nets du divin Pétrarque, avec quelques autres poésies de l'invention de l'auteur," Paris, 8vo. 1584. 5. "Des Quatrains de la vie et de la mort," Paris. (Adelung, Supplement to Jöcher, Allg. Gelehrten-Lexicon; Abbé Goujet, Biblioth. Franc. vol. vii. p. 318; De Percel, Biblioth des Romans, vol. ii., p. 13; Biographie Universelle.)

A. H.

AVRIGNY, CHARLES-JOSEPH LOILLARD D', was born in the island of Martinique, about the year 1760. He was sent at an early age to France, and received his education at Montpellier; but whether with a view to any profession is uncertain. A circumstance which occurred to him in his eighteenth year in all likelihood determined the course of his future life. He wrote a poem "On the Prayer of Patroclus to Achilles," the subject for that year of the annual prize of the French Academy. For some reason not exactly known, no successful candidate was named; but the Academy, in their report, declared D'Avrigny's verses worthy of honourable mention.

Not long afterwards D'Avrigny removed to Paris, where he married Mademoiselle Regnault, at that time one of the most admired singers of the Opéra Comique; and this connection induced him to attempt dramatic composition. The French revolution soon broke out, but, in spite of its horrors, the theatres of Paris were as crowded as before. D'Avrigny wrote operas for the establishment to which his wife belonged, and vaudevilles for the minor theatres; occasionally diversifying these labours by the composition of hymns and odes for the republican festivals of the period. In 1801 he contributed to Michaud's work on Mysore the sketch which it contains of the origin and progress of British power in India, an elegant and vigorous essay, which has led French critics to regret that he did not turn his attention exclusively to history. His dramatic pieces were tolerably successful, but have long ceased to be acted; only one of them was ever printed, a little afterpiece called "La Lettre" (Paris, 1795), which it is said the old playgoers of Paris still remember with pleasure.

Under the empire, D'Avrigny, besides being a censor of the press, held a high and lucrative appointment in the bureau of the minister of marine. Poetry was now no longer the business of his life, but he continued to cultivate it as the amusement of his leisure hours. In 1807 he published "Le Départ de la Peyrouse, ou la Navigation moderne," a poem which the "Biographie Universelle" strangely praises as a happy imitation of Cicero's "Dream of Scipio," in his "Tusculans." Avrigny wrote also, with the assiduity of a self-constituted laureate, triumphal odes on the victories of Napoleon; and he began an epic on the conquest of Mexico by Cortes, of which only a single

episode entitled "Marina" was completed. All these are contained in his "Poésies Nationales" (Paris, 1812), to which he prefixed the motto of "Celebrare domestica facta."

At the Restoration D'Avrigny lost his situation in the marine, and his censorship was limited to the revision of dramatic pieces, a task which he performed with great delicacy and to the satisfaction of the irritable class with which he had to deal. On the 4th of July, 1819, he appeared once more in the literary world, as the author of "Jeanne d'Arc à Rouen," a tragedy, which was performed with great applause at the Theatre Français. In the course of the following year he was made chevalier of the Legion of Honour. Subsequently, on several occasions, he struggled to be made a member of the Academy, but he never obtained this distinction. D'Avrigny died of apoplexy, on the 17th of September, 1823. (Encyclopédie des Gens du Monde; Biographie des Contemporains; Biographie Universelle; Quérard, La France Littéraire.) G. B.

