Argens

(Jean Baptiste de Boyer ) Marquis d’ , French writer, b. at Aix, in Provence, 24 June 1704. He adopted a military life and served with distinction. On the acce ion of Frederick the Great he invited d’Argens to his court at Berlin, and made him one of his chamberlains. Here he resided twenty-five years and then returned to Aix, where he resided till his death 11 June, 1771. His works were published in 1768 in twenty-four volumes. Among them are Lettres Juives, Lettres Chi noises and Lettres Cabalistiques , which were joined to La Philosophie du bon sens . He also translated Julian’s discourse against Christianity and Ocellus Lucanus on the Eternity of the World. Argens took Bayle as his model, but he was inferior to that philosopher.