of com- 
prehenfive manner, which unites general 
inquiry with the minute(t detail. 
Our three academies enter effentially 
into this plan: and as it is not’ my with 
to flatter, but to fpeak truth and to be 
ufeful, I fhail, in the courfe of this work, 
inveltigate both the falfe and legitimate 
4 & fruity . 
