Dominique, a celebrated French critic, born at Paris in 1628. He entered into the society of Jesuits at the age of sixteen, and was appointed to read lectures upon polite literature in the college of Clermont at Paris, and on rhetoric at Tours. He afterwards became preceptor to the two sons of the Duke of Longueville. The duke died in Bouhours' arms; and the "account of the pious and Christian death" of this great personage was his first publication. He was sent to Dunkerque to the Popish refugees from England; and in the midst of his missionary occupations published several books. Among these were Entretiens d'Ariste et d'Eugène, a work of a critical nature on the French language, printed five times at Paris, twice at Grenoble, and afterwards at Lyons, Brussels, Amsterdam, Leyden, &c. It embroiled him in numerous quarrels, particularly with Menage, who, however, lived in friendship with the author before and after. The fame and merit of this piece recommended Bouhours so effectually to the great Colbert, that he intrusted him with the education of his son the Marquis de Seignelay. He afterwards wrote several other works in French, the chief of which are, Remarks and Doubts upon the French Language, 1694; Dialogues upon the art of Thinking Well in works of Genius, 1687; The Life of St Ignatius, 1679; The Art of Pleasing in Conversation; The Life of St Francis Xavier, 1682. It was his practice to publish alternately a book on literature and a work on some subject of piety, which gave occasion to a wag, in a satirical epitaph, to remark of him, "qu'il servait le monde et le ciel par semestre."

His Pensées ingénieuses des Anciens et des Modernes, though at once instructive and amusing, exposed him to censure as well as ridicule, on account of some strange misjudgments and omissions. He has clasped Boïcan with the least esteemed of the Italian satirical versifiers; and what is still more remarkable, he has omitted, in his Thoughts on the Moderns, all mention of Pascal. That a disciple of St Ignatius should wish to forget the author of the Provincial Letters is, however, not to be wondered at. Among the numerous epigrams to which this omission gave rise is the following by Madame Deshouilliers:

Père Bouhours, dans vos Pensées, La plupart fort embarrassées, A moi vous n'avez point pensé. Dans cette liste triomphante, Des célèbres auteurs que votre livre chante, Je ne vois point mon nom placé; Mais aussi dans le même rôle Vous avez oublié Pascal, Qui pourtant ne pensait mal; Un tel compaignon me console.