Abauzit, FIRMIN

Abauzit, FIRMIN, was born of Protestant parentage at Uzès, in Languedoc, 11th November 1679, and on the revocation of the Edict of Nantes (1685) was despatched by his mother to Geneva. Here he prosecuted his studies with such intense ardour that he became versed in almost all the sciences. He travelled in Holland and England in 1698, and attracted the notice of such men as Bayle and Newton. King William wished to retain him in England; but his affection for his mother recalled him to Geneva, where he died March 20, 1767. He helped to translate the New Testament into French (1726), and published numerous theological and archaeological treatises, which were collected in two vols. (Amst. 1773). Rousseau, who hated to praise a contemporary, penned his solitary panegyric on Abauzit in the Nouvelle Héloïse.