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See also:FRERET, See also:NICOLAS (1688-1749) , See also:French See also:scholar, was See also:born at See also:Paris on the 15th of See also:February 1688. His See also:father was procureur to the See also:parlement of Paris, and destined him to the profession of the See also:law. His first tutors were the historian See also:Charles See also:Rollin and Father Desmolets (1677-1760). Amongst his See also:early studies See also:history, See also:chronology and See also:mythology held a prominent See also:place. To please his father he studied law and began to practise at the See also:bar; but the force of his See also:genius soon carried him into his own path. At nineteen he was admitted to a society of learned men before whom he read See also:memoirs on the See also:religion of the Greeks, on the See also:worship of Bacchus, of See also:Ceres, of See also:Cybele and of See also:Apollo. He was hardly twenty-six years of See also:age when he was admitted as See also:- PUPIL (Lat. pupillus, orphan, minor, dim. of pupus, boy, allied to puer, from root pm- or peu-, to beget, cf. "pupa," Lat. for " doll," the name given to the stage intervening between the larval and imaginal stages in certain insects)
pupil to the See also:Academy of See also:Inscriptions. One of the first memoirs which he read was a learned and See also:critical discourse, Sur l'origine See also:des Francs (1714). He maintained that the See also:Franks were a See also:league of See also:South See also:German tribes and not, according to the See also:legend then almost universally received, a nation of See also:free men deriving from See also:Greece or See also:Troy, who had kept their See also:civilization intact in the See also:heart of a barbarous See also:country. These sensible views excited See also:great indignation in the See also:Abbe Vertot, who denounced Freret to the See also:government as a libeller of the See also:monarchy. A lettre de cachet was issued, and Freret was sent to the See also:Bastille. During his three months of confinement he devoted himself to the study of the See also:works of See also:Xenophon, the See also:fruit of which appeared later in his memoir on the Gyropaedia. From the See also:- TIME (0. Eng. Lima, cf. Icel. timi, Swed. timme, hour, Dan. time; from the root also seen in " tide," properly the time of between the flow and ebb of the sea, cf. O. Eng. getidan, to happen, " even-tide," &c.; it is not directly related to Lat. tempus)
- TIME, MEASUREMENT OF
- TIME, STANDARD
time of his liberation in See also:March 1715 his See also:life was uneventful. In See also:January 1716 he was received See also:associate of the Academy of Inscriptions, and in See also:December 1742 he was made perpetual secretary. Heworked without intermission for the interests of the Academy, not even claiming any See also:property in his own writings, which were printed in the Recueil de l'academie des inscriptions. The See also:list of his memoirs, many of them See also:posthumous, occupies four columns of the Nouvelle Biographie generale. They treat of history, chronology, See also:geography, mythology and religion. Throughout he appears as the keen, learned and See also:original critic; examining into the See also:comparative value of documents, distinguishing between the mythical and the See also:historical, and separating traditions with an historical See also:element from pure fables and legends. He rejected the extreme pretensions of the chronology of See also:Egypt and See also:China, and at the same time controverted the See also:- SCHEME (Lat. schema, Gr. oxfjya, figure, form, from the root axe, seen in exeiv, to have, hold, to be of such shape, form, &c.)
scheme of See also:Sir See also:Isaac See also:Newton as too limited. He investigated the mythology not only of the Greeks, but of the Celts, the Germans, the See also:Chinese and the See also:Indians. He was a vigorous opponent of the theory that the stories of mythology may be referred to historic originals. He also suggested that See also:Greek mythology owed much to the Phoenicians and Egyptians. He was one of the first scholars of See also:Europe to undertake the study of the Chinese See also:language; and in this he was engaged at the time of his committal to the Bastille. He died in Paris on the 8th of March 1749.
See also:Long after his See also:death several works of an atheistic See also:character were falsely attributed to him, and were long believed to be his. The most famous of these See also:spurious works are the Examen critique des apologistes de la religion chretienne (1766), and the Lettrede Thrasybule a Leuci ppe, printed in See also:London about 1768. A very defective and inaccurate edition of Freret's works was published in 1796-1799. A new and See also:complete edition was projected by See also:Champollion-See also:Figeac, but of this only the first See also:volume appeared (1825). It contains a life of Freret. His See also:manuscripts, after passing through many hands, were deposited in the library of the See also:Institute. The best See also:account of his works is " Examen critique des ouvrages composes See also:par Freret " in C. A. Walckenaer's Recueil des notices, &c. (1841-185o). See also See also:Querard's See also:France litteraire.
End of Article: FRERET, NICOLAS (1688-1749)
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