Notwithstanding, he was condemned to be beheaded; and when the axe was about to fall, a pardon was produced, apparently for the purpose of procuring from Jars some betrayal of others. Unmoved, he would reveal nothing. After a time he was released and went to Rome, where he formed acquaintance with Cardinal Mazarin. In the troubles of the Fronde he took a conspicuous part. He seems latterly to have retired from court.—P. E. D.
JARS, Gabriel, an eminent French mineralogist and civil engineer, born at Lyons in 1732. He acquired a practical knowledge of mining under his father; and being zealously devoted to the subject, he was sent in 1757 in company with Duhamel to visit most of the mines on the continent, with a view to the introduction of improvements into the art of mining in France. During several journeys, which extended over two years, they traversed Saxony, Hungary, the Tyrol, and other mining countries; and in 1765 M. Jars was sent alone to examine the mines of England and Scotland. He afterwards visited Norway, Sweden, Holland, and the Low Countries; and in 1768 he was admitted a member of the Academy of Sciences. He was employed in arranging his numerous and valuable observations, when he died suddenly from the effects of a sun-stroke in August, 1769. One of his brothers who had accompanied him on some of his latest journeys, reduced his manuscripts to order, and they were published in three quarto volumes entitled "Voyages metallurgiques," &c., Lyons, 1774-81, forming a complete cyclopædia of information on the whole subject of mining as far as then known.—G. BL.
JASMIN, Jacques, a popular poet, who wrote in a provincial dialect of Southern France, was born at Agen in the department of Lot-et-Garonne, on the 6th March, 1798. The son of a hunchbacked father and a lame mother in the poorest circumstances, he had little schooling. He seems to have spent his youth among the ragged urchins of his native place. The excursions which, when a boy, he made with his companions in search of firewood to the islands of the Garonne, he has described in one of his poems, in terms which show that even then his life was not without its glimpses of sunshine. The removal of his grandfather to the hospital made a lasting impression on the mind of the young poet. "I am going," said the old man to him, as he was carried away in his arm-chair, "to the place where all the Jasmins must go to die." Poverty, however, does not appear to have damped the spirits of the poet's father. His trade, that of a tailor, took him much from home. A true Gascon, garrulous and light-hearted, his society was much courted, and he was a favoured guest at all the charivaris and merry-makings in the neighbourhood of Agen. On these occasions he recited burlesque verses of his own composition. He took his boy to witness his triumphs. Need we feel surprised that the latter early conceived the ambition of becoming a poet? For a short time he went to school. He was dismissed for a childish freak, and apprenticed to a barber. In due time he opened a shop of his own. He married; then he began to compose verses. In 1825 he published his first work, "Lou Chalibari" (the Charivari), a burlesque poem in the style of his father's productions, which proved that he possessed facility in gay and smooth versification. The success of this work induced him to make a more ambitious venture. He had read in Chateaubriand's essay on English Literature how Robert Burns had stirred the hearts of his countrymen by writing in the dialect of his native province. He thought that he might do for Southern France what Burns had done for Scotland and the north of England. Carefully did he gather the softest phrases of the old romance dialects and elaborate from them a language suited to his purposes. In 1835 he published at Agen a collection of his poems under the title of "Las Papillotas" (the Curl Papers). The reception which this volume met with in Southern France, attracted the attention of Parisian critics. It became the subject of special articles by Charles Nodier and Sainte Beuve. Jasmin had a place assigned to him in the foremost rank of living poets. In 1837 he wrote his beautiful poem entitled "L'Abugio de Castel Cuillé," in which he tells with deep pathos the story of a young woman who, disfigured by disease, was deserted by her lover, and died of grief. Three years later he wrote "Fraunconetto," another tale of a similar kind. It was followed after the lapse of a few years more by "Martha," a poem which, perhaps, more than any other served to increase the popularity of the poet. His verses were read in every part of France and Spain, where the old language of the troubadours is still understood. Jasmin was crowned laureate at Toulouse. More than thirty towns of Southern France feted him, enrolled him as a citizen, and presented him with gifts. In 1852 the French Academy crowned his three volumes, and conferred upon him their great prize of £200. He received from the department of public instruction a pension of £72 a year. He might had he chosen have made a fortune. He was for many years in the habit of publicly reciting his poems; and when he did so in any part of France, thousands flocked to hear him. He never, however, made use for his own necessities of the proceeds drawn on these occasions, but devoted them exclusively to charitable and religious purposes. The total sum collected at his recitations amounted to £28,000. Years before his death, he visited Paris at the request of the emperor, and recited some of his poems to the court at St. Cloud. He was not, however, induced to take up his abode in the capital, or to forsake the humble calling in which he had spent his life. He died on the 2nd of October, 1862.—G. B—y.
