XAMTONTEL, JEAN FRANCOIS, an elegant French writer, b. of an obscure family at Bort, in the Limousin, July 11, 17'23. He studied for the church, but turned aside to literature, and after obtaining some reputation in Toulouse as a poet, lie went to Paris on an invitation from Voltaire in 1746. Here he wrote trauedies and operas without any great success, but was fortunate enough to get a secretarySlip at Versailles, through the influence of 3ime. Pompadour, in 1753. Afterwards, he received a more lucrative appointment, the .ellereure being intrusted to his charge. His Contes Mora ux (2' vols. Par. 1761), part of which originally appeared in the Xereure, have been translated into many languages, but' are in some measure liable to the charge of monotony. He wrote other works, the most celebrated of which is his Belisaire, a political romance, containing a chapter on toleration, which excited the most furious hostility on the part of the doe _tors of .the Sorbonne. The book was condemned as " heretical and blasphemous." The
clergy declaimed against it from the pulpits; the city was in a ferment; even the wise Turgot was borne away by the current. Pamphlets, epigrams, caricatures appeared in great numbers. There was a dead set-to between the philosophers and wits on the one hand, and the theologians on the other; but the latter were defeated, and Marmontel was named bistoriograph-er of France. In 1787 appeared his Elements de Littgrature, consist ing of his contributions to the Ewyclopedia, in which he had charge of the departments of poetry and general literature. It is really his best book, and the one on which his reputation most securely rests. After the revolution, he retired to the village of Ablo ville, near Evreux, where he died, Dec. 31, 1799. An edition of his (Eupres CompMtes -was published by himself in 17 vols.; another 18 vols. (Par. 1818); a third, 7 vols. (Par. 1819-20).