Note 153 — OF LENGLET DU FRESNOY.

This anonymous work of “Mémoires de Monsieur l’Abbé Lenglet du Fresnoy,” although the dedication is signed G. P., is written by Michault, of Dijon, as a presentation copy to Count de Vienne in my possession proves. Michault is the writer of two volumes of agreeable “Mélanges Historiques et Philologiques;” and the present is a very curious piece of literary history. The “Dictionnaire Historique” has compiled the article of Lenglet entirely from this work; but the Journal des Sçavans was too ascetic in this opinion. Etoit-ce la peine de faire un livre pour apprendre au public qu’un homme de lettres fut espion, escroc, bizarre, fougueux, cynique, incapable d’amitié, de soumission aux loix? &c. Yet they do not pretend that the bibliography of Lenglet du Fresnoy is at all deficient in curiosity.