HARDOUIN, John, a Jesuit, one of the most learned, and at the same time most singular men whose names are to be found in the history of letters, was born at Quimper, in 1646. He was the son of a bookseller; and this circumstance, in furnishing him with the means of instruction, no doubt contributed to develope that desire for knowledge which at first formed the principal trait of his i character. When his studies were terminated, he made application to the Jesuits, into whose body he wished to be received; but he only obtained his admission after two years of trial and examination; from which it may reasonably be conjectured that, at the age of twenty, he gave no proofs of those brilliant qualities for which he was afterwards distinguished. For some time he professed rhetoric, and then proceeded to Paris in order to complete his course of theology. He was associated with Father Garnier in classifying the books belonging to the college of Louis the Great, and in 1683 he succeeded to the office of librarian. The learned were then preparing editions of the classical authors for the use of the Dauphin; but none of them had ventured to undertake the Natural History of Pliny, a work the text of which has suffered more than that of almost any other ancient author, and which, to be thoroughly understood and appreciated, requires extensive knowledge of various kinds. Father Hardouin undertook[7:11:146] this task, to which he applied himself with incredible zeal. In trying to determine the positions of the towns mentioned by Pliny, he became sensible that a knowledge of medals would assist him in clearing up different points of ancient geography; and with this view he immediately applied to the study of numismatics, in which he soon rendered himself profound. His edition of Pliny was completed in five years, and, when it appeared, made the learned and indefatigable editor known to all Europe. This work, which, according to Huet, would have occupied any five ordinary scholars fifty years, met with so flattering a reception, that Father Hardouin could not enjoy his success with moderation. The commendations which poured in upon him from all quarters intoxicated him with pride; and he no longer spoke of other antiquaries, except with the utmost contempt. The latter, again, set themselves to humble him in his turn, by depreciating his merits, and exaggerating his faults. Hardouin replied with bitterness, and in his reasonings displayed more subtlety than good faith; for rather than confess his errors, he attempted to palliate them by paradoxes, and, proceeding from one thing to another, he at length came to advance some so utterly extravagant, that, if they have not ruined his reputation, as some pretend, they have at least weakened the impression which would otherwise have been produced by his really prodigious knowledge. In one of his works, La Chronologie expliquée par les Médailles, he ventured to maintain that ancient history had been entirely recomposed in the thirteenth century, with the help of the works of Cicero and Pliny, the Georgies of Virgil, and the satires and epistles of Horace, the only monuments which, in his opinion, had any claim to antiquity. This strange assertion, which tended to raise doubts as to the authenticity of the sacred Scriptures themselves, caused his production to be suppressed, drew down upon him the censure of his superiors, and obliged him, in 1708, to make a retractation, but without in any degree changing his opinions, which he reproduced in several of his works. Besides his office of librarian, Hardouin filled a chair of theology; and, notwithstanding the continual distractions to which he was exposed, he passed few years without publishing some new writing, as remarkable for erudition as for novelty of the ideas. He rose, summer and winter, at four in the morning, and continued his readings until night was well advanced. Endowed with an astonishing memory, and a sagacity which made itself be remarked even in his greatest aberrations, he would have more certainly obtained the glory he coveted if be had pursued it less eagerly. He thought himself original when he was only singular; and he frequently advanced vain subtleties or extravagant paradoxes, that he might avoid repeating what others had said before him. He prepared himself for death with Christian resignation, and terminated his long career, which it would have been easy for him to render more honourable, as well as more useful, in the house of his order at Paris, on the 3d of September 1729, in the eighty-third year of his age. His epitaph, written by Jacob Vernet of Geneva, gives a very just idea of the celebrated personage, and of the strange mixture of pride and naivete, of scepticism and solid piety, which made up his character.^[1. Naked, unvarnished truth is a rare ingredient in epitaphs. The following, however, which is that alluded to in the text, presents, in this respect, a remarkable exception In expectatione judicii Hic jacet hominum paradoxotatos Natione Gallus, religione jesuita, Orbis litterati portentum Venerandae antiquitatis cultor et depraedator Docte febricitans Somnia et inaudita commenta vigilans edidit. Scepticum pie egit Credulitate puer Audacia juvenis Deliriis senex, Verbo dicam, hic jacet Harduinus. ] His principal works are: 1. Nummi antiqui Populorum et Urbium illustrati, de re monetaria veterum Romanorum ex Plinii Secundi sententia, Paris, 1684, in 4to; 2. Antirrheticus de Num· mis antiquis Coloniarum et Municiporum ad Jo. Foy-Vaillant, ibid. 1689, in 4to; 3. C. Plinii Secundi Historiae Naturalis libri xxxvii. Paris, 1689, in five vols. 4to; 4. S. Joannis Chrysostomi Epistola ad Caesarium monachum, notis illustrata, Paris, 1686, in 4to; 5. Chronologiae ex Nummis antiquis restitutae specimen primum, Paris, 1696, in 4to; 6. Opera Selecta, Amsterdam, 1709, 1719, in folio; 7. Conciliorum Collectio Regia Maxima, Paris, 1715 and the following years; 8. Apologie d’Homère, où l’on explique le véritable dessein de l’Iliade, et la Théo-mythologie, Paris, 1716, in 12mo; 9. Opera Varia Posthuma, Amsterdam, 1733, in folio; 10. Commentarius in Novum Testamentum, Amsterdam, 1742, in folio; 11. Prolegomena ad censuram Scriptorum veterum, London, 1766, in 8vo; and, 12. a very great number of Dissertations, chiefly on Medals, in the Mémoires de Trévoux, (λ.)