Page:An Enquiry into the Present State of Polite Learning in Europe.djvu/122

 refined taste for the polite arts. His excellence in both, have procured him a seat in each academy.

, an elegant writer and subtil reasoner. He is the supposed author of the famous Thesis, which the abbé Prade sustained before the doctors of the Sorbonne. It was levelled against Christianity, and the Sorbonne too hastily gave it their sanction. They perceived its purport, however, when it was too late. The college was brought into some contempt, and the abbé obliged to take refuge at the court of Berlin.

marquis D'Argens attempts to add the character of a philosopher to the vices of a debauchée.