A Biographical Dictionary of Modern Rationalists/Abauzit, Firmin
Abauit, Firmin, Swiss writer. Born (France) Nov. 11, 1679. Educated Geneva. The Abauzit family, of Arabic extraction, was Protestant, and the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes (1685) compelled it to fly from France to Switzerland. Firmin made brilliant progress in every branch of culture at Geneva, and he completed his education by a tour of Europe, in the course of which he won the esteem of Bayle, Newton, and many of the most distinguished men of the time. William III tried to retain him at London, but he returned to Switzerland. He refused the offer of a chair in the Academy and all paid offices, and was for fifty years honorary librarian for the city of Geneva and one of the most eminent scholars in Europe. Leibnitz and Voltaire greatly esteemed him; and Rousseau, who rarely praised anybody, inserts a remark able eulogium of Abauzit in his Nouvelle Heloise. His Deistic views are expressed in his Rèflexions impartiales sur les evangiles (1774), but his more pronounced manuscripts were burned by his heirs. There are English translations of his Miscellanies (1774) and his Essays (1823). Died March 20, 1767.