See La. Bruyere.

Jean De La Bruyere #1

Jean De La Bruyere, a French moralist, born in Paris about 1644, died in Versailles, May 11, 1696. At the recommendation of Bossuet he was appointed teacher of history to the grandson of the great Conde, in whose service he remained for the rest of his life in a literary capacity, with a pension of 1,000 crowns. He was admitted a member of the French academy in 1693, and left the reputation of a genial philosopher, whose happiness consisted in cultivating the best society and in reading the choicest books. His power of observation and his literary attainments are attested by his celebrated Caracteres, ou les Mceurs de ce siecle, founded upon the " Characters " of Theophrastus, which he translated into French and prefixed to his own. Hallam says that he incomparably surpassed his Greek model. The first edition appeared in the beginning of 1G88. Three editions were exhausted in the first year of its publication, and six more before the author's death. La Bru-yere left also an unfinished work, published in 1699 under the title of Dialogues posthumes sur lequietisme, and contained in an edition of the works of La Bruyere, La Rochefoucauld, and Vauvenargues (Paris, 1820). Many editions of La Bruyere's "Characters " were published after his death in Holland and France. The first complete edition based upon the original work was prepared by Walckenaer (Paris, 1845), followed by an improved edition by Destailleur (1855), and an edition by Gennequin the elder with illustrations (1858). Many have since appeared, the latest being that by Alphonse Lemerre (1872). The English translation by the poet Rowe (London, 1709) has been often reprinted.

In 1861 a new edition of his works was published (12mo, Caen), with notes by Georges Mancel. - See La comedie de La Bruyere, by Edouard Fournier (Paris, 1866), and Caracteres de La Bruyere, in Lemerre's edition of French classics, with a sketch and notes by Ch. Asselineau (1872).