AVRIGNY, HYACINTHE ROBILLARD D', a French Jesuit, was born at Caen, in the year 1675. He took the vows of his order in 1691, studied in a college of Jesuits, and became at length professor of the "Humanities," in what college is not clear, but probably at Alençon. His constitution, naturally delicate, suffered from the severe duties of his professorship; and, by command of his superiors, he exchanged this office for the post of procurator of the college. Besides a care for his health, his superiors were perhaps actuated by an additional and more powerful motive in withdrawing him from his professorship. With the sagacity of members of their order, they discerned in him at this time those mental qualities which he afterwards displayed in his writings. A spirit of fearless investigation and a judgment which disdained the shackles of ecclesiastical authority were never much admired by the Jesuits in any man, and least of all in an instructor of youth. D'Avrigny's new office was less dignified than his professorship, but, being almost a sinecure, left the greater part of his time at his own disposal. His favourite study was history, both ecclesiastical and civil; and the fruit of his leisure exists in two works, which, although published, have not come down to us unimpaired from the hand of their author. The titles of these are-1. "Mémoires chronologiques et dogmatiques pour servir à l'Histoire ecclésiastique, depuis 1600 jusqu'en 1716, avec des Réflexions et des Remarques critiques," 4 vols. 12mo.; without the name of the author, and without imprint, but first printed at Paris, in the year 1720. Reprinted at Lyon and Rouen, and a second edition printed in 1739. 2. " Mémoires pour servir à l'Histoire universelle de l'Europe, depuis 1600 jusqu'en 1716," 4 vols. (Amsterdam or Paris),

1725, 12mo.; Paris, 1731, 12mo.; a new edition, with additions and corrections by Father Griffet, 5 vols. Paris, 1757, 12mo. Neither of these works was published during the life of the author. Of the former it is said that upon its completion he lent the MS. to a friend, a member of his own order, who, finding in it some startling revelations respecting the Jesuits, immediately submitted it to the inspection of his superiors, who resolved that it could not be printed without much suppression and alteration, and Father Lallemant was ordered to revise and prepare it for the press. The expression of their opinion was conveyed to D'Avrigny, as it may be supposed, in no very mild or measured terms; and, with a frame already attenuated by sickness, the mortification which he experienced hurried him to his grave. He died either at Quimper or Alençon, in the year 1719.

D'Avrigny's reputation as an historian is deservedly high. His works, even mutilated as we possess them, are evidently the productions of a cultivated and vigorous mind. Impartiality and candour are apparent throughout; they abound in curious anecdotes and philosophical reflections; the narrative is well sustained, and the author's style not without grace. It is much to be regretted that a century and sixteen years of civil and ecclesiastical history, from the pen of an author evidently competent for his task, should not have escaped the scissors of his ecclesiastical censor. Of the "Mémoires pour servir à l'Histoire universelle," which underwent the same revision as the ecclesiastical memoirs, the Abbé Artigny assures us that the original MS. contained a complete narrative of the mysteries of the War of the Succession, in which the French were so shamefully beaten ; besides many other curious revelations which are not in the printed work. It may be mentioned also that the work as we possess it justifies the cruelties exercised towards the Protestants of the Palatinate, although the author himself really stigmatized them as opposed to the spirit of Christianity. Notwithstanding the mutilated shape in which they were published, the ecclesiastical memoirs were condemned three several times: first, at Rome, by a decree dated the 2nd of September, 1727; afterwards, in a pastoral letter of M. de Tourouvre, Bishop of Rodez, on the 19th of June, 1728; and finally, in the "Assertions Dangereuses" of the parliament of Paris, in 1762. (Moreri, Dictionnaire Historique; Gachet d'Artigny, Nouveaux Mémoires d'Histoire, de Critique, et de Littérature, vol. i. 463-465; Le Long, Bibliothèque Historique, vol. i. 329, vol. ii. 612; Biographie Universelle.)

G. B. AVŘIL, JEAN, Sieur de la Roche, and Prior of Corzé, a French poet of the sixteenth century, was a native of Pont-de-Cey, near Angers. His only publications were

some occasional verses, among which were -"Regrets sur la Rupture de la Paix, l'an 1568," and " Ode sur les Victoires obtenues par Monseigneur le Duc d'Anjou," both of which were printed together in 1570. In 1578 he published also "Le Bienveignement à Monseigneur entrant en Anjou," a poem intended as a welcome to the Duke of Anjou, whom he had probably secured as a patron. Avril translated from the Latin into French verse the first two books of the "Zodiac" of Manzoli; but the success of Scévole de SainteMarthe's imitations of that writer deterred Avril from making his performance public. La Croix du Maine tells us that Avril was living at Angers at the time he wrote, 1584; and nothing further is known of his history. (La Croix du Maine and Du Verdier, Bibliothèques Françoises, ed. Juvigny, i. 445.)

