By this most iniquitous measure, MrBayle wasthrown out of regular employment. But in the course of a few months, he and Jurieu were nominated profes sors in a school that was instituted on their account in the town of Rotterdam. It was here that he commenced his labours as an author, by publishing a Letter on Comets, as presages of evil, which he had written in consequence of the appearance of the famous comet of 1680, and had originally intended to print at Paris. It was printed at Cologne in 1682, under the title of Lettre a Mr L. A. D. C. Docteur de Sorbonne. Ou it est proua, par plu sieurs raisons tirtles de to Philosophic at de la Theo logic, vie lea Cometes ne sont point le presage d' aucun malheur, &c. He did not put his name to it, and employed other methods to prevent the public from suspecting it to have proceeded from his pen. But some of his friends, to whom the secret had been communicated, thinking the concealment of it a piece of injustice to his reputation, told openly that Mr Bayle was the author. His next work, 'which came out in the same year, was entitled, Critique Ge nerale de l'histoire du Calvinisme de M. Mannbourg. It was a duodecimo volume of 339 pages closely printed ; yet such was the facility in writing which he had acquired, that he finished it in the space of fifteen days. This treatise, in the form of a series of letters, contained general observations on Maim bourg's work, pointing out its errors and its malice, and exhibiting such a happy mixture of raillery and good sense, as could not fail to mortify the feelings and sink the credit of the author, against whom it was directed. So acceptable, indeed, was it to the reformed, whose cause it vindicated, and so agree able to the more judicious and moderate of the Ca tholics themselves, that the first impression was sold off almost as soon as it appeared. A great many copies of it found their way into France, where it was well received, and much read. Maimbourg, pro voked at its popularity, and under the dominion of that persecuting spirit, which he had manifested in his book, applied to the king, for an order to sup press the obnoxious publication. A king, who could set his seal to such a deed as the revocation of the edict of Nantes, was easily persuaded to grant the request. And, accordingly, M. Bayle's Critique .Generale was burnt by the hands of the hangman, and prohibited from being sold under pain of death. This sentence proved as impolitic as it was sive ; for, being made as public as possible, it ex cited the curiosity of the people, and determined every one to peruse a volume which the king had thought worthy of such a hard fate. Mr Bayle en deavoured to conceal that he was the author ; and so very different was the style of his " General Criti cism" from that of his " Letter to the Sorbonne Doctor," that nobody could ever have suspected them to be written by the same hand. But the se cret was . very soon revealed by accident. M. Ju rieu also wrote an Answer to Maimbourg ; but, .though able and conclusive, it was so inferior to Mr Bayle's, in the public opinion, as to be almost whol ly neglected. This circumstance was a mortal of fence to Jurieu, which he ungenerously imputed to Mr Bayle, and which he .seems never to have for given.
About this time Mr Bayle was powerfully solicit ed to marry. The lady who was proposed to him, and who had consented to be his wife, was young, beautiful, sensible, amiable, and rich. But Mr Bayle, who had no ambition for wealth, and was afraid that the cares of a family would interrupt his studies, po sitively refused to enter into the matrimonial connec tion.
In 1683, he published a new edition of his Letter on Comets, under the title PensiCes ecrites 1' occasion de la Conzete qui parat au mois de De cembre 1680 ; and also edited, at the request of some friends, several controversial pieces relating to the dispute between the Catholics and the reformed..
In the following year he collected a number of fugi tive pieces on the Cartesian philosophy, and gave them to the worldiin a volume entitled, Recited de quelques pieces curieuses concernant la philosophie de Air Descartes. He introduced them with a preface, in which he gives a succinct account of each of the treatises, and makes some enlightened, pertinent, and feeling remarks on the degraded state to which the press was reduced in France by the law of royal pri vilege, and on the mischievous consequences which must attend such an inquisitorial and oppressive rule wherever it is established.
In 1684 he began a literary journal. This mode of spreading knowledge, which now prevails so uni versally, and which has done more than any thing else to enlighten the world, was first introduced by Mr de Sallo, ecclesiastical counsellor in the parliament of Paris, who published the Journal des Scavans in 1665. This work, which received great applause, was imitated at Rome in -1668 by Abbot Nazari in his Journal, and at Leipsic in 1682 by Mcnkenius, in his Ada Eruditorum. Mr Bayle was surprised that nothing similar had been attempted in Holland, where booksellers and learned men abounded, and where so much freedom was enjoyed, and he resolved to supply such an important desideratum in that country. About the beginning of the year 1684, in deed, a journal was begun at Amsterdam with the title of ill ercure Scavant, by one de Blegny, a sur geon of Paris: but it was so abusive and so cxccp tionable in a points, that, so far from seem ing to Mr Bayle to supersede the necessity of the un dertaking ` he had in view, it only stimulated him to commence it without delay. Accordingly, in the month of May the first number of his Journal came out, under the title of Nouvelles de la Republique des Lettres. This work, which continued to be published monthly, was divided into two parts ; the first, consisting of copious extracts from other publi cations ; the second, containing a catalogue of new books, accompanied with ingenious criticisms, and in teresting anecdotes and accounts of the authors. It was calculated to gratify both the learned and the polite world. At first it was rather profuse in its commendations ; but it assumed by degrees a less mild and flattering tone. Though strictly prohibited from being circulated in France, many copies of it were sold in that kingdom every month : and where ever it appeared it was read with great eagerness and universal applause.
This year he had an offer from the states of Fries land of a professorship of philosophy in the univer sity of Franeker: but though the salary there was nearly double of what he had at Rotterdam, and though the offer was a disinterested tribute to his literary merits, he declined accepting their invitation. His Critique Generale was in so much request, that a third edition was necessary. He published it with considerable amendments, particularly in the style, freeing it from those ambiguities and rhymes which, he observes, it is extremely difficult to avoid in writing the French language. Of this work hepublished a continuation in 1685, under the title of Nouvelles Lettres de l'Auteur de la Critique Generale, &c. The continuation was not so successful. The fears which the author had expressed in his advertisement 1.Vere realised. It was misunderstood, disliked, and neglected. His journal,. which had been anonymous during the first year of its existence, he now thought proper explicitly to.avow ; not so much, he said, to procure distinction to himself, as to skew that the magistrates of Rotterdam, from whose new illustrious school it proceeded, honoured the muses with their protection.