ROLLIN, Charles, a celebrated French writer, was the son of a cutler at Paris, and was born there on the 30th of January 1661. He studied at the College du Plessis, in which he obtained an exhibition through the interest of a Benedictine monk whom he had served at table, and who discovered in him some marks of genius. Here he acquired the regard of M Gobinet, principal of the college, who had a particular esteem for him. After having studied humanity and philosophy, he applied to divinity three years at the Sorbonne; but he did not prosecute this study, and was satisfied with obtaining the tonsure. He afterwards became professor of rhetoric in his own college; and in 1688 succeeded Horsan, his master, as professor of eloquence in the Royal College. No man ever exercised the functions of it with greater eclat; he often made Latin orations to celebrate the memorable events of the times, and frequently accompanied them with poems, which were generally read and esteemed. In 1694 he was chosen rector of the university, and he continued in that office two years, which was then a mark of distinction. By virtue of his office, he spoke the annual panegyric upon Louis XIV. He made many very useful regulations in the university; and particularly revived the study of the Greek language, which was then much neglected. He substituted academical exercises in the place of tragedies; and introduced the practice which had been formerly observed, of causing the students to get by heart passages of Scripture. He wεfe a man of indefatigable application, and trained innumerable persons, who did honour to the church, the state, and the army. The first president Portail was pleased one day to reproach Rollin in a jocular strain, as if he exceeded even himself in doing business; to whom Rollin replied, with that plainness and sincerity which was natural to him, “It becomes you well, sir, to reproach me with this; it is this habit of labour in me which has distinguished you in the place of advocate-general, which has raised you to that of first president; you owe the greatness of your fortune to me.”

Upon tile expiration of the rectorship, Cardinal Noailles engaged him to superintend tile studies of his nephews, who were in the College of Laon; and in this office he was agreeably employed, when, in 1699, he was with great reluctance made coadjutor to the principal of the College of Beauvais. This college was then a kind of desert, inhabited by very few students, and without any regular discipline; but Rol-lin’s great industry soon repeopled it, and raised it to that credit which it long retained. In this situation he continued till 1712; when the war between the Jesuits and the Jansenists drawing towards a crisis, he fell a sacrifice to the prevalence of the former. Father le Tellier, the king’s confessor, a furious agent of the Jesuits, infused into his master prejudices against Rollin, whose connection with Cardinal de Noailles would alone have sufficed to make him a Jansenist; and on this account he lost his share in the principality of Beauvais. No man, however, could thus have suffered a smaller loss than Rollin, who had every thing left that was necessary to make him happy; retirement, books, and enough for his support. He now began to be employed upon Quinctilian; an author whom he justly valued, and could not without uneasiness see neglected. He retrenched in him w hatever he thought rather curious than useful for the instruction of youth; he placed summaries or contents at the head of each chapter, and he accompanied the text with short and select notes. His edition appeared in 1715, in two vols. 12mo, with an elegant preface explaining his method and view's.

In 1710, the university of Paris, willing to have a head suitable to the importance of their interests in a very critical conjuncture of affairs, chose Rollin again rector; but he was displaced in about two months by a lettre de cachet. The university had presented to the parliament a petition, in which it protested against taking any part in the adjustment of the late disputes; and their being congratulated in a public oration by Rollin on this step, occasioned the letter, which ordered them to choose a rector of more moderation. Whatever the university might suffer by the removal of Rollin, the public was probably a gainer; for he now applied himself to the composition of his Treatise on the Manner of Studying and Teaching the Belles Lettres, which was published in octavo, two volumes in 1726, and two more in 1728.

