Asselin, Giles Thomas

, doctor of theSorbonne, and provisor of the college of Harcourt, was born at Vire in 1682. He was the scholar of Thomas Corneille, and the friend of la Motte-Houdar, and appointed principal of the college of Harcourt. He died at Issy, October 11, 1767, at the age of eighty-five. He had borne off the prize of poetry at the French academy in 1709, and those of the idyllium and the poem at the floral games in 1711. The ode on the existence of God, and the immortality of the soul, is his best performance. His poems crowned at the academic Franchise, and at that of the jeux^floreau, add less lustre to his name, as his versification is low, and his | style deficient in force and ornament. But Asseliri distinguished for his zeal in behalf of letters, and his adherence to integrity. His poetical works, and an address to the deists in behalf of truth, were published at Paris, 1725, 8vo. ¹