J. W.

AVRIL, JEAN JACQUES, the name of two distinguished French engravers, father and son.

The elder was born at Paris in 1744, according to Joubert; Brulliot says 1736, probably from Huber; but as Avril died as recently as 1832, the later date, 1744, is more probably correct.

He studied originally architecture, but decided eventually upon engraving, and became the pupil of J. G. Wille. His works amount to five hundred and forty, and many of them are of large dimensions: they are executed with great taste and technical skill, and his subjects are well chosen. They are marked with his name or initials.

Among his best plates are the following, of ten after Lebarbier:-the Horatii and Curiatii, Penelope and Ulysses, Coriolanus and Veturia, Lycurgus, Virginia and Icilius, and Cincinnatus receiving the ambassadors of Rome; the last two were exhibited in the Louvre in 1804. Also the following, after other masters:-four marine landscapes after J. Vernet; Ste. Geneviève, after C. Vanloo; the Taking of Courtray, after Vandermeulen; the Passage of the Rhine, after Berghem; the family of Darius, and the Death of Meleager, after Le Brun; the Raising of Lazarus, after Le Sueur; the Journey, in 1787, of Catherine II. of Russia, and the Accession of Alexander I., after Demeys, ordered by the Emperor Alexander I.; besides many after Rubens, N. Poussin, Albani, and others, several of which were for the Musée of Robillard and Sauveur.

Avril was a member of the French Academy of Painting, &c.; his reception-piece was a plate of Study attempting to stay Time, after Menageot; the same piece was also Menageot's reception-picture into the Academy.

The younger Avril was born at Paris, according to Gabet, in 1771, and was the pupil of his father. He obtained, in 1804, the second great prize given by the National Institute, for line engraving; and he has en

graved many excellent plates. In 1810 a gold medal was awarded to him for a plate which he exhibited of the Woman of Cana, after Drouais, La Cananéenne; it forms a companion to his father's print of the Birth of Samson, after Gauffier. He engraved upwards of thirty plates for the Musée of Robillard and Laurent. He died, according to Nagler, who does not give his authority, in 1831. (Huber, Manuel des Amateurs, &c.; Joubert, Manuel de l'Amateur d'Estampes; Brulliot, Dictionnaire des Monogrammes, &c.; Biographie Universelle, Suppl.; Gabet, Dictionnaire des Artistes, &c.; Nagler, Neues Allgemeines Künstler- Lexicon.) R. N. W. AVRIL, PHILIPPE, a French jesuit, was professor of philosophy and mathematics in the college of Louis le Grand at Paris, in the latter half of the seventeenth century, about which time many Jesuit missionaries were flocking into China. Their usual route was by sea; but at the suggestion of Father Verbiest, a distinguished missionary long resident at Pekin, the superiors of the order were inclined to adopt in preference the overland journey by way of Tartary. First, however, they resolved to dispatch a competent person | to determine how far this might be safe and practicable. Father Avril was selected for the task; and he accordingly left Paris in the year 1684, for Marseille, where he was joined by a priest who wished to accompany him on the expedition. From Marseille they proceeded to Rome, where Avril's companion was admitted into the Society of Jesuits, and they embarked together, on the 13th of January, 1685, at Leghorn, in a French vessel bound for Alexandretta, otherwise called Scanderoon. On their arrival at Aleppo, the superior of the Asiatic mission retained Avril's friend, and Avril proceeded alone through Kurdistan to Armenia, where he remained for eight months at Erzerum, studying the Armenian and Turkish languages. He then proceeded to the Caspian Sea, and crossing it, arrived at Astrakhan, with the view of joining a caravan of Russian merchants who were about to travel to Samarcand. The news, however, of a war between the Usbeck and Calmuck Tartars led Avril to abandon this project. He learned subsequently that a caravan of Chinese merchants had arrived at Moscow, and, as it was to return in the course of the ensuing winter, he resolved to accompany it. Having with some difficulty obtained a pass from the governor of Astrakhan, he reached Moscow, where he found the merchants to be Tartars, and not Chinese; but his further progress was altogether prevented by the refusal of the Russian government to permit him to travel through their territory towards the East. He now travelled to Grodno in Poland, where he renewed an acquaintance with a certain Count de Syri, who had formerly befriended him at Astrakhan. The count, at the sug

