Aler, Paul

, a learned French Jesuit, was born ia 1656, at St. Guy, in the Luxemburgh, studied at Cologn, and in 1676 entered the order of St. Ignatius. He was professor of philosophy, theology, and the belles lettres, at Cologn, until the year 1691. He was afterwards, in 1701, invited to the university of Treves, where he gave his course of lectures on theology, and was appointed, in 1703, regent of the gymnastic school, and about the same time he was employed in the organization and direction of the gymnastic academies of Munster, Aachen, Treves, and Juliers. He died in 1727, at Dueren, in the duchy of Juliers. His principal works are: 1. “Tractatus de artibus humanis,” Treves, 1717, 4to. 2. “Philosophise | tripartite, pars 1. sive logica,” Cologne, 1710; “pars 2. sive physica,” 1715; “pars 3. seu anima et metaphysica,” 1724. 3. “Gradus ad Parnassum,” a book well known in all schools in Europe, and of which there have been a great number of editions. 4. Some Latin tragedies, as Joseph, Tobias, &c. ¹