Eryceira, Francis Xavier De Meneses, Count D'

, great grandson of the foregoing, and inheritor of the literary industry of his ancestor, was born at Lisbon in 1673. He bore arms with distinguished merit; and obtained in 1735 the title of camp-master general and counsellor at war. He died in 1743, in the seventieth year of his age, member of the academy of Lisbon, of that of the arcades of Rome, and of the royal society of London, to which last he was admitted in 1738, and was then director of the royal academy of history in Portugal. He did not put on the airs of a man of quality among the learned, but was easy, “polite, and communicative. Pope Benedict XIII. honoured him with a brevet; the king of France made him a present of the catalogue of his library, and 21 | Volumes of engravings, The academy of St. Petersburg addressed its memoirs to him; several writers of France, England, Italy, &c. paid him the compliment of their works. His ancestors had left him a select and numerous library, which he augmented with 15,Ooo volumes and 1000 manuscripts. He marked his literary career by upwards of a hundred different publications. The most known of them are, 1.” Memoirs on the value of the Coins of Portugal, from the commencement of the monarchy,“1738, 4to. 2.” Reflections on academical studies.“3.” Fifty-eight Parallels of illustrious men, and twelve of illustrious women.“4.” The Henriade, an Heroic Poem, with observations on the rules to be observed in Epic Poetry," 1741, 4to. Among his manuscripts were found a quantity of essays on the number 22, on occasion of the 22 sorts of Roman coins presented to the king, and dug up at Lisbon the 22d of October 1711, on which day that prince completed his 22d year; and from these accidental circumstances, he proves the number 22 to be the most perfect of all. Such puerilities are sometimes found in otherwise judicious heads. ¹