HADRIAN, a man of excellent genius in the end of the 17th century, but who profited it in the study and composition of books of a very obnoxious kind. He was a perfect master of Ovid, Catullus, Petronius, and authors of that stamp. He is famous for his book on Original Sin, in which he maintained, that Adam's sin consisted in his commerce with his wife, and that original sin is nothing else but the inclination of the sexes to each other: it was condemned to be burnt. He led a scandalous life, but seems to have repented of his wicked manners and lewd writings; for he published a treatise in the end of his life, De Fornicatione Cavenda, in 1668. It is said he died mad.