the bottom of the page in fome places of the following history. But the Book here mentioned confifting chiefly of fchool-divinity, and the learning of those times, and therefore being rarely to be met with but in public libraries, and in the hands of fome learned men, the Letters of Abelard and Heloife are much more known by a Tranflation, or rather Paraphrase of them, in French, first published at the Hague in 1693, and which afterwards received feveral other more complete Editions. This Tranflation is much applauded, but who was the Author of it is not certainly known. Monfieur Bayle fays he had been informed it was done by a woman; and, perhaps, he thought no one befides could have entered fo thoroughly into the paffion and tenderness of such writings, for which that fex feems to have a more natural difpofition than the other. This may be judged of by the Letters themselves, among which thofe of Heloise are the most moving, and the Mafter feems in this parti cular to have been excelled by the Scholar,

In fome of the later Editions in French, there has been prefixed to the Letters an Hiftorical Account of Abelard and Heloife; this is chiefly extracted from the Preface of the Editor of Abelard's Works in Latin, and from the Critical Dictionary of Monfieur Bayle, who has put together, under feveral articles, all the particulars he was able to collect concerning these two famous Perfons; and though the first Letter of Abelard to Philintus, in which he relates his own ftory, may feem to have rendered this account in part unneceffary; yet the Reader will not be displeased to fee the thread of the relation entire, and continued to the death of the Perfons whofe misfortunes bad made their lives fo very remarkable.

*Vid Artic. Abelard, Heloise, Foulques, and Paraclete It

It is indeed impoffible to be unmoved at the furprifing and multiplied afflictions and perfecutions which befel a man of Abelard's fine genius, when we fee them fo feelingly defcribed by his own hand. Many of thefe were owing to the malice of fuch as were his enemies, on the account of his fuperior learning and merit; yet the great calamities of his life took their rife from his unhappy indulgenee of a criminal paffion, and giving himself a loose to unwarrantaable pleasures. After this he was perpetually involved in forrow and distress, and in vain fought for ease and quiet in a monaftic life. The Letters between him and his beloved Heloife were not written till long after their marriage and feparation, and when each of them was dedicated to a life of religion. Accordingly we find in them furprising mixtures of devotion and tenderness, of penitence and remaining frailty, and a lively picture of human nature in its contrarieties of paffion and reafon, its infirmities, and its sufferings.