FREI:ET, NICHOLAS, born at Paris in 1688, was the son of a solicitor. lie studied the law to please his family, but devoted his attention chiefly to the study of history and chronology. ilia first publication, Origine des Francais et de leur Establissement dans Ica Claulas,' is written with a boldness and candour unusual at that time ; but it caused his confinement in the Bastille for a short time by order of the Regent d'Orleans. He was made a member of the Academy of i the Inscriptions, and wrote numerous memoirs, chiefly upon difficult questions of ancient history and chronology. His principal works are Recherches Historiques sur les anoiens Peuples de l'Asie ;' Obser vations sur la Genealogic de Pythagore ; " Observations sur la Cyrop6. i die de Xdoophon ; "Defense de la Chronologie fond6e sur les Monti mans de l'Ilistoire anoieune, centre is Systhme chronologique de Newton.' This last work was edited after Freret's death by Bougain ville, who added to it a biographical notice of the author. Freret, while discarding the enormous antiquity attributed by some to Egyptian and Chinese history, and showing the accordance of the authentic records of those nations with the Mosaic chronology, throws back the dawn of the historical times of Greece several centuries fur ther than Newton. He wrote also on the religion and geography of
the ancients. Freret was a man of very extensive erudition and of indefatigable application, and he rendered considerable service to history. He died at Paris in 1749. His scattered works have been published together : CEuvras complates de Freret,' 20 vols. 12mo, Paris, 1796. Long after Freret's death, two or three works of an anti-Christian tendency were published under his name by Naigeon, a disciple of Diderot, and others of the same school ; but these works are so different in their style and spirit from all those that are known to be his, and their authenticity has been so little proved, that they are now generally regarded as apocryphal.