(Benoit de), descended from a noble family in Lorraine, was born in 1659, and appointed, at the age of 33, consul general for Egypt. He fulfilled this office for 16 years with great ability, supported the king's authority against the Janizaries, and greatly extended the trade of France into that part of Africa. As a recompense for his services, the king bestowed upon him the consulship of Leghorn, which is the first and most considerable consulship in his gift. Being at last appointed in 1715 to visit the sea-ports in the Levant and on the coast of Barbary, he was so successful in the execution of his commission, that he obtained permission to retire with a considerable pension. He settled at Marseilles; where he died in 1738, in the 79th year of his age. He was a man of a lively imagination, and gentle manners; in society he was very amiable, and he possessed the strictest probity. He was fond of praise, and very anxious about the reputation of genius. During the whole of his life he paid particular attention to the study of natural history; and his principal object was to become acquainted with the origin of our globe. On this important subject he left some curious observations, which have been published in octavo under the title of Telliamed, which is the name de Maillet written backwards. The editor Abbé Maclerier has given to this work the form of dialogue. An Indian philosopher is introduced as explaining to a French missionary his opinion concerning the nature of the globe, and the origin of mankind; and, which is very incredible, he supposes it to have come out of the waters, and makes an abode uninhabitable by man the birthplace of the human race. His great object is to prove, that all the strata of which this globe is composed, even to the tops of the highest mountains, have come from the bosom of the waters; that they are the work of the sea, which continually retires to allow them gradually to appear. Telliamed dedicated his book to the illustrious Cyrano de Bergerac author of the imaginary "Travels to the sun and moon." In the humorous epistle which is addressed to him, the Indian philosopher informs us that these dialogues are nothing but a collection of dreams and fancies. He cannot be accused of having broken his word; but he may well be reproached with not having written them in the same style with his letter to Cyrano, and with not having displayed equal liveliness and humour. A subject the most extravagant is handled in the gravest manner, and his ridiculous opinion is delivered with all the serious air of a philosopher. Of the six dialogues which compose the work, the four first contain many curious observations truly philosophical and important; in the other two we find nothing but conjectures, fancies, and fables, sometimes amusing, but always absurd. To Maillet we are indebted also for "A Description of Egypt," collected from his memoirs by the editor of Telliamed, 1743, 4to, or in 2 vols 12mo.