/ 
999.) De Sales’ Philofophical Sketch of the Progrefs of Literature. 707 
his hiftory firft, and kept it by him; the 
‘German finifbed his work after, publifhed 
it, and carried away the glory of the dif- 
covery. 
The Spaniard was a Jacobin, his name 
was Ciaconie, the moft learned man of his 
age, and above all the moft tolerant, if we 
may judge from his Treatife On the Soul 
of Trajan, drawy from'hell by the prayers 
of Saint Gregory. He made a collection, in 
Latin, of all the moft celebrated writers, 
from the beginning of the world to his 
own time: but at the moment of printing 
them, the cenfors refufed their approba-_ 
tion; he quietly then withdrew his ma- 
nu(cript, and this aét of obedience obtair- 
ed for him the rank of a faint, toge- 
ther with the title of patriarchof Alex- 
andria. 
The work of Ciaconio, finifhed about 
the year 1533, was not publifhed till two 
hundred years after; thanks to the learn- 
ed Camufat at laft, who took it from the 
_dufty fhelves of a monaftery, and gave it 
_ 2726. 
to the world under the aufpices of Cardi- 
nal de Fleury. 
Twelve years after Ciaconio, the Ger- 
man of whom J fpoke, Conrad Gelfner, 
not fearing, as a proteftant, to fee his 
thoughts circumferibed by the Roman 
cenfor’s compafies, publifhed at Zurich 
his Bibliotheque Univerfelle, in alphabeti- 
cal order ; a work which {eems to poflefs 
all that Ciaconio’s promiied, and which 
has fince acquired frefh value from the ju- 
dicious abridgements made at , different 
times, by Lycofhéne and Semler. Geffher 
was the Pliny of Germany, yet could not 
efcape, though his labours were immenfe, 
the horrors of indigence, and died happily 
of the plague, at a time when he was pe- 
rifhing by famine. 
The Academy at Etienne, in France, 
taught by the example of Gefiner, com- 
poicd in Latin, on his plan, but with eru- 
dition little digefted, their Géographique, 
Hiflorigue @ Poetique Dictionnaire, which 
appeared for the firft time in the year 
England, the literary rival of 
France, as well in letters as in arms, na- 
turalized this treafure, and reprinted it 
with the additions of Nicholas Lloyd, in 
1760, at Oxford, in one volume folio. 
The fuccefs of the work of Etienne, 
enlarged by Lloyd, electrified Moreri. 
‘Fhis perfon endeavoured to obliterate his 
mode! for an Hittorical Distionary printed 
at Lyons, by the production of another ; 
—a piece of {uperfetation, the grand merit 
ef which is, to have given birth to that 
chef-d’oeuvre of modern erudition and phi- 
op ee 
solophy, =the dictionary of Bayle. 
Bayle himfelf, in {pite of eulogies fo 
juttly merited, was nothing more than a 
mere compiler ; he has only inferted inhis 
book, articles, with the materials of which 
other perfons had furnifhed him, He 
wifhed to draw from oblivion an innumer- 
able crowd of theologians, round whom 
philofophy would rather have thickened 
the impending fhades. He has inadver~ 
tently made his text for his notes, and 
not, as it ought to be, his notes for his 
text. He has laborioufly diffeminated his 
knowledge through four folio volumes, 
becaufe he wrote for the bookfellers ; but 
if he had liftened tothe voice of his own 
genius, which told him to labour fw 
glory, he would have reduced to one half 
volume his pafsport to immortality. 
The idea of rendering the dictionary of 
Bayle more extenfive, fruck many in Eu- 
rope, as athing proper to be attempted. In 
the year 1739, the bookfellers of Holland 
addreffed themfelves to a fcholar, til] thea 
unknown, and entreated him to make 
a continuation of Bayle; juft as we 
have feen at Paris the bookfellers con- 
temporary with Montefguieu folicit the 
firft literary man of his age, to make a fe- 
cond volume of Lettres Perfannes. A learn. 
ed man, of the name of Chauffepié, fell 
into the fare: he publifhed, in the middle 
of this century, four enormous volumes in 
folio, as his model, and had the vanity to 
entitle himlelf the fecond Bayle, which: - 
met only with the approbation of his 
friends and his own intolerable felf love. 
Another imitator of Bayle, a little more 
efteemed than Chauffepré, is Profper Mar- 
chand ; but he is very incorrect. 
France has, of her own literary hiftory, 
a great number of valuable works, where- 
in the may july pride herfelf. I fall not 
fpeak here ofthe Literary Hiftory of the Be- 
ediétines, becaufe it was not extended to. 
thofe ages which can anfwer the purpofe 
of any double furvey of literature. 
fhall notice, with gratitude, the excellent 
Gloffary of Ducange, if I find it neceffary 
to weigh in the balance of reafon the di- 
plomas, the charters and writings. of the 
middle age; as well as the excellent work 
of De Lelong, and De Fontenelle, on our 
hiftorians : the philofopher fhould not be. 
frightened at the fight of five volumes in 
folio of thofe twolaft colle&tions, if he flat- 
ters him&lf, by confulting them, he thall 
one day become the Titus Livius of men 
of letters, 
In the long interval, between Lelong 
and Ducange, we muit place thofe labyri- 
ous collators Gouget and Niceron, one of 
whom, in his Bidlotheque Frangaife, and 
the 
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