JOHN BAPTIST, a learned and ingenious French author, born at Beauvais in 1670. He finished his studies at Paris, and at length was entrusted with the management of several important affairs in Italy, England, and Holland. At his return to Paris, he had a prebendary given him; afterwards he had a pension of two thousand livres, and the abbey of Notre Dame at Reffons, near Beauvais. He died at Paris, when perpetual secretary of the French academy, on the 23d of March 1742. His principal works are, 1. Critical Reflections on Poetry and Painting, in three volumes duodecimo. 2. A Critical History of the French Monarchy in Gaul, two volumes 4to.