[149] This fact appears in the account of the minuter erasures.
[150] The _castrations_ are in _Beyeri Memoriae historico-criticae
Librorum rariorum_, p. 166. The _bruises_ are carefully noted in the
_Catalogue of the Duke de la Valiere_, 4467. Those who are curious
in such singularities will be gratified by the extraordinary
opinions and results in Beyer; and which after all were purloined
from a manuscript "Abridgment of Universal History," which was drawn
up by Count de Boulainvilliers, and more adroitly than delicately
inserted by Lenglet in his own work. The original manuscript exists
in various copies, which were afterwards discovered. The minuter
corrections, in the Duke de la Valiere's catalogue, furnish a most
enlivening article in the dryness of bibliography.
[151] The last edition, enlarged by Drouet, is in fifteen volumes,
but is not later than 1772. It is still an inestimable manual for
the historical student, as well as his _Tablettes Chronologiques_.
[152] The "Dictionnaire Historique," 1789, in their article Nich. Le
Fevre, notices the third edition of his "Course of Chemistry," that
of 1664, in two volumes; but the present one of Lenglet du Fresnoy's
is more recent, 1751, enlarged into five volumes, two of which
contain his own additions. I have never met with this edition, and
it is wanting at the British Museum. Le Fevre published a tract on
the great cordial of Sir Walter Rawleigh, which may be curious.
[153] This anonymous work of "Memoires de Monsieur l'Abbe Lenglet du
Fresnoy," although the dedication is signed G. P., is written by
Michault, of Dijon, as a presentation copy to Count de Vienne in my
possession proves. Michault is the writer of two volumes of
agreeable "Melanges Historiques et Philologiques;" and the present
is a very curious piece of literary history. The "Dictionnaire
Historique" has compiled the article of Lenglet entirely from this
work; but the _Journal des Scavans_ was too ascetic in this opinion.
_Etoit-ce la peine de faire un livre pour apprendre au public qu'un
homme de lettres fut espion, escroc, bizarre, fougueux, cynique,
incapable d'amitie, de soumission aux loix? &c._ Yet they do not
pretend that the bibliography of Lenglet du Fresnoy is at all
deficient in curiosity.