Charles, a justly celebrated French writer, was the son of a cutter at Paris, and was born there on the 3rd of January 1661. He studied at the college Du Plessis, in which he obtained a bursary through the interest of a Benedictine monk of the White Mantle, whom he had served at table, and who discovered in him some marks of genius. Here he acquired the regard of M. Gobinet, principal of that college, who had a particular esteem for him. After having studied humanity and philosophy at the college of Du Plessis, he applied to divinity three years at the Sorbonne; but he did not prosecute this study, and never rose in the church higher than to the rank of a tonsured priest. 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 everybody. In 1694, he was chosen rector of the university; and continued in that office two years, which was then a mark of distinction. By virtue of his office, he spoke the annual panegyric upon Louis XIV. He made many very useful regulations in the university; and particularly revived the study of the Greek language, which was then much neglected. He substituted academical exercises in the place of tragedies; and introduced the practice which had been formerly observed, of causing the students to get by heart passages of Scripture. 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 plainness 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, a 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 be employed upon Quintilian; an author he justly valued, and law 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 a very critical conjuncture of affairs, chose Rollin again rector: but he was displaced in about two months by a lettre 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 Treatise upon the Manner of Studying and Teaching the Belles Lettres, which was published, two volumes in 1726, and two more in 1728, 8vo.

This work has been justly esteemed for the sentiments of religion which animate its author, whose zeal for the public good prompted him to select the choicest passages of Greek and Latin authors. The style is sufficiently elegant, but the language on some occasions is not remarkable for delicacy; and in the book altogether, there is neither much order nor depth. The author has indeed spoken of common things agreeably, and has spoken as an orator on subjects which demanded the investigation of the philosopher. One can scarcely reduce anything in him to principles.—For example, the three species of eloquence; the simple, the temperate, and the sublime, can scarcely be understood from him when we read that the one resembles a frugal table; the second a beautiful ruin, with green wood growing on its banks; and the third thunder and an impetuous river which overthrows every thing that opposes it.

The work, however, has been exceedingly successful, and justly so; and its success encouraged its author to undertake another work 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." This is perhaps saying too much. There are indeed in this work some passages very well handled; but they are only such as he had taken from the ancient authors, in doing justice to whom he was always very happy. The reader will easily discover in this work the same attachment to religion, the same desire for the public good, and the same love of virtue, which appears in that on the belles lettres. But it is to be lamented that his chronology is neither exact nor corresponding; that he states facts inaccurately; that he has not sufficiently examined the exaggerations of ancient historians; that he often interrupts the most solemn narrations with mere trifles; that his style is not uniform; and this want of uniformity arises from his borrowing from writers of a modern date 40 or 50 pages at a time. Nothing can be more noble and more refined than his reflections; but they are fired with too sparing a hand, and want that lively and laconic turn on account of which the historians of antiquity are read with so much pleasure. He transgresses the rule which he himself had established in his Treatise on Studies. "The precepts which have a respect to manners (says he) ought, in order to make an impression, to be short and lively, and pointed like a dart. That is the most certain method of making them enter and remain on the mind." There is a visible negligence in his diction with regard to grammatical custom, and the choice of his expressions, which he does not choose at all times with sufficient taste, although, on the whole, he writes well, and has preserved himself free from many of the faults of modern authors.

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 Crevier, 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. This history had not so great a success as his Ancient History had. Indeed it is rather a moral and historical discourse than a formal history; for the author does little more than point out some more remarkable events, while he dwells with a sort of prolixity on those parts which furnish him a free field for moralizing. It is alternately diffuse and barren; and the greatest advantage of the work is, that there are several passages from T. Livy translated with great elegance into French. He also published A Latin Translation of most of the Theological Writings relative to the disputes of the Times in which he lived. Rollin was one of the most zealous adherents of Deacon Paris; and before the inclosure of the cemetery of St Medard, this distinguished character might have been often seen praying at the foot of his tomb. This he confesses in his Letters. He published also Lesser Pieces; containing different Letters, Latin Harangues, Discourses, Complimentary Addresses, &c. Paris 1771, 2 vols, 12mo. A collection which might have been contained in one volume, by keeping in only the best pieces. It is notwithstanding valuable for some good pieces which it contains, for the favourable opinion which it exhibits of solid probity, sound reason, and the zeal of the author for the progress of virtue and the preservation of taste. The Latin of Rollin is very correct, and much after the Ciceronian style, and embellished with most judicious thoughts and agreeable images. Full of the reading of the ancients, from which he brought quotations with as much propriety as plenty, he expressed himself with much spirit and excellence. His Latin poems deserve the same eulogium.

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 of superstition; and he wanted nothing but a mixture of the philosophic in his nature to make him a very perfect character. 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 Janusism; but in all other respects he was exceedingly moderate. The celebrated poet Rousseau conceived such a veneration for him, that he came out of banishment incognito to Paris, on purpose to visit him 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 instructive school for princes as well as subjects to learn all their duties in.

Instead of blushing at the lowness of his birth, Rollin on no occasion hesitated to speak of it. "It is from the Cyclops's shop (says he, in a Latin epigram to one of his friends, to whom he had sent a small sword) that I have taken my flight towards Parnassus." He was not, however, without some share of vanity, especially at hearing mention made of his writings, of which the well-timed praises of his adherents had given him a very high opinion. He spoke without any dissimulation what he thought; and his opinions were less the effect of presumption than of openness of heart. He was one of those men who are vain without any mixture of pride. Rollin spoke pretty well; but he had a greater readiness of writing than speaking; and much more satisfaction might be derived from his works than from his conversation. His name became famous throughout Europe; several princes sought the honour of his friendship. The duke of Cumberland and the prince-royal of Prussia (afterwards king) were among the list of his admirers. This monarch honoured him with several letters; in one of which he pays him the following compliment, "Men of your character are fit companions for kings." As to the literary merit of this author, it was, we suspect, too much extolled in his own time, and has been too much undervalued in ours.