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order of St. Michael; and, a little before his death, raised him to the rank of Noblefs. He was a man of good morals, and lived happily with a wife whom he tenderly loved. He died at Paris, Sept. 12, 1764; and his exequies were celebrated with great mufical folemnity.

As a theorist, the character of Rameau ftands very high, and Handel always fpoke of him with great respect; but as a mufical compofer, his merit (it feems) remains

to be fettled. Befides the tracts abovementioned, there Hawkins's are extant of his, "Generation Harmonique, Paris, 1737;' » Hiftory of Mufic, and Nouvelles Reflexions fur la Démonftration," &c. p. 386,

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RAMSAY (ANDREW MICHAEL), frequently styled the chevalier Ramfay, a polite writer, was a Scotfman of an ancient family; and was born at Ayre in that kingdom, June 9, 1686. He received the first part of his Biographia education at Ayre, and was then removed to Edinburgh; Britannica, where, diftinguishing himself by good parts and uncommon proficiency, he was fent for to St. Andrew's, in order to attend a fon of the earl of Weems in that univer fity. After this, he travelled to Holland, and went to Leyden where falling into the acquaintance of Poiret, a celebrated myftic divine, he became tinctured with his doctrines; and refolved for further fatisfaction to confult Fenelon, the famed archbishop of Cambray, who had long imbibed the fundamental principles of that theology. Before he left Scotland, he had conceived a disgust to the religion in which he was bred; and in that ill-humour, cafting his eye upon other Chriftian churches, and. feeing none to his liking, he became difpleafed with all, and gave into Deism. During his abode in Holland, he grew more confirmed in that way of thinking; yet without coming to any fixed determination. In this unfettled. ftate of mind, he arrived at Cambray in 1710, and was.. received with great kindness by the archbishop, who took him into his family, heard with patience and attention the hiftory of his religious principles, entered heartily with him into a difcuffion of them, and, to be fhort, in fix months time made him as good a Catholic as himself.

The fubfequent courfe of his life received its direction from his friendship and connections with this prelate. Fenelon had been preceptor to the duke of Burgundy, heir-apparent, after the death of his father the dauphin, to the crown of France; yet neither of them came to the poffeffion of it, being furvived by Lewis XIV. who was fucceeded

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fucceeded by his great grandfon, fon to the duke of Burgundy, and now Lewis XV. Ramfay, having been first governor to the duke de Chateau-Thiery and the prince de Turenne, was made knight of the order of St. Lazarus; and afterwards fent for to Rome by the chevalier de St. George, ftyled there James III. king of Great Britain, to take the charge of educating his children. He went accordingly to that court, in 1724; but the intrigues and diffentions, which he found on his arrival there, gave him fo much uneafinefs, that, with the pretender's leave, he presently returned to Paris. Then he croffed the water to his own country, and was kindly received by the duke of Argyle and Greenwich; in whofe family he refided fome years, and employed his leifure there in writing feveral ingenious pieces. We are told, that in the mean time he had the degree of doctor of law conferred on him at Oxford; that he was admitted for this purpose of St. Mary Hall in April 1730; and that he was prefented. to his degree by Dr. King, the principal of that house. After his return to France, he refided fome time at Pontoise, a feat of the prince de Turenne, duke de Bouillon; with whom he continued in the poft of intendant till his death. This happened on the 6th of May 1743, at St. Germain-en-Laïe, where his body was interred; but his heart was depofited in the nunnery of St. Sacrament at Paris.

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His works are, 1. "Difcours fur le Poëme Epique;" prefixed to the later editions of Telemachus. "Vie de Mr. Fenelon." 3." Effai fur le Gouvernment "Civil." 4. Le Pfychometre, ou Reflexions fur les dif"ferens characters de l'efprit, par un Milord Anglois." Thefe are remarks upon lord Shaftesbury's Characteriftics. 5. Les Voyages de Cyrus," in French; and, in English, The Travels of Cyrus." This is his Chef d'Oeuvre, and hath gone through feveral editions in both languages. 6. "L'Hiftoire de M. de Turenne, in "French and English." 7. "Several fmall pieces of poetry, in English." 8. "Two Letters in French, to M. "Racine the fon, upon the true fentiments of Mr. Pope,

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in his Effay on Man." Thefe were printed after his deceafe, in Les Oeuvres de M. Racine le fils," tom. II.. 1747. In the former of these, he calls Locke genie superficiel, a fuperficial genius" and has fhewn by this, that whatever ingenuity and polite literature he might poffefs (and he poffeffed a very confiderable portion of both), he

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was not qualified in any degree to judge of philofophers.
Two po
works of his were alfo printed at Glaf-
gow. 9. "A plan of education:" and, 10. " Philofo-
phical Principles of natural and revealed Religion, ex
plained and unfoulded in a geometrical Order. 1749.
in 2 vols. 4to.

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voce.

