of his body, brought on a fever which terminated in his death Jan. 21, 1766.

QUINCTILIANUS, (MARCUS FABIUS) one of the molt celebrated critics and rhetoricians of antiquity, was born in the beginning of the reign of Claudius Cæfar, about forty-two years after Chrift. Writers are much at variance refpecting the place of his birth. Some fuppofe he was born at Calagurris, or Calahorra, in Spain, because he is called by Aufonius "Hifpanus" and Calagurritanus." Others, with more appearance of truth, maintain that he was born in Rome. It is certain that he finished his education and spent his youth till he was nineteen years of age, in that city, and that his family and all his connections refided there. In the year 61, Galba being fent into Spain by the emperor Nero, as governor of one of the Spanish provinces under the protection of Rome, Quinctilian attended him, and taught rhetoric in the city of Calagurris, which probably gave rife to the appellation of "Calagurritanus." In the year 68, Nero died; when Quinctilian, after an absence of seven years, returned with Galba to Rome, where he lived during the remainder of his life. The government of Rome, employed him to teach rhetoric in one of the public academies, and gave him a falary out of the public money. His abilities and industry foon procured him a high reputation, and many orators were formed under his care, who were at the fame time ornaments to their country and an honor to their tutor. Among others was the younger Pliny. After a space of twenty years employed in that arduous occupation, he obtained leave of the emperor Domitian to retire, and he then devoted himself to writing his "Inftitutiones Oratoriae." This is the most comprehenfive and fyftematic work of its kind, which antiquity produced, or at least, which has escaped the rude touch of igno

rance and barbarity. Quinctilian did not, however, confine himself to delivering rules of juft fpeaking to others. While his precepts were studied and followed by the greatest orators of that time, he him felf exhibited at the Roman bar fome excellent fpecimens of his own eloquence. His pleadings were in fuch high eltimation, that they were taken down in fhort hand, and afterwards decyphered for the purpofe of felling them to the bookfellers. This practice has often been very injurious to public fpeakers, as well modern as ancient; fince their speeches have been thus publifhed to the world in a premature form, without their revifal or correction, and confequently muft have been liable to contain many ideas different from those expreffed by the fpeakers, and perhaps directly oppofed to them. This was the cafe with fome of the orations published under Quinctilian's name.

Of the latter part of his life, there is no certain circumftantial account. We are indebted to Aufonius for the few sketches which have been prefented. From this writer it appears that the confular ornaments were conferred upon him, and that he was preceptor to the grandfons of Domitian's fifter. The evening of his life was crowned with great dignity and honor. He had ever enjoyed more than an ordinary degree of profperity, yet he fuffered under many private misfortunes, to which his fortitude proved unequal, and he often bewailed the severity of his fate. In his fortyeighth year he loft his wife, whom he had married feven years before, when fhe was but twelve years old, and he forty-one. By her he had two fons, but neither of them lived to arrive at manhood. The eldeft who died when he was ten years of age, was endowed with uncommon talents, and was making the moft flattering progress towards the entrance of that bright career which his father had run before him. When his grief for thefe tender relatives had fubfided, be married a fecond wife, who gave him a daughter. This daughter he lived to fee fettled. At the time of her marriage,

the younger Pliny, from gratitude to her father, and from efteem to herself, beftowed upon her a genteel dowry. We are told fhe married a person whose rank was fuperior to hers, and therefore according to the cuftom of that time, it was expected fhe would be better fitted out, than her father's circumftances would permit. Hence arofe an opportunity for Pliny's gen. erofity. The time of Quintilian's death is not recorded; though it is pretty certain he lived to be above eighty years old. He appears to have been a man of great honefty and fimplicity of life; but his flattery of Domitian was wholly incompatible with that indepen dence of mind which fhould characterise man. We fhould not, however, forget that Rome was no lon ger a republic, and that the "Roman foul" had loft half its virtues.

