Jacques, early acquired deserved celebrity as the founder of a new school in French poetry, but unfortunately his ambition extended with his fame, till he left behind him as many didactic poems as Sir Richard Blackmore has epics, and we suspect the greater number of them are already almost as little known. The author of the Jardins, indeed, will always hold his rank among poets; but it would have been no great misfortune to his memory if he had written little more.

He was born on the 22d of June 1738, in the neighbourhood of Clermont, in Auvergne. His father was a man of neither fortune nor family; but he was connected by his mother with that of the Chancellor de l'Hôpital. With very slender means of support, he was educated at Paris, and made such progress in his studies as augured well for his future distinction. When his education was completed, he was forced to accept of a very humble situation as teacher in the College of Beauvais; but this was soon exchanged for the more honourable station of professor of humanity at Amiens. After returning to Paris, where he likewise obtained a professorship, he speedily acquired a considerable poetical name, and was encouraged, by the younger Racine, to give to the world a translation of the Georgics of Virgil, which he had begun at Amiens. Voltaire was greatly struck with the enterprise and the success of Delille; and without any personal acquaintance with the poet, he, of his own accord, recommended him and his work to the good graces of the Academy. It was not, however, till some years afterwards that Delille became a member of that celebrated body. He now aimed at a higher distinction than even a finished translation of the most finished poem in the world could confer upon him; and in the Jardins, which he published a few years after his reception into the Academy, he made good his pretensions as an original poet.

Before he had gone far in the composition of his next poem, which was not, indeed, published till after many of his other works, he made a voyage to Constantinople in the train of the ambassador M. de Choiseul Gouffier. On his return to Paris he lectured, in his capacity of professor, on the Latin poets, and was attended by a numerous audience, who were delighted, not only with his critical observations, but with his beautiful recitation. Delille continued to advance in fame and fortune, though without hazarding any more publications, till the period of the Revolution, when he was reduced to poverty, and sheltered himself in retreat from the disasters which surrounded him. He quitted Paris, and retired to St Diez, the native place of Madame Delille; and here he completed, in deep solitude, his translation of the Aeneid, which he had begun many years before. A residence in France, however, soon became very undesirable, and he emigrated first to Bâle and then to Glaris in Switzerland, a charming village on the lake of Biemne, opposite Rousseau's island of St Pierre. Much delighted with this enchanting country, and with the reception which he met from its inhabitants, he occupied himself constantly in the composition of poetry, and here finished his Homme des Champs, and his poem on the Trois Règnes de la Nature. His next place of refuge was in Germany, where he composed his La Pitié; and finally, he passed two years in London, chiefly employed in translating Paradise Lost. In 1801, finding that he might return safely to Paris, he did so, carrying with him his immense Poetical Encyclopedia, and from that time he sent poem after poem into the world, till at last he himself quitted it on the 1st of May 1813, at the age of seventy-five.