LOUIS

See also:

• LOUIS DUTENS (1730-1812)

DUTENS (1730-1812)  , French writer, was born at Tours, of Protestant parents, on the 15th of January 1730 . He went to London, where his uncle was a jeweller, and there obtained a situation as tutor in a private family . In this position he learnt Greek and mathematics, and studied oriental languages, also Italian and Spanish . He took orders, and was appointed chaplain and secretary to the English minister at the court of Turin in October 1758 . In 176o—1762 he was charge d'affaires at Turin . Lord Bute, before retiring from office in 1763, procured him a pension . He again went to Turin as charge d'affaires; and during this second mission he collected and published a complete edition of the works of Leibnitz (Geneva, 6 vols., 1768) and wrote his Recherches sur l'origine des decouvertes attribuees aux modernes (1766) . On his return to England the duke of Northumberland procured him the living of Elsdon, in Northumberland, and made him tutor to his son . In 1775 he became a member of the French Academy of Inscriptions and a fellow of the Royal Society . Dutens was for a third time charge d'affaires at Turin . He was in Paris in 1783, and returned to London the following year . He died in London on the 23rd of May 1812 .

The

principal works of Dutens were his Recherches surl'origine des dicouvertes attribuees aux modernes (1766, 2 vols.); Appel au bon sens (London, 1777, 8vo), directed in defence of Christianity against the French philosophers, and published anonymously; Explication de guelques medailles de peuples, de rois et de villes grecques et pheniciennes (London, 1773) ; Explication de quelques medailles du cabinet de Duane (1774) ; Troisieme dissertation sur guelques medailles grecques et pheniciennes (1776) ; Logique, ou l'art de raisonner (1773); Des pierres precieuses et des pierres fines, avec les moyens de les connaitre et de les evaluer (Paris, 1776) ; Itiniraire des routes les plus frequentees, ou journal d'un voyage aux principales villes d'Europe (Paris, 1775), frequently republished; Considerations theologiques sur les moyens de reunir toutes les eglises chretiennes (1798); (Euvres melees, containing his most important works published up to the date (London, 1797, 4 vols.) ; L'Ami des strangers qui voyagent en Angleterre (1789, 8vo) ; Histoire de ce qui s'est passe pour le retablissement d'une regence en Angleterre (1789); Recherches sur le tems le plus recule de l'usage des mites chez les anciens (1795) ; Memoires d'un voyageur qui se repose (Paris, 1786, 3 vols.) . The first two volumes of the last-named work contain the life of the author, written in a romantic style; the third bears the title of Dutensiana, and is filled with remarks, anecdotes and bons mots .