CLERC

CLERC, JOHN LE, a celebrated writer and universal scholar, was born at Geneva in 1657. After he had passed through the usual course of study at Geneva, and had lost his father in 1676, he went to France in 1678; but returning the year after, he was ordained with the general applause of all his examiners. In 1682, Le Clerc visited England with the view of learning the language of that country. He preached several times in the French churches in London, and visited several bishops and men of learning; but the smoky air of the town not agreeing with his lungs, he returned to Holland within the year, where he at length settled. He preached before a synod held at Rotterdam by the remonstrants in 1684, and was admitted professor of philosophy, polite literature, and the Hebrew tongue, in their school at Amsterdam. The remainder of his life affords nothing but the history of his works, and of the controversies in which he was engaged; but these would lead into too extensive a detail. He continued to read lectures regularly; and because he found no single author full enough for his purpose, he drew up and published his Logic, Ontology, Pneumatology, and Natural Philosophy. He published Ars Critica; a Commentary on the Old Testament; a Compendium of Universal History; an Ecclesiastical History of the two first Centuries; and a French Translation of the New Testament. In 1686, he began, jointly with M. de Crose, his Bibliothèque Universelle et Historique, in imitation of other literary journals; which was continued till the year 1693 inclusive, in 26 volumes. In 1703 he began his Bibliothèque Choisie, and continued it to 1714, when he commenced another work on the same plan, called Bibliothèque Ancienne et Moderne, which he continued to the year 1728; all of them justly deemed excellent stores of useful knowledge. In 1728 he was seized with a palsy and fever; and having spent the last six years of his life in a state of mental imbecility, he died in 1736.