enerally supposed to be the writer;
but of which on his death-bed he solemnly protested that he was
guiltless. The _coup-de-grace_ is given to the poet, stretched on this
rack of invective, by just accusations on account of those infamous
epigrams, which appear in some editions of that poet's works; a lesson
for a poet, if poets would be lessoned, who indulge their imagination at
the cost of their happiness, and seem to invent crimes, as if they
themselves were criminals.

But to return to our Lenglet. Had he composed his own life, it would
have offered a sketch of political servitude and political adventure, in
a man too intractable for the one, and too literary for the other. Yet
to the honour of his capacity, we must observe that he might have chosen
his patrons, would he have submitted to patronage. Prince Eugene at
Vienna; Cardinal Passionei at Rome; or Mons. Le Blanc, the French
minister, would have held him on his own terms. But "Liberty and my
books!" was the secret ejaculation of Lenglet; and from that moment all
things in life were sacrificed to a jealous spirit of independence,
which broke out in his actions as well as in his writings; and a passion
for study for ever crushed the worm of ambition.

He was as singular in his conversation, which, says Jordan, was
extremely agreeable to a foreigner, for he delivered himself without
reserve on all things, and on all persons, seasoned with secret and
literary anecdotes. He refused all the conveniences offered by an
opulent sister, that he might not endure the restraint of a settled
dinner-hour. He lived to his eightieth year, still busied, and then died
by one of those grievous chances, to which aged men of letters are
liable: our caustic critic slumbered over some modern work, and, falling
into the fire was burnt to death. Many characteristic anecdotes of the
Abbe Lenglet have been preserved in the _Dictionnaire Historique_, but I
shall not repeat what is of easy recurrence.

FOOTNOTES:

[149] This fact appears in the account of the minuter erasures.

[150] The _castrations_ are in _Beyeri Memoriae historico-criticae
Librorum rariorum_, p. 166. The _bruises_ are carefully noted in the
_Catalogue of the Duke de la Valiere_, 4467. Those who are curious
in such singularities will be gratified by the extraordinary
opinions and results in Beyer; and which after all were purloined
from a manuscript "Abridgment of Universal History," which