Niceron, zom. VI. educated at Vienna. Afterwards he vifited the most celebrated univerfities in Germany, France, and Italy; and found a friend and patron in cardinal Cufa at Rome. Returning to Vienna, he was made mathematical profeffor; in which office he continued till his death, in 1461. He compofed a great number of pieces, upon mathematical and aftronomical fubjects. His life is written by Gaffendus. REGIS (PETER SYLVAIN) a French philofopher, and great propagator of Cartefianifm, was born in Agenois 1632. He cultivated the languages and philofophy under the jefuits at Cahors, and afterwards divinity in the univerfity of that town, being defigned for the church. He made fo uncommon a progrefs, that at the end of four years he was offered a doctor's degree without the ufual charges; but he did not think it became him to accept of it, till he had ftudied alfo in the Sorbonne at Paris He went thither, but was foon difgufted with theology; and, as the philofophy of Des Cartes began at that time to make a noise through the lectures of Rohault, he conceived a tafte for it, and gave himself up entirely to it. He frequented thefe lectures; and, becoming an adept, went to Toulouse in 1665, and read lectures in it himfelf. Having fine parts, a clear and fluent manner, and a happy way of making himself understood, he drew all forts of people; the magiftrates, the learned, the ecclefiaftics, and the very women, who now all affected to abjure the ancient philofophy. In 1680, he returned to Paris; where the concourfe about him was fuch, that the fticklers for Peripateticifm began to be alarmed. They applied to the archbishop of Paris, who thought it expedient, in the name of the king, to put a ftop to the lectures; which accordingly were discontinued for feveral months. The whole life of Regis was spent in propagating the new philofophy. In 1690, he publifhed a formal fyftem of it, containing logic, metaphyfics, phyfics, and morals, in 3 vols. 4to, and written in French. It was reprinted the year after at Amsterdam, with the addition of a discourse upon ancient and modern philofophy. He wrote afterwards feveral pieces, in defence of his fyftem; in which he had difputes with M. Huet, Du Hamel, Malebranche, and others. His works, though abounding with ingenuity and learning, have been difregarded in confequence of the great difcoveries and advance advancement in philofophic knowledge that has been fince made. He died in 1707. He had been chosen member of the academy of fciences in 1699. REGNARD (JOHN FRANCIS), one of the best French comic writers after Moliere, was born at Paris in tom. xxi. Louis XIV. tom. 11. 1647. He had fcarcely finished his ftudies, when he was Niceron, feized with a paffion for travelling, and an ardent defire to Voltaire's fee the different countries of Europe. He went to Italy Siéclé de firft, but was unfortunate in his return thence; for the English veffel bound for Marseilles, on which he embarked at Genoa, was taken in the fea of Provence by the Barbary Corfairs; and he was carried a lave to Algiers. Being always a lover of good eating, he knew how to make ragoûts; and, by this means procuring an office in his master's kitchen, his bondage fat the more eafily upon him. His amiable manners and pleasant humour made him a favourite with all about him, and not a little fo with the women; for he had alfo the advantage of a good perfon. An amorous intrigue with one of thefe, in which matters were carried as far as they could go, involved him in a terrible difficulty; for his matter, coming to the knowledge of it, infifted upon his fubmitting to the law of the country, which obliged a Christian, convicted of fuch a commerce, either to turn Mahometan, or to fuffer death by fire. Regnard did not care to do either; and luckily he was freed from the dilemma by the French conful, who, having juft received a large fum for his redemption, bought him off, and fent him home. He had not been long at Paris, before he formed plans for travelling again; and accordingly, in April 1681, he fet out to vifit Flanders and Holland, whence he paffed to Denmark, and afterwards to Sweden. Having done fome fingular piece of fervice to the king of Sweden, this monarch, who perceived that he was travelling out of pure. curiofity, told him, that Lapland contained many things. well worthy of obfervation; and ordered his treasurer to accommodate him with whatever he wanted, if he chofe to proceed thither. Regnard embarked for Stockholm, with two other gentlemen that had accompanied him from France; and went as far as Torne, a city at the bottom of the Bothnic Gulph. He went up the river Torne, whofe fource is not far from the Northern cape; and at length penetrated to the Icy fea. Here, not being able to go farther, he and his companions engraved these four lines upon a rock: “Gallia gemens, &c. tom. V. Nieeron, "Gallia nos genuit, vidit nos Africa, Gangem "Hic tandem ftetimus, nobis ubi defuit orbis." He now fettled in his own country, and wrote a great many comedies. He was made a treasurer of France, and lieutenant of the waters and forests: he lived like a philofopher and a voluptuary. He was born with a genius, lively, gay, and truly comic; and his comedy of "The "Gamefter" is compared with thofe of Moliere. He dedicated the comedy, called "Menechmes", to Boileau and afterwards wrote against that poet, because he did not do him juftice: but they were again thoroughly reconciled. This man, though of fo gay an humour, died of chagrin in his 52d year; and it is faid, that he even contributed himself to fhorten his days. His works, which confift of comedies and his travels, were printed at Rouen 1731, in 5 vols. 12mo; but there are many dramatic performances and pieces of poetry