This work, though greatly deficient in order, and displaying neither depth nor philosophy, has been exceedingly successful; and its success encouraged its author to undertake another work of equal use and entertainment; his “Ancient History of the Egyptians, Carthaginians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Medes and Persians, Macedonians, and Greeks,” which he finished in thirteen volumes 8vo, and published between 1730 and 1738. Voltaire, after having observed that Rollin was “the first member of the university of Paris who wrote French with dignity and correctness,” says of this work, that “though the last volumes,
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which were written in too great a hurry, are not equal to the first, it is nevertheless the best compilation that had yet appeared in any language; because it is seldom that compilers are eloquent, and Rollin was remarkably so.” This is perhaps saying too much. In this work there are indeed some passages very well handled; but they are only such as he had taken from the ancient authors, in doing justice to whom he was always very happy. The reader will easily discover in this work the same attachment to religion, the same desire for the public good, and the same love of virtue, which appear in that on the belles lettres. But it is to be lamented that his chronology is neither exact nor consistent; that he states facts inaccurately; that he has not sufficiently examined the exaggerations of ancient historians; that he often interrupts the most solemn narrations with mere trifles; and that his style is not uniform. Nothing can be more noble and more refined than his reflections; but they are strewed with too sparing a hand, and want that lively and laconic turn on account of which the historians of antiquity are read with so much pleasure. There is a visible negligence in his diction with regard to grammatical usage, and the choice of his expressions, which he does not at all times select with sufficient taste, although, on the whole, he writes well, and has preserved himself free from many of the faults of modern authors. While the last volumes of his Ancient History were printing, he published the first of his Roman History, which he lived to carry on, through the eighth and into part of the ninth, to the war against the Cimbri, about seventy years before the battle of Actium. Mr Crevier, the worthy disciple of Rollin, continued the history to the battle of Actium, which closes the tenth volume; and afterwards completed the original plan of Rollin in sixteen volumes 12mo, which was, to bring it down from the foundation of the city to the reign of Constantine the Great. This work had not so great success as his Ancient History. It is alternately diffuse and barren; and the greatest advantage of the work is, that there are several passages from Livy translated with great elegance into French. He also published a Latin translation of some of the theological writings relative to the disputes of the times in which he lived. Rol-lin was one of the most zealous adherents of the Abbé Paris; and before the enclosure of the cemetery of St Me-dard, this distinguished character might have been often seen praying at his tomb. This he confesses in his Letters. He published also Smaller Pieces, containing different Letters, Latin harangues, discourses, complimentary addresses, &c. Paris, 1771, two volumes 12mo. The collection is valuable for some good pieces which it contains, for the favourable opinion which it exhibits of solid probity, sound reason, and the zeal of the author for the progress of virtue and the preservation of taste. The Latin of Rollin is very correct, and much after the Ciceronian style, and embellished with most judicious thoughts and agreeable images. Full of the reading of the ancients, from which he brought quotations with as much propriety as plenty, he expressed himself with much spirit. His Latin poems are likewise entitled to commendation.

This excellent person died in 1741. He had been named by the king a member of the Academy of Inscriptions and Belles Lettres in 1701; but as he had not then brought the College of Beauvais into repute, and found he had more business upon his hands than was consistent with a decent attendance upon the functions of an academician, he begged the privileges of a veteran, which where honourably granted him. Nevertheless, he maintained his connections with the academy, attended their assemblies as often as he could, laid the plan of his Ancient History before them, and demanded an academician for his censor. Rollin was a roan of an admirable composition; very ingenious, consummate in polite learning, of rigid morals, and eminently pious. His religion however carried him into the territories of superstition; and he wanted nothing but a mixture of philosophy in his nature to make him a very perfect character. Nothing could be more benign, more pacific, more sweet, more moderate, than Rollin’s temper. He showed, it must be owned, some zeal for the cause of Jansenism; but in all other respects he was exceedingly moderate. The celebrated poet Rousseau conceived such a veneration for him, that he came out of banishment incognito to Paris, on purpose to visit him, and pay his respects to him. He looked upon his histories, not only as the best models of the historic kind, but as a complete system of politics and morals, and a most instructive school, in which princes as well as subjects might learn all their duties.