JAUBERT, Pierre Amedée Emilien Probe, a French oriental scholar, born at Aix in 1779, studied under Sylvestre de Sacy. In 1799 he accompanied the French expedition in Egypt as an interpreter, and soon became chief-secretary interpreter, in which post he greatly distinguished himself. He subsequently discharged important functions in France, at Constantinople, in Persia, and in Russia, under Napoleon. In 1818 the French government sent him to the East to procure a breed of Cashmere goats, and he succeeded in bringing four hundred into France. He was afterwards professor of Persian at the college de France, and in 1841 was created a peer and councillor of state. Among his numerous works, we may mention his "Travels in Armenia and Turkey;" his "Elements of Turkish Grammar;" and his French translation of the Geography of Edrisi. He died in 1847.—B. H. C.
JAUCOURT, Louis, Chevalier de, a distinguished French writer, was born at Paris on the 26th of September, 1704. He belonged to an old and distinguished family. He should, in the ordinary course of events, have entered the army at an early age. He, however, manifested when a boy a strong predilection for literary pursuits. When eighteen he went as a student to Geneva. He there devoted much attention to philosophical and theological subjects. Attracted by the great reputation of Newton, he next repaired from Switzerland to England, and entered the university of Cambridge. After remaining three years in this country he proceeded to Leyden, where he studied medicine under the great Boerhaave, not with the view of practising the profession, but simply for the purpose of extending his knowledge of the natural sciences. He took his degree of doctor of medicine at the same time with Tronchin, whose intimate friend he was. While resident in Holland, he became a leading contributor to the Bibliotheque Raisonné des ouvrages des savants de l'Europe, 1728-40, and to the Museum Sabæanum, 1734-65; at the same time he published at Leyden one of his most important works, "The History of the Life and Works of Leibnitz," in which he holds up the German philosopher as one of the few exemplars of a great scholar, thinker, and writer, whom modern times have produced. The work displays a striking universality of knowledge, and is written with much elegance. In 1736 Jaucourt returned to Paris to attend to his pecuniary affairs, which in his long absence had become embarrassed. He was induced to remain in his native country. When the publication of the French Encyclopedia was undertaken, he was intrusted by D'Alembert with the preparation of articles on natural philosophy, natural history, and medicine. From 1751 to 1772 he was constantly employed in writing for this great work treatises on the most varied subjects. His article on Paris has been much praised. All his contributions are characterized by felicity of style, and by the entire absence of those attacks on religion and morality which unfortunately made their appearance so frequently in the writings of his fellow-labourers. He had a strong dislike to controversy in every shape, and took no part in the literary disputes of his time. Modest, kindhearted, and retiring, he was a scholar rather than author—anxious above all to pass through life quietly and unobtrusively. He did not hunt eagerly after distinction, but acquired it without any direct effort to gain it for its own sake. In 1800 the French synonymes of Jaucourt, D'Alembert, and Diderot, scattered through the Encyclopedia, were collected and published; and it is perhaps by the share he had in the production of this volume that he is now best known. He wrote a ponderous work
