Alexandre Rodolphe, was born at Lausanne in the canton of Vaud, on the 17th of June 1797. His father, who held an official appointment in the canton, took charge of his early education, and being a strict disciplinarian, the mind of Vinet, as is frequently the case in such circumstances, developed but tardily. Being intended for the church, his studies were early directed to theology, but literature was with him the favourite subject of study. He had already so distinguished himself in this field, that at the age of twenty he was appointed professor of the French language and literature at the gymnasium of Basle. Two years later, in 1819, he was ordained a minister of the protestant church, at Lausanne, and the same year he married. He continued, however, to discharge his duties at Basle, and laboured with great acceptance, being, it is said, eminently successful in winning the attachment of his pupils, and in stimulating them to exertion. About this time a great religious awakening or "revival" was taking place in French Switzerland, which speedily attracted the attention of Vinet. At first, however, he was against the movement, but he soon became convinced of its reality and truth, and immediately threw himself with ardour into the midst of the struggle. The persecuting measures adopted by the government of his native canton against the evangelical party called forth his pamphlet Du Respect des Opinions in 1824, and two years later, appeared his more mature work, Memoire en Faveur de la Liberte des Cultes. In 1829, the persecuting spirit of the government broke out afresh, and such was Vinet's opposition, that he became involved in a public prosecution. From this time he took a leading part in the discussions which followed, ever on the side of religious liberty. In 1835 he was made professor of French literature and eloquence at Basle, and in 1837 he accepted an invitation from his native city to fill the chair of practical theology in the academy. He was chosen one of a committee to draw up a new constitution for the church, and as he could not acquiesce in the decisions of the majority, he considered it his duty to secede from the national church, with which he had hitherto remained connected, in 1840, when the new constitution was about to be introduced, and at the same time he resigned his professorship. In 1844 he again became connected with the academy as professor of French literature. On the secession of a large body of the clergy from the national church in 1845, Vinet was one of the committee appointed to draw up a new constitution, and it was chiefly prepared by him. When sub- mitted to the synod, however, material alterations were introduced, and this is said to have preyed upon his already enfeebled constitution. He died on the 10th of May 1847.

Besides the works already referred to, Vinet was the author of *Chrestomachie Francaise*, 1829; *Discours sur quelques Sujets religieux*, 1831; *Essais de Philosophie Morale*, 1837; *Nouveaux Discours*, &c., 1831; *Essai sur la Manifestation des Convictions religieuses, et sur la Separation de l'Eglise et de l'Etat*, 1842. His posthumous works are, *Theologie Pastorale; Homilétique, ou Théorie de la Prédication; Histoire de la Littérature Francaise au xviiième Siècle*, 2 vols.; *Etudes sur la Littérature Francaise du xixe Siècle*, 3 vols.; *Etudes sur Blaise Pascal; Etudes évangéliques; and Nouvelles Études évangéliques*. Almost all his works have been translated into English. He was also for many years one of the chief contributors to the *Semeur*, a literary journal commenced in 1831. (See Alexandre Vinet—Notice sur sa Vie et ses Ecrits, par Edmond Scherer, Paris, 1853; and an article on his life and writings in the North British Review for August 1854.)