Papillon Du Rivet, Nicolas-gabriel

Papillon du Rivet, Nicolas-Gabriel, a French Jesuit, was born in Paris January 19, 1717. He early entered the Society of Jesus, and gained a reputation by his eloquence in most of the pulpits of the capital. He retired to Tournay after the suppression of his order, and died there in 1782. The Latin poems of which he is the author are Templum assentationis (1742, 12mo) and Mundus physicus, effiges mundi moralis (1742, 12mo), in which he pretends to find in morals the image of Descartes's vortices. Among his French poems, we select the

Epitaph de. Voltaire and the Epitre au Comte de Falkenstein. His sermons, of a correct and pure style, have, been printed in Tournay (1770, 4 vols. l2mo), and a selection from his ouvres was given in vol. 59 of the Orateurs sacres by the abbe Migne. (1856). Papillon had entrusted to father Veron two MS. volumes containing some fugitive pieces, which are entirely lost. One peculiarity worthy of remark in the life of Papillon is, that his constitution was so delicate that for thirty years he lived only upon a little milk and white bread. See Feller, Dict. Hist. s.v.; Querard, La France Litter. s.v.