DUTENS, Louis (1730-1812), a French writer of some celebrity, was born at Tours, of Protestant parents, January 15, 1730. In his youth he devoted himself to poetry; and in 1748 he composed a tragedy, entitled The Return of Ulysses to Ithaca, which failed in Paris, but was represented with great applause at Orleans. The author, however, soon became sensible of the faults of his work, and abandoned a species of composition in which he found he was not destined to excel. He soon afterwards went to England with an introduction to Pitt, which he had received from a sister of the statesman. His first residence in London was brief, but he soon returned and obtained a situation as tutor in a private family. The father of the pupil was a man of considerable literary and scientific attainments, who instructed him in those branches of knowledge in which he was deficient. In this manner he learnt Greek and mathematics, and studied the Oriental languages, and Italian and Spanish. Soon after the termination of this engagement he was appointed chaplain and secretary to Mr Mackenzie, the English minister at the court of Turin, and left England in October 1758. In 1760, when Mr Mackenzie returned to England, the secretary remained at Turin as chargé d’affaires, until 1762, when he returned to England and attached himself to the family of Lord Bute, who, before retiring from office in 1763, procured him a pension. He again went to Turin as chargé d’affaires; and during this second mission he undertook the task of collecting and publishing a complete edition of the works of Leibnitz (Geneva, 6 vols. 1769) and wrote his work on the Discoveries of the Ancients. On again returning to England he attached himself to the duke of Northumberland, who procured him the living of Elsdon, in ...