5799.) De Sale? Philofiphieal Stetch of the Progrefi of Literature. 90g 
natural fituation in my work: they will 
be reprefented there, not as the organizers 
of {cience, but as thofe who have pregared 
its way, and contributed to hand it down 
io our age. 
From time to time, in this long career, 
T fhall felect my deftined examples, from 
the hittory of art, rather than from that 
of individuals; but this thall be under 
the fanétion of fome man of genius, who 
feizes the authority of opinion, only to 
demand from his contemporaries the pure, 
and, above all, the free exercife of their 
underfandings. 
The only difference between the bere 
of genius which prepares, and that of rea- 
fort which executes, is, that the fir gives 
birth to fome partial idea, whofe dev elop- 
ment in a future period, eerie one grand 
whole. Aaron and Charlemagne die, and 
leave almoft. an abfolute void of fix ages 
in my literary annals; on. the contrary, 
when the revival of literature arrives, 
under th® Medici, I can trace the tree of 
{cientific improvement to its minuteft ra- 
mifications ; that is, from the middle of 
the fifteenth century, to the expanfion of 
thofe grand focial ideas which have pro- 
duced in-France the organization and ze- 
nith excellence of her z academies. 
There are then in this work two parts, 
very diftin&t, but which at the fame time 
mutually elucidate each other: one is the 
hiftory of art intimately connected with 
the life of the inventor; the other is a 
fucciné&t account of inferior artizans, who 
excite philofophic curiofity, either by their 
re{pceétable merits, or notorious celebrity. 
The firft part of this work, which 
treats of literature, muft be thrown into 
a chronological form. ‘This is the only 
one which « can ferve to fix in the under- 
ftanding the elements of hiflory. Every 
man worthy to receive the great benefit of 
philofophy, has a right to demand from 
his inftru&tor acquaintance with the 
growth of reafon, and the progrefs fhe 
has made in combating prejudice. It 
muft happen, that fpreading on all fides 
from the centre where the was originally 
placed, her conquefts mutt follow in train, 
till fhe arrives at the very extrermity of 
the circumference. 
As for the fecond compartment, that 
_ of literary men and philofophers who pof- 
ieffed no high degree of originality, the 
order that beft fuits them is the alpha- 
Detic. 
Doubtlefs it is not without repugnance 
that I adopt this dictionary met hod ; but 
it fhould be obferved, it was that which 
Bayle followed,—the ereateft genius 
which has ever written on men of letters, 
and above all it ‘is juftified by reafon. 
There are not above fifty names, fince 
the days of Charlemagne till now, a {pace 
of athoufand years, “who may be called 
pharoes in the fea of literature, through 
-which I am. navigating ; whilft I could 
find thirty thoufand, were I to colle& 
every individual, who owe to their writ- 
ings fome fort of contemporary reputa~ 
tion, It would be abfurd to difgrace the 
illuftrious name which has been ‘the ad- 
miration of ages, by connecting with ita 
crowd of undiftinguifhed perfons whofe efti- 
mation, even among their contemporaries, 
{carce faved them from oblivion. Thehero, 
on this plan, would be loft in the mafs of 
f{ybordinate charaéters; and at every period 
the encyclopedic clue, which léads to the 
eradual development of human knowledge, 
would find itfelf perplexed and entangled. 
The living are unnoticed in this work. 
_Every diétionary fhould be dead to the 
party of whom it becomes the inter- 
preter. It 1s impoffible, when men are 
living, to {peak the truth, either of their 
perfons or their works; to become their 
panegyrift, much lefs their fatyrift. 
.The great art, in this kind of philo- 
fophic hiftory of men of letters, whether 
we adopt a kind of chronological catena- 
tion, or retain the alphabetical order, is, 
to draw only from pure, and above ali 
from original fources: but as I poffefs 
not the art of divination, like the Egypt- 
ian priefts, IT ought, on this account, to 
explain the feries of ideas which enable 
me'to fimplify my refearches. 
The materials for the work I propofe, 
are innumerable: particularly fince the © 
revival of letters, anterior to Montaigne. 
Had it not been for fome learned writers, 
fuch as Scaliger, Bayle, and Fabricius, 
who had grubbed up thefe lands, it would 
have been impoffible for any individual 
now to have traced his route. 
I believe 
it would take more time to read the 
works that have been compofed on men 
of letters, for thefe lait three hundred 
years, than even to write their hiftory. 
At firft there have been biographers 
who have written a general hiftory, of men 
of letters, and analyzed every ipecies of 
their compofitions. . Of this clafs is a 
writer very little known, in fpite of the 
two great names accidentally received at 
his birth, Raphael de Volterre: this 
Raphatl, who knew nothing of painting, 
and who could never have imparted the 
charm of verfe to the Henriade, gave to 
the world, in 1515, three folio volumes 
of Commentaries ; of which the fecond, 
¢ containing 

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