ROCHEFOUCAULT, FRANCIS DUKE DE, Prince of Marsillac, was born in 1613. Having formed a con nection with the Duchess de Longueville, he was at her instigation involved in the civil war of the Fronde ; and he distinguished himself at the battle of St. Antoine, where he received a musket shot which for some time deprived him of his sight. After his return home, his house became the resort of all the French wits, Boileau, Racine, Sevigne, Fayette, &c. He display ed great firmness of mind under his domestic cala mities, particularly when one of his sons was killed, and the other wounded, at the passage of the Rhine. In his latter days he was much afflicted with the gout, and he died at Paris in 16a0, in the 68th year of his age.
The work by which he obtained his reputation, is entitled RtYlexions et Maximes, which has been fre quently printed and translated. Its style and general character have been greatly admired ; but though it is admitted that he painted very exactly the world in which he himself lived, it is still considered by some as a satire upon the human race ; though we fear this is one of those cases where the profound observer sees the proofs of the law, and the superficial one only its ex ceptions. He wrote also Alemoires de la Regence d'..drine
d'..4utriche, in two vols. 12mo. 171:1, which is said to ex hibit much talent.
In his History of the French ?Icademy, the Abbe Olivet assures us, that though Rochefoucault was very anxious to be an academician, and could at any time have been made one, the necessity of making a speech of thanks on the day of his admission, prevented him from becoming a candidate. With all his personal cou rage, and all his superiority of birth and talents, he is said never to have been able to bear the look of an au dience, and could never pronounce four lines in public without fainting.