i 588 ] 
[Nov. ty 
MEMOIRS AND REMAINS OF EMINENT PERSONS. 
ACC®@UNT OF THE LIFE AND WORKS OF 
M. GAILLARD, THE FRENCH His- 
-TORIAN, RECENTLY DECEASED, 
ABRIEL HENRI GAILLARD 
(Ss was born at-Ostel, a small village 
in the former diocese of Soissons, on the 
26th of March, 1726. Hus father had 
served with honor, and was attached to 
the house of Condé, by a situation which 
atforded him access to the prince, though 
ut the same time it required scarcely 
any duty. Desirous of giving a good 
education to an only son of high promise, 
and of superintending it himself, he 
quitted Ostel, and settled at Senlis, the 
college of which city, under the care of 
the canons regular of St. Genevieve, en- 
joyed a justly deserved reputation. He 
went through his studies with equal rapi- 
dity and success, and early manifested a 
decided partiality for the belles-lcttres, 
and especially for poetry and eloquence. 
his father, thinking that he perceived in 
him dispositions calculated to raise him 
to eminence at the bar, soon sent him 
- to study the Jaw at the university of Paris. 
Vhough this study had little charms for 
M. Gaillard, he nevertheless applied 
himself to it with assiduity, and was ad- 
mitted to the bar as soon as he had at- 
tained the requisite age. It was not, 
however, his own inclination, but that of 
his father, which decided the choice of 
this profession; an irresistible impulse 
fed him into the path of letters, to the 
exclusive cultivation of which he soon 
gave himself up, in spite of the remon- 
strances of several magistrates, who were 
his friends, and had conceived the highest 
hopes from lis talents. The study of 
the great writers of antiquity, and of the 
best French authors, now occupied his 
days, and very often also the hours of 
which he imprudently abridged bis re- 
pose. With these, and especially the 
poets, whom he always read with delight, 
fie made himself:so familar, that, at a 
very advanced age, he’ was able to re- 
peat, by heart, almost all Virgil'and Ho- 
race, and whule scenes of Cornelle’s, 
Riacine’s,, Metrere’s, Voltaire’s; Crebil- 
lon’s; and striking passages, not only of 
he other Latin and French poets, but 
also of the orators and historians ef both 
nations. Bais ¥ 
The spirit of order and. reflection with 
which be was endowed by nature, classed 
and imprinted in hisanind all his attain- 
meiits as fast as he acquired them; so 
‘that even when very young, he was able 
to employ the stores which he had accu 
mulated, for the instraction of others. 
He was not twenty, when, in 1745, be 
produced La Rhetorigue Francaise @ 
Vusage des Demoiselles, the saccess of 
which surpassed his expectations. It 
was, hewever, as he himself anerwarids 
admitted, only the work of a schioo!-boy ; 
but the singularity of the title excited 
curiosity, and the youth of the author 
pieaded for indulgence. The erudition 
and talents which he displayed in this 
performance were appreciated, and he 
was cominended for having devoted to 
the formation of the female mind and 
taste that period of life in which men in 
general think only of interesting and plea- 
sing the sex. All the mothers of families 
purchased his work, and six numerous /| 
editions disposed of in a very short time, 
were scarcely sufficient to satisfy the avi- 
dity of the public. 4 
The Poetique a usage des Dames, pubp. . 
lished four years afterwards, in 1749, 
though composed with the same view, 
and with rather more maturity of under- 
standing and talent, ‘was not by far so fa- 
vourably received, because it was of less 
general utility. This work gave birth to 
the idea of comparing the manner in 
which Sophocles, Euripides, Crebillon,” . 
and Voltaire, have treated the subject of - 
Electra ; and this comparison, which he 
published in the following year, height- 
ened the hopes inspired by his early pro- y 
ductions. 
A volume of literary miscellanies, con- 
sisting of various pieces in prose and | 
verse, most of which exhibit, in a striking _ 
manner, an improvement of style And 
ideas, soon afterwards, in 1756, appears 
ed to confirm and augment these hopes.. 
Several of the members of the Aca-- 
demy of Belles Lettres, whose friend- 
ship be had acquired, such as Messrs. 
De Caylus, De Foncemagne, De Sainte — 
Palaye, and the Abbé Barthelemy, found — 
with pleasure, inthis collection, a life of — 
the young and gallant Gaston De Foix, — 
Duke of Nemours, who died at Ravenna, 
in the arms of victory. This life, writ. 
ten with a dignity suited to the subject, 
announced to France the possession 
of another historian. This presage was 
soon verified. Encouraged by the: ap- 
plause of the above-mentioned academi- - 
cians, M. Gaillard, in 1757, published — 
the History of Mary of Burgundy, the — 
only 
