MISCELLANIES ON VARIOUS SUBJECTS. To which is prefixed, An ACCOUNT of the AUTHOR, and his WORKS, Per quefto variar la Natura e Bella. From the Original of M. FORMEY, perpetual Secretary LONDON: Newgate-Street. M.DCC.LIX, AN ACCOUNT OF THE AUTHOR, BY HIMSELF. T (HE following Account of myfelf was required, and the Reader, I hope, will perceive, that, whatever Complaisance there may be in it to others, there is little to myself. It is a kind of Confeffion extorted from me, and I am the more difpofed to it, from the manifeft Improbability that I fhall henceforth make any confiderable Addition to the Number of my Works. A Conftitution, impaired by twenty Years of Infirmities, forbids me to form extenfive Schemes, and entertain distant Hopes. I, from my Soul, fubmit to the Difpenfations of Providence, ever wife and gracious; and shall now enter on a Detail, which, in the principal Particulars of my Life, will remind me of all the Bleffings with which it has been crowned. I was born at Berlin, the 31ft of May, 1711; my Parents defigned me for the Ministry, and whether they had inftilled into me a Liking of it, or it was the Gift of Nature, my firft Thoughts and Defires took a strong Turn that Way. In 1720, I was put to the French College, and, having, in 1725, gone through all its Forms, I for two Years attended M. la Croze, Profeffor of Philofophy. In 1727, I was admitted a Propofant*; in 1729, a Candidate, and, in 1731, I was called to the Church of Brandenburg: Here I only staid a few Weeks, being removed to the Paftorfhip of the Church of Fredericftadt at Berlin. My Affiduity to qualify myself for that Station, which was the predominant Object on which I always kept my Eye, had not permitted me to turn afide to any other Studies, than thofe effential to my Profeffion; and, besides, little did I think that I should pass from that Profeffion to any other, and still lefs that I fhould weary the Prefs with my Productions. The firft Occafion which initiated me, as an Author, arose from my Connections, A young Divine licensed to preach, |