CASAUBON, MERIC, son of the preceding, was born at Geneva, on the 14th of August 1599. Having commenced his studies at the Protestant academy of Sedan, he followed his father to England, and went to pursue them at Christ College, Oxford, where he took the degree of master of arts in 1621. He was appointed curate of Bledon in the county of Somerset, prebendary of Canterbury, and rector of Wickham; but the great revolution which conducted Charles I. to the block deprived him of all his preferments. A proposal was afterwards made to him upon the part of Oliver Cromwell, to write the history of the civil war, a task in the performance of which he was assured that he might exercise the greatest impartiality; and at the same time a pension was offered to him with reversion to his children, and determinable only by the death of the youngest of them. But he respectfully declined to undertake the proposed work, upon the ground that it would be equally unsuitable to his character and principles, and that he might conceive himself obliged to introduce reflections which could scarcely fail to be displeasing to the protector. Notwithstanding this refusal, however, Cromwell, sensible of his integrity and worth, ordered a gratuity of L.400 to be tendered him by a bookseller in London; but Casaubon, although his circumstances were then straitened, rejected the offer, which he could only consider as in reality a bribe. Christina, queen of Sweden, also attempted, by her ambassador, to induce him to repair to that country, promising him a suitable appointment; but with no better success, for he had resolved to spend the remainder of his days in England. At the restoration he was rewarded for his unalterable fidelity, by being reinstated in all his benefices, which he enjoyed till the period of his death, which happened on the 14th July 1671. He was interred in the cathedral of Canterbury, where a monument with a suitable inscription was erected to his memory. Casaubon was a pious man, charitable to the poor, of an honest and affable character, and ever ready to communicate the result of his researches. He applied himself principally to criticism, in which he succeeded better than in any other pursuit; and his erudition was varied, though by no means so profound as that of his father, from whose papers, moreover, he derived great benefit. To the philosophy of Descartes he ascribed the decline of the taste for the belles-lettres, which formed one of the characteristics of his time. His principal works are, 1. Optati Milevitanti libri vii. cum notis et emendationibus, London, 1631, 8vo; 2. Notæ et Emendationes in M. Antonini libros xii., ibid. 1643, 8vo; 3. De Verborum Usu et accurata eorum Cognitionis utilitate Diatriba, 1647, 12mo; 4. De quatuor Linguis Commentationis pars prior, 1650, 8vo; 5. De la Nécessité de la Réformation au temps de Luther, London, 1664; 6. De la Credulité et de l'Incredulité, 1665 and 1670, 8vo; 7. La Cause première des Biens et des Maux qui arrive en ce Monde, 1642, 4to;
8. Traité de l'Enthusiasme, 1655, 8vo; 9. Veritable et fidèle Relation de ce qui s'est passé entre Jean Dée et certains Esprits, 1659, fol.; 10. Défense de l'Oraison Dominicale, 1669, in reply to Dr Owen. He was also the author of several productions on ecclesiastical matters, and of notes on Terence, Epictetus, Hierocles, Florus, Diogenes Laertius in the edition of Meibomius, Polybius in the edition of Gronovius, and Persius in the London edition, 1647, 8vo. Casaubon's English style is hard and lumbering, being interlarded with Greek and Latin words, according to the usage of his time. He left a great number of manuscripts, which are preserved in one of the libraries at Oxford.