Page:A new and general biographical dictionary; containing an historical and critical account of the lives and writings of the most eminent persons in every nation v1.djvu/72

 ACCORDS. with the motto a tous accords, chiming with all [c]. He died July 24, 1561, in the 46th year of his age. [c] Hehadfent a fonnet to a daughter " nicknamed me, in her anfwer, Seig of Mr. Begat, the great and learned pre- " neUr des Accords; by which title her /idest of Burgundy, " who, "fays he, " did me the honour to love me. And " inafmuch," continues he, " I had " father alfo called me leveral tim?s. " For this reafon 1 chofe this furnamej ' not only in all my writings compofed ' fubfcribsd my fonnet with only my " at that time, but even in thefe books." " device, a tous a:;ord> t this lady firft ACONT1US (JAMES), a famous philofopher, civilian, and divine, born at Trent in the fixteenth century. He em- braced the Proteftant religion ; and going over to England in the reign of Elizabeth, he met with a very friendly reception from that princefs, as he himfelf has teftiiied in a work dedi- cated to her [A]. This work is his celebrated Collection of the Stratagems of Satan, which has been fo often tranflatecl, and gone through fo many different impreflions. It was firft printed at Bafil, in 1565; and the author died foon after in 1 England. James Grailcrus publifbed another edition of it in i- 1610, at the fame city. In this we meet with Acontius's let- tio Strange- ter " De ratione edendorum librorum," wherein he gives moft excellent advice to authors ; but his treadle of Method [B], a valuable piece, and publifhtd as an efl'ay, is not inferred. He Wrote alfo a work in Italian, on the Manner of fortifying Ci- ties, which he tranflated into Latin during his refidence in England ; but we believe it was never publifhed. He was alfo about a Treatife of Logic ; but death prevented his bringing it to a coriclufion, which was certainly a public lofs ; for, be- ing a man of a juft apprehenfion, and endowed with great pe- netration, he had formed the moft rational idea of this work ; and thought he was obliged to be the more careful in writing it, as he faw the fucceeding age would be more enlightened than that wherein he lived [cj. His religious principles dif- [A] He gives her the following titles: [c] Our author, after having, in his " Divinse Elizabeths, Angliae, Brands, ep:ftles, touched upon the other reafons ' Hiberniae, Regina." He declaies, that he dedicates it to her as a matk of his gratitude: "In fignum inemoriaai- J que grati animiob partum ejus libera- ' litate, quum in Angliam propterevan- " gslics veritatis profefiionem extonis ' appulifier, humamlTimeque exceptus [B] This piece, which is intitled, " Mcthodus five refla invtftigandarum <c tradendarumque Artium & Scienti- " arum ratio," was inftrteo in a col- leftion of dilTertations, " De ftudiis bene " inftiiuendis," printed at Uttecht in rnatum Si tana;. . . Epift. ad Woifium, Ibid' which rendered the execuiion cf his vafliy difficult, goes on to the following purport: " lam fenfible," fjys he, "that " 1 Jive in a more than ufually enlight- " ened age ; yet 1 do not fo much " dread the judgment of thofe who are " now the reigning critics, astherif;n^ " light of a more refined age than the " prefent. For though the age we now " live in has produced, and ftill conti- " nues to produce, many great men : " yet methinks I pe.ceive fomewhat " greater will arife," Aeon. Ep. asJ Wolf. p. 412. fered
 * ' effct, literarium olium."