Feller, Francis Xavier De

, an ex-jesuit, was born at Brussels Aug. 18, 1735, and became professor of rhetoric at Liege, Luxemburgh, and Turnau in Hungary, after which he travelled in Italy, Poland, Austria, and Bohemia. After the suppression of the society of the Jesuits in 1773, he took the name of Flexierue Reval, which he exchanged afterwards for that of Feller, under which he published at Luxemburgh, from 1774 to 1794, a political and literary journal, entitled “Clef des cabinets,” in which he is said to display considerable knowledge, riot unmixed with | bigotry. The profits of this work not being adequate to his wants, he endeavoured to derive emolument from the less reputable employment of literary piracy. In this way he republished Vosgien’s Geographical Dictionary and the “Dictionnare Historique,” of which last he published three editions, with his name, the third a little before his death, in 8 vols. When he wished to steal the contents of a book, and make them pass for his own, he generally began by an attack upon it in his journal, as a work good for nothing. He usually resided at Liege, but when the French revolution broke out, he went to Maestricht, and afterwards to other places of safety; in 1797 he went to Ratisbon, where he died May 23, 1802. Whatever trutti there may be in this character of Feller as a compiler, his original works are creditable to his talents. Among these are: K “Jugement d’un ecrivain protestant touchant le livre de Justinus Fabronius,” Leipsic, 1771,' 8vo. 2. “Lettre, sur le diner du comte de Boulainvilliers.” 3. “Examen critique de THistoire Naturelle de M. de Buffon,” 1773. This is chiefly an attack on Buffon’s theory of the earth. 4. A translation of Soame Jenyns’s “Internal evidence of the Christian religion, with notes and observations, which he published in 1779, under his assumed name of Flexier de Reval. 5.” Observations philosophiques sur le systeme de Newton, le mouvement de la terre, et la pluralite des mondes,“1771 and 1788, in which he attempts to prove that the motion of the earth has not been demonstrated, and that a plurality of worlds is impossible. La Lande answered this work. 6.” Examen impartial des epoques de la nature de M. de Buffon,“Luxemburgh, 1780, 12mo, and reprinted a fourth time at Maestricht in 1792. 7.” Catechisme philosophique,“a collection of remarks in favour of the Christian religion,” Paris, 1777, 8vo. 8. “Discours sur divers sujets de religion, et de morale,” 1778, 12mo. 9. “Observations sur les rapports physiques de Phuile avec les flots de la mer,” 1778, 8vo. He left also a great many Mss. and upon the whole appears to have been a man of extensive knowledge, and, as his biographer allows, of prodigious memory, but had the misfortune to make many enemies by the severity of his criticisms, and the warmth of his temper. ¹