(Charles)**, a justly celebrated French writer, was the son of a cutter at Paris, and was born there on the 30th of January 1661. He studied at the college du Plessis; and acquired the regard of M. Gobinet, principal of that college, who had a particular esteem for him. He afterwards became professor of rhetoric in the same college; and, in 1688, succeeded Horfan, his master, as professor of eloquence, in the royal college. No man ever exercised the functions of it with greater eclat: he often made Latin orations, to celebrate the memorable events of the times; and frequently accompanied them with poems, which were read and esteemed by every body. In 1694, he was chosen rector of the university; and continued in that office two years, which was then a great mark of distinction. By virtue of his office, he spoke the annual pan- panegyric upon Lewis XIV. He made many very useful regulations in the university; and particularly reanimated the study of the Greek language, which was then growing into great neglect. He was a man of indefatigable attention; and trained innumerable persons, who did honour to the church, the state, and the army. The first president Portail was pleased one day to reproach Rollin in a jocular strain, as if he exceeded even himself in doing business: to whom Rollin replied, with that plaintiveness and sincerity which was natural to him, "It becomes you well, Sir, to reproach me with this; it is this habit of labour in me which has distinguished you in the place of advocate-general, which has raised you to that of first president: you owe the greatness of your fortune to me."

Upon the expiration of the rectorship, cardinal Noailles engaged him to superintend the studies of his nephews, who were in the college of Laon; and in this office he was agreeably employed, when, in 1699, he was with great reluctance made coadjutor to the principal of the college of Beauvais. This college was then a kind of desert, inhabited by very few students, and without any manner of discipline: but Rollin's great reputation and industry soon re-peopled it, and made it that flourishing society it has ever since continued.

In this situation he continued till 1712; when the war between the Jesuits and the Jansenists drawing towards a crisis, he fell a sacrifice to the prevalence of the former. Father le Tellier, the king's confessor, and furious agent of the Jesuits, infused into his master prejudices against Rollin, whose connections with cardinal de Noailles would alone have sufficed to have made him a Jansenist; and on this account he lost his share in the principality of Beauvais. No man, however, could have lost less in this than Rollin, who had everything left him that was necessary to make him happy: retirement, books, and enough to live on. He now began to employ himself upon Quintilian; an author he justly valued, and saw neglected not without uneasiness. He retrenched in him whatever he thought rather curious, than useful for the instruction of youth; he placed summaries or contents at the head of each chapter; and he accompanied the text with short select notes. His edition appeared in 1715, in 2 vols 12mo. with an elegant preface setting forth his method and views.

In 1710, the university of Paris willing to have a head suitable to the importance of their interests in the then critical conjuncture of affairs, chose Rollin again rector; but he was displaced in about two months by a letter de cachet. The university had presented to the parliament a petition, in which it protested against taking any part in the adjustment of the late disputes; and their being congratulated in a public oration by Rollin on this step, occasioned the letter which ordered them to choose a rector of more moderation. Whatever the university might suffer by the removal of Rollin, the public was probably a gainer; for he now applied himself to compose his excellent treatise upon the Manner of Studying and Teaching the Belles-Lettres. This work was published, two volumes in 1726, and two more in 1728, 8vo.

Encouraged by the great success of this work, he undertook another of equal use and entertainment: his Histoire Ancienne, &c. or "Ancient History of the Egyptians, Carthaginians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Medes and Persians, Macedonians, and Greeks," which he finished in 13 vols 8vo. and published between 1730 and 1738. M. Voltaire, after having observed that Rollin was "the first member of the university of Paris who wrote French with dignity and correctness," says of this work, that "though the last volumes, which were written in too great a hurry, are not equal to the first, it is nevertheless the best compilation that has yet appeared in any language; because it is seldom that compilers are eloquent, and Rollin was remarkably so." While the last volumes of his ancient history were printing, he published the first of his Roman History; which he lived to carry on, through the eighth and into part of the ninth, to the war against the Cimbri, about 70 years before the battle of Actium. Mr Crewe, the worthy disciple of Rollin, continued the history to the battle of Actium, which closes the tenth volume; and has since completed the original plan of Rollin, in 16 vols 12mo, which was to bring it down from the foundation of the city, to the reign of Constantine the Great. All these works of Rollin have met with universal approbation, and been translated into several languages.

This excellent person died in 1741. He had been named by the king a member of the academy of inscriptions and belles lettres in 1701: but as he had not then brought the college of Beauvais into repute, and found he had more business upon his hands than was consistent with a decent attendance upon the functions of an academician, he begged the privileges of a veteran, which were honourably granted him. Nevertheless, he maintained his connections with the academy, attended their assemblies as often as he could, laid the plan of his ancient history before them, and demanded an academician for his censor. Rollin was a man of an admirable composition; very ingenious, consummate in polite learning, of rigid morals, and eminently pious. He was rather too religious, his religion carrying him into the territories superstition; and he wanted nothing but a mixture of the philosophic in his nature, to make him a very complete person. When he was discharged from the rectorship in 1720, the words of the lettre de cachet were, That the university should choose a rector of more moderation. But this was hardly possible: for nothing could be more benign, more pacific, more sweet, more moderate, than Rollin's temper. He showed, it must be owned, some zeal for the cause of Jansenism. In all other respects he was a most respectable person. We find in his works generous and exalted sentiments, a zeal for the good of society, a love of virtue, a veneration for Providence, and in short every thing, though on profane subjects, sanctified with a spirit truly religious; so that it is impossible to read him without feeling ourselves more virtuous. How noble his reflections! Right reason, religion, honour, probity, inspired them; and we can never enough admire the art which has made them appear so natural. This is Mr Voltaire's eulogy on Rollin: to which we may add the testimony of the celebrated poet Rousseau, who conceived such a veneration for him, that he came out of banishment incognito to Paris, on purpose to visit and pay his respects to him. He looked upon his histories, not only as the best models of the historic kind, but as a complete system of politics and morals; and a most