Nicolas Freret, a French scholar, born in Paris, Feb. 15, 1688, died there, March 8, 1749. Admitted in 1714 to the academy of inscriptions and belles-lettres, of which he was afterward perpetual secretary, he was imprisoned for his first memoir, which discussed the origin of the French. On recovering his liberty in 1715, he began to produce the long series of memoirs which gave him distinction as an antiquary, philosopher, and philologist. The annals of the Assyrians, Chaldeans, Egyptians, and Hindoos, the principal ancient and oriental cosmogonies and the ogonies, and numerous questions of history and geography are among the objects of his research. He wrote on chronology against Newton. An incomplete collection of his works was made by Leclerc de Septchenes (20 vols., Paris, l796-'9). A more complete one was undertaken by Cham-pollion-Figeac, but only the first volume was issued (Paris, 1825).