, eldest son of the preceding, was born at Paris in 1589. He was introduced at Court when very
, eldest son of the preceding, was born at Paris in 1589. He was introduced at
Court when very young, and employed in many considerable
offices, all which he discharged with great reputation and
integrity. No man was ever more esteemed amongst the
great, and none ever employed more generously the influence he had with them, in defence of truth and justice.
He quitted business, and retired to the convent of Port
Royal des Champs, at fifty-five years of age; where he
passed the remainder of his days in a continual application
to works of piety and devotion. He enriched the French
language with many excellent translations: he also wrote
poems on sacred and other subjects. Mr. Arnauld, during
his retirement at Port Koyal des Champs, after seven or
eight hours study every day, used to divert himself with
rural amusements, and particularly with cultivating his
trees, which he brought to such perfection, and had such
excellent fruit from them, that he used to send some of it
every year to queen Anne of Austria, which this princess
liked so well, that she always desired to be served with it
in the season. He died at Port Royal, Sept. 27, 1674, in
his 86th year. He married the daughter of the sieur le
Fevre de la Boderie, famous for his embassy to England,
and had by her three sons and five daughters. He wrote
a great many devotional works, of which there is a catalogue in Moreri, and in the Journal de Savans for Sept. 9,
1695. He also enriched the French language by some
translations of the “Confessions of St. Augustine,
” 8vo and
12 mo; a translation, rather elegant than faithful, of “Josephus,
” 5 vols. 8vo; “Lives of the Saints,
” 3 vols. 8vo;
the “Works of St. Theresa,
” Memoirs
of his own Life,
” 2 vols. 12mo, 1734.