NICÉRON, John Peter, justly celebrated on account of his Biographical Memoirs, was born at Paris on the 11th of March 1685. He was descended of an ancient and noble family, which was in very high repute about 1540. He studied with success in the Mazarin College at Paris, and afterwards at the college of Duplessis. Having resolved to forsake the world, he consulted one of his uncles, who belonged to the order of Barnabite Jesuits. This uncle examined him, and not doubting his election, introduced him as a probationer to that society at Paris. He was received in 1702, took the habit in 1703, and made his vows in 1704, at the age of nineteen. After he had professed himself, he was sent to Montargis, in order to study philosophy and theology; and his superiors, being satisfied with his proficiency, sent him to Loches, in Touraine, to teach the classics and rhetoric. Here his devout behaviour and excellent conduct as a teacher made him be thought worthy of the priesthood, which he received at Poitiers in 1708; and as he had not arrived at the age to assume this order, a dispensation was obtained in his favour. The college of Montargis having recalled him, he there professed rhetoric for two years, and philosophy during four. Notwithstanding all these avocations, he was humanely attentive to every call of charity, and to the instruction of his fellow-creatures, many of whom heard his excellent discourses, not only in the pulpits of the churches within the province, but even in those of Paris. In 1716, his superiors invited him to the city, that he might have an opportunity of prosecuting with more convenience those studies for which he had always expressed the greatest inclination. He understood not only the ancient, but also the modern languages; a circumstance of infinite advantage in the composition of those works which he has given to the public, and which he carried on with great assiduity till the time of his death, which happened on the 8th of July 1738, at the age of fifty-three. His works are, 1. Le Grand Fèbrifuge, or, a Dissertation to prove that common water is the best remedy in fevers, and even in the plague (translated from the English of John Hancock, minister of St Margaret's, London), in 12mo. This little treatise made its appearance, amongst other pieces relating to this subject, in 1770, and was attended with such success that it passed
through three editions, the last of which appeared in 1730, in two vols. 12mo. 2. The Voyages of John Oughton to Surat, and divers parts of Asia and Africa, containing the history of the revolution in the kingdom of Golconda, and some observations upon silk worms, Paris, 1725, in two vols. 12mo. 3. The Conversion of England to Christianity, compared with its pretended Reformation, a work translated from the English, Paris, 1729, in 8vo. 4. The Natural History of the Earth, translated from the English of Mr Woodward, by M. Nogues, doctor in physic, with an answer to the objections of Dr Camerarius, and containing also several letters written on the same subject, with a methodical distribution of fossils, translated from the English by Nicéron, Paris, 1735, in 4to. 5. Memoirs of Men illustrious in the Republic of Letters, with a critical account of their works, Paris, in 12mo. The first volume of this great work appeared in 1727; and the others were given to the public in succession, as far as the thirty-ninth, which appeared in 1738. The fortieth volume was published after the death of the author, in 1739. Since that period three others have been added; but in these there are many articles of which Nicéron was not the author. To a work of this kind many objections may be made, according to the particular taste or views of each individual objector; and, in fact, the French critics have expatiated with much severity upon the mistakes unavoidable in an undertaking of such magnitude and difficulty. But it is much more easy to censure than to execute. Since the time of Nicéron the French have produced no such collection as his, which, with all its faults, has been the foundation, as far as it goes, of all the subsequent accounts given of the same authors. (A.)