RAMUS (PETER) a moft famous profeffor of France, was born in 1515, in a village of Vermandois in Picardy. His family was good, but had fuffered great hardthips and injuries from the wars. His grandfather, having loft all Bavle's his poffeffions, was obliged to turn collier for a livelihood. Diet. in His father followed husbandry; and himfelf was not happier than his father and grandfather, his life being, fays Bayle, the fport of fortune, or one continued viciffitude of good and ill fortune. He was fcarce out of the ctadle, when he was twice attacked with the plague. At eight years of age, a thirst after learning prompted him to go to Paris; but poverty forced him to leave that city. He returned to it as foon as he could; but, being unable to fupport himself, he left it a fecond time: yet his paffion for ftudy was fo violent, that, notwithstanding his ill fortune in two journeys, he ventured upon a third. He was maintained there fome months by one of his uncles, after which he was obliged to be a fervant in the college of Navarre. He fpent the day in waiting upon his mafters, and the greateft part of the night in ftudy. What is related in the firft Scaligerana, of his living to nineteen without learning to read, and of his being very dull and ftupid, is not credible.

After having finished claffical learning and rhetoric, he went through a courfe of philofophy, which took him up three years and a half in the fchools. The thefis, which he made for his mafter of arts degree, offended all the world: for he maintained in it, that "all which Ariftotle "had advanced was falfe;" and he anfwered extremely well the objections of the profeffors. This fuccefs inclined him to examine the doctrine of Ariftotle, more clofely, and to combat it vigorously: but he confined himfelf principally to his Logic. The two first books he publifhed, the one intituled, "Inftitutiones Dialectica," the other," Ariftotelica Animadverfioncs," occafioned great difturbances in the univerfity of Paris. The profeffors there, who were adorers of Ariftotle, ought to have refuted Ramus's books by writings and lectures; but,

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instead of confining themselves within the just bounds of academical wars, they profecuted this anti-peripatetic before the civil magiftrate, as a man who was going to sap the foundations of religion. They raised fuch clamours, that the caufe was carried before the parliament of Paris : but the moment they perceived it would be examined equitably, and according to the ufual forms, they by their intrigues took it from that tribunal, and brought it before the king's council; and Francis I. was obliged to interfere in it. The king ordered, that Ramus and Antony Govea, who was his principal adverfary, fhould chufe two judges each, to pronounce on the controversy, after they thould have ended their difputation; while he himfelf appointed a deputy. Ramus, in obedience to the king's orders, appeared before the five judges, though three of them were his declared enemies. The difpute lafted two days, and Govea had all the advantages he could defire; Ramus's books being prohibited in all parts of the kingdom, and their author fentenced not to teach philofophy any longer. His enemies difcovered a most furprifing joy on that account: they made a greater noise in proportion, than the proudest princes for the taking of a confiderable city, or the winning of a very important victory. The fentence of the three judges was published in Latin and French in all the streets of Paris, and in all parts of Europe, whither it could be fent. Plays were acted with great pomp, in which Ramus was mocked and abufed a thousand ways, in the midft of the applaufes and acclamations of the Ariftotelians. This happened in 1543

The year after, the plague made great havoc in Paris, and forced moft of the ftudents in the College of Prele to quit it; but Ramus, being prevailed upon to teach in it, foon drew together a great number of auditors. The Sorbonne attempted to drive him from that college, but to no purpose; for he held the headship of that house by arret of parliament. Through the patronage and protection of the cardinal of Lorrain, he obtained in 1547 from Henry II. the liberty of fpeaking and writing, and the royal profefforfhip of philofophy and eloquence in 1551. The parliament of Paris had, before this, maintained him in the liberty of joining philofophical lectures to thofe of eloquence; and this arret or decree had put an end to feveral profecutions, which Ramus and his pupils had fuffered for they had been profecuted several ways, both before the univerfity-judges and the civil ma

giftrates.

giftrates. As foon as he was made regius profeffor, he was fired with a new zeal for improving the fciences; and was extremely laborious and active on this occafion, notwithstanding the hatred of his enemies, who were never at reft. He bore at that time a part in a very fingular affair, which deferves to be mentioned. About 1550, the royal profeffors corrected, among other abuses, that which had crept into the pronunciation of the Latin tongue. Some of the clergy followed this regulation; but the Sorbonnists were much offended at it as an innovation, and defended the old pronunciation with great zeal. Things at length were carried fo far, that a minifter, who had a good living, was very ill treated by them; and caufed to be ejected from his benefice for having pronounced Quifquis, Quanquam, according to the new way, instead of Kifkis, Kankam, according to the old. The minifter applied to the parliament; and the royal profeffors with Ramus among them, fearing he would fall a victim to the credit and authority of the faculty of divines, for prefuming to pronounce the Latin tongue according to their regulations, thought it incumbent on them to affift him. Accordingly, they went to the court of juftice; and reprefented in fuch ftrong terms the indignity of the profecution, that the perfon accufed was cleared, and every body had the liberty of pronouncing as they pleafed.

Ramus was bred up in the Catholic religion, but afterwards deferted it. He began to difcover his new principles, by removing the images from the chapel of his college of Prele. This was in 1552; when fuch a profecution was raised against him by the Religionists, as well as Ariftotelians, that he was not only driven out of his profefforship, but obliged to conceal himfelf. For that purpose, he went with the king's leave to Fontainbleau; where, by the help of books in the king's library, he pursued geometrical and aftronomical ftudies. As foon as his enemies knew where he was, he found himfelf no where fafe: fo that he was forced to go and conçeal himself in several other places. During this interval, his excellent and curious collection of books in the college of Prele was plundered; but, after a peace was concluded in 1563, between Charles IX. and the Proteftants, he again took poffeffion of his employment, maintained himself in it with vigour, and was particularly zealous in promoting the study of the mathematicks. This lafted till the fecond civil war in 1567, when he

was

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