DUCLOS, CHARLES-PINEAU, was boru iu the year 1701, at Diluent, In Bretagne, whence he was sent to Paris to prosecute Lis studies. He soon formed a connection with the wits of the age, and published a Romance called Acajon et Zirphile.".ffiee work attained only moderato celebrity; but a subsequent romance, entitled 'Con fessions du Comte de * • *,' was more successful. His reputation however depends on a collection of moral essays, published under the title of Considerations sur lee Mceurs de ce Siecle,' which have been greatly extolled by many writers, and which Louis XV. characterised as "the work of an honest man." In 1739 Duclos was admitted into the Academy of Inscriptions, and in 1747 into the Academie Francsise, of which he became perpetual secretary. The citizens of his native town, to testify their respect for him, made him their mayor in 1744, but he contined to reside at Paris, where he died in 1772.
The romances of Duclos, though less indecent than the works of Crebillon the younger, are sufficiently indelicate to offend persons of refined taste, while they lack the bitter satire and deep knowledge of human nature which characterise that acute though obscene author. His `Considerations' are a series of essays on the opinions which regulate society, and though free from tho misanthropic ill-nature which appears in Rochefoucauld and occasionally in La Bruyere, they are deficient in the real depth which those writers exhibit, and want that charm of novelty and originality which is necessary to make mere moral essays palatable. The romances and essays have been collected into four vole., 8vo, under the title of (Euvres Morales at Galantes.' Duclos also wrote a history of Louis XI., and a secret history of Louis XIV. and XV., which have acquired some reputation.