E L O G E. original: "Eloge," a speech or writing in praise of a person, typically a funeral oration or biographical tribute.

However, she referring to the church/city of Magdeburg mentioned on the previous page was not to keep him forever, and the capital reclaimed a man so well-suited to bring it honor in every respect. Mr. de Répey died at the end of 1724, and Mr. Pelloutier succeeded him in 1725. This event granted him the satisfaction of rejoining Mr. Lenfant and being his colleague until 1728. Mr. Pelloutier did in Berlin what he had done in Magdeburg. I make this remark with specific intent. It often happens that one sets a goal and strives toward it with sustained effort, but after reaching it, the efforts cease and relaxation follows. This was not at all the character of our worthy clergyman. He was born for his duties: he lived only for them. This is so true that his final illness, however painful it was, had nothing truly overwhelming for him except the interruption it caused to the exercise of his ministry. He fulfilled all his duties with the same fervor; he would have wished to multiply them, to carry part of the burden of others, to contribute to everything, and to embrace everything. This conduct had given him, in a short time, a command of affairs that made him productive in openings, resources, and expedients. Nothing embarrassed him: he was hardly consulted on the most thorny matters before he gave his opinion and offered his mediation. He was later seen to bring the same character to literature; in every genre to which he applied himself, the most cluttered routes opened, and the roughest paths were smoothed, without it appearing to cost him any effort. He was rarely stopped by any question. This gave him an air of universality, which is misplaced in superficial men, but which was supported in him by a real depth of uncommon knowledge.

After mentioning that he was invested in 1738 with the dignity of Ecclesiastical Councilor, let us consider him from the point of view to which this Eloge directly relates: as a Sçavant scholar highly esteemed in the Republic of Letters, and as an Academician whose insights we have enjoyed with much fruit, and whose loss deserves our most justified regrets.

Just as we have represented Mr. Pelloutier—that is to say, in the midst of the most numerous occupations and giving himself to them with as much eagerness as he did—there still remained leisure for him. He had enough of it to compose a work that required the greatest research, and which earned him a

distinguished rank among that small number of scholars of consummate erudition, of which our century is quite poorly provided. The hours he stole from his ordinary labors were used to read the original authors whom so many writers quote without knowing them, and to draw from the primary sources to which so few men of letters can or wish to recur. Mr. Pelloutier told me that he had read, after supper, much like one reads the Gazette a news periodical, all the authors whose list (*) is found at the head of his first volume of the History of the Celts original: "Histoire des Celtes". However, this same history proves that he had read them well. What a lesson for those who lose not only entire days, but their whole lives! Mr. Pelloutier had more right than anyone to spend a few moments without the fatigues of the day, but he wished to put to use even the instants he stole from the painful functions of his ministry.

While doing these readings, our scholar saw, in a way, a systematic web of observations arrange itself before his eyes. Most are discoveries about the origin of the principal nations that cover the face of Europe today. He believed he should inform the public and anticipate the judgment of critics on the work he was meditating. To this effect, he addressed a letter to the elder Mr. de Beausobre, dated May 15, 1733. It is found in Volume XXVIII of the Bibliothèque Germanique original: "Bibliotheque Germanique," a prominent scholarly journal of the era.. "Curious," he said, "to know who our fathers were, what we have inherited from their virtues and their faults, seeking moreover the origin of several customs which seemed to me remains of ancient barbarism, and finding nothing in modern authors that fully satisfied me, I took care, when I had the opportunity to read the ancients, to gather and put in order what they report on the subject of the Celts. I confess that I thought a hundred times that it would be absolutely impossible to make use of the diverse pieces that remain to us of the ancient history of these peoples, or to draw something true and certain from them." After then giving an account to his illustrious colleague of several important remarks, which were so many samples of his work, Mr. Pelloutier concluded by saying,

(*) For different reasons, the Table of Authors was postponed to the last volume of this edition.