RABELAIS, (FRANCIS) a French wit of great ce lebrity, was born about 1483, at Chinon, in the pro vince of Touraine. His father, who was an apothecary, being in narrow circumftances, Francis was educated in the convent of the Fontenoy le Come, an -order of Franciscan Friars in Poictou. He poffeffed a strong inclination for literature, and by a diligent application and a determined perseverance, he soon surpassed the limits which marked the utmost progress of the learned in his time. He was not only a good linguist, but an excellent proficient in all branches of knowledge. His superiority in learning, and his extraordinary merit soon excited the jealousy of his brethren. By some he was envied; others, through ignorance, thought him a conjuror; and all hated and abused him, particularly because he studied the Greek language, which, at that time, was so little known as to be esteemed not only barbarous, but anti-chriftian. After having endured their ill-usage for a long time, he obtained leave of Pope Clement VII. to

quit the order of St. Francis, and to join that of St. Bennet; but, choosing to indulge in his cheerful humour, rather than to assume the austere manners of a Monk, he soon found that the society of the Benedictines did not promise him more satisfaction than he had enjoyed in that of the Franciscans. He, therefore, in a short time, left them also. Assuming the habit of secular priests, he wandered up and down for awhile; and then settled at Montpelier, where he took the degrees in physic, and practised with great reputation.He was much admired for his wit and extensive erudi. tion, and became a man of such influence, and was held in so high estimation, that the university in that place sent him to Paris upon some very important business. Upon his arrival there, his reputation which, was spread through the kingdom, had pre-possessed the Chancellor du Prat so much in his favor that he easily granted all he solicited. Upon his return to Montpelier, the regency of the univerfity were fo deeply impreffed with gratitude for the fervice he had rendered to the feminary, that, as a ceremony in honor of him, they made it a standing order that all the candidates for degrees in phyfic fhould, at their admiffion, be formally invefted with a robe which Rabelais left. In 1532, he published at Lyons, fome mifcellaneous pie ces of Hippocrates, and a treatife upon phyfic by Galen, with a dedication to the bishop of Maillezais; in which he informs him that he had read lectures upon the aphorifms of Hippocrates, and the arfmedia of Galen, before numerous audiences in the univerfity of Montpelier. In 1533, he went to Lyons, where he became phyfician to the hofpital, and joined lectures with practice for fome years. About this time he renewed his religious connections, which he had broken off, in order to lead a life more agreeable to his taste and humor. In 1536, he made a journey to Rome, and obtained, by his intereft with fome cardinals, a brief from Pope Paul III. to qualify him to hold ecclefiaftical benefices. John du Bellay, who was made

a cardinal in 1533, had procured the abbey of St. Maur near Paris, to be fecularised, and Rabelais, now a Benedictine monk, was received into it as a fecular canon. Here he is fuppofed to have begun his celebrated romance, entitled, "The Lives, Heroic Deeds, and Sayings of Gargantua and Pantagruel." In 1545, his friend and patron, the cardinal du Bellay, nominated him to the cure of Mendon, the du ties of which he is faid to have performed with great zeal and application till his death, which happened in 1553.

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RACINE, (JOHN) an eminent French poet; was born at La Ferte Milon in 1639. At a fuitable age he' was fent to Port-Royal; where he continued three years, and where the genius which afterwards marked his literary career, already began to fhine forth.

He made a very rapid progress in the Greek and Latin tongues, and indeed, in all the branches of polite literature which were taught at that time. At the end of three years, he went to Paris, where he ftudied logic fome time in the College of Harcourt. His fancy was much taken with the French poetry, and when he was very young, he amused himself with compofing feveral little pieces in it, which, however, his own modefty, or the rudeness of these first attempts, prevented him from publishing.

He did not discover himself to the public, until 1660," when the marriage of the King afforded at the fame time a copious fubject and a strong enticement to all those poets who were ambitious of diftinguishing them felves upon the splendid event. "La Nymphe de la Seine," written by him upon that occafion, was greatly admired by Chapelain, a cotemporary author, and fo. strenuously recommended to him by Colbert, that the minister fent M. Racine a hundred piftoles from the VOL. III. No. 24 13