ANCILLON, JOHANN PETER FRIEDERICH, a celebrated historian, and one of the most distinguished members of the Royal Academy of Sciences of Prussia, was born at Berlin in 1766, and died in that city, after a short illness, on the 19th April 1837. His theological studies were commenced at Berlin, and completed at Geneva; and soon after he visited Paris, about the commencement of the revolution, when he became acquainted with Mirabeau. On his return to Berlin he was appointed professor of history in the Royal Military Academy, and a minister of the Reformed Church, in which latter capacity he speedily became distinguished for the eloquence of his style. In 1806 was published his Tableau des Révolutions, or a sketch of the revolutions of the political system of Europe from the close of the fifteenth century to the eighteenth, which is perhaps the ablest and most philosophical work on that subject that has appeared. The merits of Ancillon were not overlooked. He was appointed tutor to the Prince Royal of Prussia, and received various appointments from the government. In 1814 he attended his royal pupil to Paris, where he became acquainted with MM. Guizot and De Broglie, and other persons of eminence. He was also much employed by his government in diplomatic affairs, and was made a counsellor of state. His other writings are as follows: Mélanges de Littérature et de Philosophie; Essais Philosophique, &c.; Essais de Philosophie, de Politique, et de Littérature; Sermons, &c. See PRELIMINARY DISSERTATION, No. I. of this work.