66 De Sales Philofophieal Sketch 9 
containing much erndition badly digefted, 
fittle accuracy, and no tafte, is devoeed to 
the hitory of the ancients, and authors of 
the middle age. 
‘Baillet, two Ahyndred yea ars after, re- 
- wifed, on a new plan,-the obfcure work of 
Raphael de Volterre, and gave it the title 
of J ugemcns des OE "But in {pite of 
the difph ras of fcience. we meet with, in 
fpite of the Pies {in eae the author, whic h, 
contrary to his religious princips te, - 
fometimes difplayed, ‘there is fo much in- 
correcinefs in AES IS 20 gh that the lat 
volume is occupied entirely in anfwering 
the objeGlicns of Menage, and inclines ore 
even to condemn a work that ene might 
otherwife offer for a model. 
The guides of Ballet, as well as of 
Ra aphadi, feern to have been thofe hift 
torians, who have confined their refearches 
to writers of a particular clays ; and th ley 
have not neglected any walk, in which the 
human “Ane. has recreated, or by: which it 
has-been agerandized. 
Shall we now fpeak of theelepy which, 
to the fhame of civilized Europe, for fo 
many ages has been. the f{cience mo 
fiundied ? The Hiftory of Eeclefiattical 
Writers, of William Cave, attracts the 
attention of thofe who value that kind 
of refearch. The Nouvelle Bibliotheque of 
Elles Dupin, doctor of the Sorbonne, is 
more complete. This laf%t work, with the 
additions of Gouget, is corapailee in no 
lefs than fifty volumes octavo, but might 
be reduced, in the crucible of the philofo. 
pher, to one. 
Medicine, which fometimes, like theolo- 
gy has been.in the hands of quacks, has 
found hiftorians in almoft every nation of 
Europe: London and Geneva. have fur- 
/ nithed two of high celebrity ; ; Freind, who 
has had the judgement to devote bale one 
quarto volume to the hiftory of Medicine, 
fince the times of Galen to the fixteenth 
century 3 and Manget, who has had the 
patience to complete ich ur volumes in felio, 
called Bibliozh beque des Medecins : thefe two 
works have fince been rendered ufelefs 
by the infinitely more judicious one of 
aceclere..* 
Philefophy cannot be forgotten in this 
Jong enumeration ; for voy where, when 
enlightened men appear, there are found 
others who take or ufurp in their writings 
the name of philofophers. The difciples 
ot Scotus, on the banks’ of the Seiaie, 
believe themfelves little inferior to Plato or 
‘JT acicus. 
- Tt is in Brucker and Stanley, difeuifed, 
fraveitied and mutilated in fo many ways, 
through different-encyclopedias, one miutt 
f the Pr ozre/s of Literatur é. fos. 
expect to find the elements of what I call 
a philofophical library. 
Ti is not only neceffary to conkale au. 
thors who have ooltace many works ; but 
it is of importance allo to havereeonee to 
thofe enlightened men who, in every coun- 
try, have been celebrated by their fellow- 
citizens 3 or, what is ftill more difficult, te 
give them their proper immortality. 
‘Here the fources of intelligence are moft 
pure, becaufe an author is never better 
known than in that age which he has illu. 
firated by his genius ; but they are at the 
fame time moit abundant, fo that their 
index alone would fil a volume. 
Toe 128 of Spain.—Abdout 1592, }fi- 
dore gave his countrymen a volume in 
folio, under the title of De Claris Hefpa-- 
nie Scripioribus. About one hundred years 
“atter, Antonio pubhithed four, with the 
name of Bibliotheca Hifpana ; this latt work 
took in the literary Hittory of Spain, fince 
the time of AugaftusHyginus, that dreamer 
over ancient mythology, to Peter Xime- 
nes, bifhop of Coria, which laft circum- 
ftance is proper to be mentioned, that he 
might not be confounded with the cele- 
brated Cardinal of the fame name, to 
whom we are indebted for the fuperb 
Polyglott. 
If we extend our yiew to Sicily, we fhall 
find the Bibliotheque Sicilienne. Should we 
go to the Low Conntries ; we meet with 
the Bibliotheque Belgique of Foppens. If 
we ttop at Germany, we fee the Biblic- 
ibeque Ger nanique of Hertzins. “All ‘is 
bibliotheque in an age of erudition : in after- 
times, Racpenes. very few things are ad- 
snitied into the little Jzé/iorheque of tate. — 
Germany, befide her general hiftories of 
thofe whom fhe cails illaftrious writers, 
has alfo a crowd of provincial hiftories, 
confecrated to villages, monafteries, and 
academies. Who would believe for ex- 
ample, that /Zpinus and Boyer publifhed, 
in #728 and1729, two volumes in quart 
to celebrate the profeffors of the little uni- 
verfity of Altorff. 
England, alfo, and Franee have paid 
their tribute to the memory of men of let- 
ters : but as the learned philolegifts, who 
attempt works fimilar to thefe, exclude no 
fpecies of human knowledge, nor any na- 
tion ; and as thefe voluminous colleétions 
are better to confit than to read; the form 
of them moft cammodious for every clats 
of readers, is that of a di€tionary. ae 
In the méan time it is proper to re= 
mark, thatthe firft idea of an hiftorical 
colleStion of men of fetters, in an alpha- 
hetical form, is difpuied between a Spa- 
niard and a German. The Spaniard wrofe 
2 his 