gestion of Avril, applied to the French government for the appointment of ambassador from the King of France to the Emperor of China. He succeeded in obtaining this appointment, and it was arranged that Avril should accompany him. They accordingly started from Grodno with the intention of travelling together to Moscow. An accident, however, detained Avril on the road, and the count arrived at Moscow some days before his companion. On the arrival of Avril at Moscow, he received the mortifying intelligence that the Russian authorities had compelled the count to proceed alone on his journey. Having in vain requested permission to overtake him, Avril proceeded to Warsaw, and was enabled, through the kindness of Prince Jablonowski, to reach Constantinople by way of Moldavia. Here he was seized with a spitting of blood, which was supposed to be incurable, and he found himself compelled to relinquish his mission and return to France. He landed at Toulon on the 30th of September, 1690, and in 1692 published an account of his travels, entitled Voyages en divers états d'Europe et d'Asie," Paris, 1692, 4to., and 1693, 12mo.: there is also an English version, printed at London, 1693. This work contains many curious facts, and is on the whole a useful book of travels. The death of Avril is supposed to have taken place shortly after the publication of his travels. (Biographie Universelle, Supplement ; Avril, Voyages, &c.)

66

G. B.

AVRILLON, JEAN BAPTISTE E'LIE, a monk of the order of Minims, also called, in France, Bons-Hommes, was born at Paris in the year 1652. After going through the regular course of study, he made his profession on the 3rd of January, 1671, in the convent of the Minims of Nigeon. By the advice of his superiors, he prepared himself for the duties of a preacher, for which he was well qualified by great natural eloquence. He commenced his career in the year 1676, and continued it with great and uninterrupted success until 1728, the year preceding his death, which took place at Paris, on the 16th of May, 1729. His works are—1. “Réflexions théologiques, morales et affectives, sur les attributs de Dieu, en forme de Méditations, pour chaque jour du mois," Paris, 1705, 12mo.; and again, 1754, 12mo., “Avec une préface sur les perfections et les noms de Dieu." 2. "L'Année affective; ou, Sentimens sur l'Amour de Dieu, tirés du Cantique des Cantiques pour chaque jour de l'année,” Paris, 1707, 12mo. This work has passed through several editions; the more recent are Paris, 1813; Avignon, 1820; Paris, 1823 and 1824, 12mo. 3. "Réflexions, Sentimens et pratiques sur la divine enfance de Jésus Christ, tirées de l'Ecriture et des Pères," Paris, 1709, 12mo. 4. "Méditations et Sentimens sur la sainte Communion pour servir de préparation aux personnes de piété qui

s'en approchent souvent," Paris, 1713; and again in 1723, 12mo. Quérard states erroneously that the first edition was published in 1729. The most recent editions are, Paris, 1814 and 1822, 12mo. 5. "Retraite de dix jours pour les personnes consacrées à Dieu, et pour celles qui sont engagées dans le monde," Paris, 1714, 12mo. 6. "Conduite pour passer saintement les octaves de l'Ascension, de la Pentecôte, du Saint-Sacrement et de l'Assomption," Paris, 1723, also in 1724; Lille and Paris, 1820, 12mo. Several other editions have also been printed of this work. 7. "Sentimens sur l'Amour de Dieu, ou les trente Amours sacrés, pour chaque jour du mois," Paris, 1737, 12mo. Recent editions,

