Villers, Charles Francois Dominique De

Villers, Charles Francois Dominique De a distinguished French writer, was born at Belchen, in Lorraine, November 4, 1764. He was educated in the military school at Metz, and entered the army in 1782, but studied at the same time classical literature and philosophy. His De la Liberte (1791) proved too moderate for the Jacobins, and in 1792 he was compelled to flee. He settled at Lubeck, and became, in the course of time, thoroughly acquainted with the German language and literature. Having written with great openness against the violence of Napoleon's generals, he was expelled from the Hanse Townls by Davoust in 1806. Villers went to Paris, and obtained from the emperor the repeal of the order.. In 1811 he was made professor of philosophy at Gottingen, from which position, however, he was dismissed in 1814 by the returning Hanoverian dynasty. Villers died February 26, 1815. His principal works are, Essai sur l'Esprit et l'Influence de la Reformation de Luther (5th ed., published by Maeder, Strasburg, 1851), which received the prize of the French Academy in 1804, and was translated both into German and English: — Philosophie de Kant (Metz, 1802, 2 volumes). See Herzog, Real-Encyklop. s.v.; Lichtenberger, Encyclop. des Sciences Religieuses, s.v.; Winer, Handbuch der theol. Lit. 1:325, 326, 742, 743. (B.P.)