Granet, Francis

, deacon of the church of Aix, was born in 1692, at Brignolles in Provence, of a mercantile family. He was educated in his own country, but came young to Paris, where his literary taste and talents procured him many friends, by whose assistance he increased his stores of knowledge, and as his income was very limited, entered upon a course of literary labours. He was a contributor, as far as vol. XIX. to the “Bibliotheque frangotse,” a well-known journal printed in Holland; and when Desfontaines was obliged to discontinue his “Nouvelliste du Parnasse,” (in which Granet had written) and obtained permission to carry it on again under another title, he engaged Granet' s services in this new undertaking called “Observations sur les ecrits modernes.” It began in 1735, and was published weekly until Sept. 1743, whep the King revoked the privilege. Busied as Granet was on this work, he found leisure to undertake in 1738 the continuation of a journal entitled “Reflexions sur les ouvrages de litterature.” This he extended as far as twelve volumes. It contains many extracts and remarks given with taste and judgment, but others that are merely repetitions of what he had written for the “Observations sur les ecrits modernes,” He had also a trick of inserting letters to himself, when he wished to publish satire without being accountable for it, but it is not thought that this disguise was of much avail. It was perhaps his misfortune that he was. obliged by the narrowness of his circumstances to employ himself thus on the labours of others, and in preparing new editions, when he might have executed original works that would have done him credit. Indeed a few months before his death he hinted to his friends that necessity only had forced him to this drudgery, and that he had no consolation but in the hope that he should one clay or othet be at liberty to employ his talents in a more creditable way. He had learned English, and in order to make that a source of profit, translated sir Isaac Newton’s “Chronology,” which he published at Paris in 1728, 4to, with an excellent preface, of which he took care to speak very highly in the 14th vol. of the “Bibliotheque Francoise,” and, probably by way of blind, speaks very differently there of some of his contemporaries, from what he had advanced in his preface. In short he appears to have perfectly understood the trade of reviewing. One of his best editions is that of the works of M, de Launoy, which was | published at Geneva, 10 vols. fol. with a valuable preface, a life, and a “Launoiana,” consisting of very curious articles. Moreri gives a numerous list of other editions and publications to which he wrote prefaces and notes. He died at Paris April 2, 1741, and a spirited eloge was written on him by the abbe Desfontaines. ¹