Avignon, 1823, and Paris, 1824, 12mo. 8. "Sentimens sur la dignité de l'âme, la nécessité de l'adoration, les avantages des afflictions, et sur l'abandon de Dieu, ouvrage posthume," Paris, 1738 and 1783, 12mo. 9. "Traité de l'Amour de Dieu à l'égard des hommes et de l'amour du prochain," Paris, 1740 and 1786, 12mo. 10. "Pensées sur différens sujets de morale, avec un avertissement contenant un abrégé de la vie de l'Auteur [by the Abbé Goujet]," Paris, 1741, 12mo. 11. "Commentaire affectif sur le Psaume Miserere, pour servir de préparation à la mort," Paris, 1747, 12mo. 12. "Commentaire affectif sur le grand Précepte de l'Amour de Dieu," 12mo., also Paris, 1785, 12mo. 13. "Conduite pour passer saintement le temps de l'Avent," 12mo., also Lille and Paris, 1820, 12mo. 14. "Conduite pour passer saintement le temps du Carême, où l'on trouve pour chaque jour une pratique sur l'Evangile du jour." Recent editions, Lille and Paris, 1820, 12mo., and Paris, 1836, 8vo. Le Long, in a note to the first edition of his "Bibliothèque Historique de la France,” p. 850, attributes to Avrillon a work entitled "Généalogie de la Maison de Fontaine-Soliers issuë de la Case Solare, Souveraine d'Aste en Piémont," Paris, 1680, 4to. This note, however, is expunged from the last edition of Le Long by Fevret de Fontette. (Moréri, Dictionnaire Historique, ed. Drouet; Journal des Savans, for 1705, 1713, 1737, &c.; Richard and Giraud, Bibliothèque Sacrée ; Quérard, La France Littéraire.) J. W. J. AVRILLOT, BARBE, better known by the name of Acarie, which was that of her husband, was born at Paris, on the first of February, 1565. When she had arrived at the age of fourteen or fifteen years, she was very desirous to enter a convent. Her parents, however, would not comply with her wishes, and in the year 1582 she married Pierre Acarie, Maître des Comptes of Paris, one of the most active partisans of the League. In the year 1594 Paris submitted to Henry IV., and M. Acarie, being compelled to quit the city, left his wife with six children in a state of the greatest embarrassment: he was deeply in debt, and had moreover many poli

tical enemies: all his goods were seized, even to the plate from which Madame Acarie was eating her dinner, at the time the seizure was made. She bore her misfortunes with great magnanimity, and, having placed her children in safe asylums, exerted herself with great skill and success in the arrangement of her husband's affairs. Her reputation for piety was very great, and violent spasmodic attacks, to which she was subject, being declared by the priests whom she consulted to be Divine visitations of a spiritual nature, her influence daily increased. She exerted it in bringing about the reform which at that time took place in many of the monasteries. The establishment of the reformed Carmelites of France is due to her exertions, in conjunction with those of the Cardinal de Bérulle, whom she also assisted in the foundation of the Congregation de l'Oratoire. She took upon herself the erection of the first monastery of the reformed Carmelites, situate in the faubourg St.-Jacques; and induced her friend Madame Sainte-Beuve to establish the monastery of the Ursulines in the same faubourg. In the year 1613 she became a widow, and entered the order of reformed Carmelites, by the name of Marie de l'Incarnation. She passed her novitiate and took the vows at Amiens, where, shortly afterwards, she was elected superior, but declined the dignity, and retired to the monastery of Pontoise, which had likewise been founded by her. Here she died, on the 18th of April, 1618. According to the "Bibliotheca Carmelitana," she wrote five works in French, the Latin titles of which are given as follow: -1. "De Cautelis adhibendis in vitæ statu deligendo." 2. "De idonea ad primam communionem præparatione." 3. "De vita interiori.” 4. "Centum circiter Monita spiritualia." 5. "Vera Exercitia, omnibus animabus, quæ vitam ejus consequi desiderant, utilia." Paris, 1622, 24mo. Her life has been written by several persons. The first author was Du Val, who, in 1621, published his account at Paris, occupying 818 octavo pages. The last was by the Abbé J. B. A. Boucher, printed at Paris, in 1800, in two volumes, 8vo. Marie de l'Incarnation was a woman of sincere piety and most exemplary in all the relations of life: it is therefore the more to be regretted that the several accounts of her life should be disfigured by details of miracles, sometimes all but blasphemous.

One of her daughters, Marguerite, entered the order of Barefooted Carmelites, and took the name of Marguerite du Saint Sacrement. She was born at Paris, on the 6th of March, 1590, and made her profession on the 18th of March, 1607. In 1615 she became superior of the convent of Tours, and in 1618 was elected prioress. In 1624 she was elected prioress of the convent of Carmelites of the Rue Chafon at Paris. She