of his, befides what that collection contains. REGNIER (MATHURIN), a fatirical French poet, was the fon of a citizen of Chartres, by a fifter of the abbe Baillet, Ju- Defportes, a famous poet alfo; and was born there in 1573. He was brought up to the church, yet very unfit for it, on account of his debaucheries; which, it seems, were fo exceffive, that, as we learn from himself, he had at thirty all the infirmities of old age. He was twice at Rome; in 1593, and 1601. and 1601. In 1604, he obtained a canonry in the church of Chartres: he had other benefices, and alfo a penfion of 2000 livres, which Henry IV. fettled on him in 1606. He died at Rouen in 1613. tom. XI. He was the first among the French who fucceeded in fatire; and, if Boileau has had the glory of raising that fpecies of compofition to perfection among them, it may be faid of Regnier, that he laid the foundation, and was perhaps more an original writer than Boileau. He is fuppofed to have taken Juvenal and Perfius for his model: it is certain, that he has in fome places imitated Ovid, and borrowed largely from the Italians. He is very ingenious, and has a fine manner of expofing vices. In the mean time fome of that impurity, which ran through his life, has crept alfo into his writings; for he is frequently very obfcene. Seventeen of his fatires with other poems were printed at Roüen in 1614. There is a neat Elzevir edition of his works at Leyden, 1652, 12mo; but the moft magnificent is that of London 1729, 4to, with short notes by M. Broffette. REGNIER de MARETS, (SERAPHIN), a French writer, was born at Paris in 1632; and, at fifteen, distinguished himself by tranflating the "Batrachomyomachia” into burlesque verfe. At thirty, he went to Rome as fecretary to an embaffy. An Italian ode of his making procured him a place in the academy de la Crufca in 1667; and, in 1670, he was elected a member of the French academy. In 1684, he was made perpetual fecretary, after the death of Mezeray; and it was he who drew up all thofe papers, in the name of the academy, against Furetiere. In 1668, the king gave him the priory of Grammont, which determined him to the ecclefiaftical function and, in 1675, he had an abbey. His works are, an Italian tranflation of Anacreon's odes, which he dedicated to the academy de la Crusca in 1692; a French grammar; and two volumes of poems, in French, Latin, Italian, and Spanish. He tranflated into French, Tully "De Divinatione, & de Finibus ;" and Rodrigue's "Treatife of Chriftian perfection," from the Spanish. He died in 1713, aged 82. "He has done great fervice Siècle de "to language," fays Voltaire," and is the author of fome Louis XIV. poetry in French and Italian. He contrived to make 66 one of his Italian pieces pass for Petrarch's but he "could not have made his French verfes pafs for those of any great French poet.' tom. II. Dict. in REINESIUS (THOMAS), a learned and philofophic German, was born at Gotha, a city of Thuringia, in 1587. He was a phyfician; but applied himfelf to po- Bayle's lite literature, in which he chiefly excelled. After practifing phyfic in other places, he fettled at Altemburg; where he refided feveral years, and was made a burgomafter. At laft, having been raifed to be counsellor to the elector of Saxony, he went and lived at Leipfic; where voce. Epift. ad num & Ru where he alfo died in 1667. One of his letters relates many circumftances of his life, and fhews him to have been a man of forrow; though, as will appear afterwards, he was more than ordinarily upon his guard, that he might not be involved in the troubles of the world. "What "trials have I not undergone," fays he, "what difficul"ties have I not met with, during thefe ten years at pertum, p. 7. 66 Altemburg? not to mention Hoff and Gera, where I "fuffered very much. After the melancholy accident of having my houfe plundered, I loft in lefs than half a year three delightful boys, with a most engaging and incomparable wife. The only thing now left me is a "mind, which, relying entirely upon God, cannot be 66 overcome; with a little reputation; and as much wealth, as is fufficient for a frugal perfon. I chose for my motto, Plainly, but Freely. Thrice, fince my being phyfician here, has this city been afflicted with the plague. My fecond wife has involved me in more in"conveniences than I could have expected; and en"cumbered me with many petty domeftic cares, I always 66 wish to be free from; and, what is the most grievous. "circumftance of all, fhe is barren; than which nothing more calamitous could have happened to a man, who "before had loft all his children, and was become entirely "deftitute." He wrote a piece or two upon fubjects of his own profeffion; but the greateft part of his works relate to philology and criticism, among which are "Variarum Lectio46 -num libri tres," in 4to. He was not one of thofe philologers or critics, whofe only talent is memory, but of those who go beyond what they read, and know more than their books teach them; whofe penetration enables them to draw many confequences, and fuggefts conjectures, which lead them to the discovery of hidden treafures; who dart a light into the gloomy places of literature, and extend the limits of ancient knowledge. He knew the fecret of living happily, that is, as happily as the conftitution and temperament of a man's body will permit him; yet could not escape a pretty good fhare of human mifery. He avoided difagreeable connexions as much as poffible; and, as we learn from his firft letter to Hoffman, refufed profefforfhips, which had often been offered him, for fear of meeting with infupportable colEpift. p. 2. leagues. That profeffor had informed him, "that, during thirty years, hehad been expofed to the noife and flanders "" of |