We begin the enumeration of the distinguished writers of this period, with its principal founder, Stephen Konarski, mentioned above,[46] who was born A.D. 1700, and died in 1773.  In his seventeenth year he entered the order of Piarists, and became later a professor in the college of this congregation at Warsaw.  After a long stay in Italy and France, he returned to Poland; accompanied king Stanislaus Leszczynski to Lorrain; but again returned to his country and founded several institutions for education in Warsaw, Wilna, and Lemberg, on principles different from those of the Jesuits.  In the year 1747 he went a third time to France, but returned after three years; and from that time devoted himself entirely to the literary and mental reform of his own country.  Of his printed works, twenty-eight in number, fourteen are written in Polish.  They embrace different topics in poetry, and a tragedy; but his principal merits lie in his writings on the subject of politics and education.[47]

After him we name the illustrious philosopher Stanislaus Leszczynski.  Most of his works, on politics and ethics, were written in French; in the Polish language he wrote, besides one or two other works, a history of the Old and New Testaments in verse.[48] Zaluski, known more especially by the foundation of a large and celebrated library, in which he spent an immense fortune, and which he finally made over to his country,[49] was the friend of king Stanislaus and of Konarski.  In possession of an uncommon amount of knowledge, and a very extensive erudition, which however he owed more to his remarkable memory than to any distinguished capacity, he wrote a large number of Latin and Polish books on literary and biographical subjects, and on poetry; in all which the genius of the preceding period still reigns.

Another nobleman of high rank, who distinguished himself by his patriotism and erudition, was Wenceslaus Rzewuski, woiwode of Podolia, and cotemporary with Zaluski, whom he surpassed however in critical taste and productive powers.  His translation of the Psalms is highly esteemed.  A still higher name as a patron of literature and the arts, is the uncle of king Stanislaus Augustus, prince Adam Czartoryski.  He was marshal of the diet in 1764, when the ill-famed liberum veto was abolished, which gave to every deputy, singly, the right of overthrowing the otherwise unanimous resolutions of the diet, and thus was the principal cause of the lawless disorder which disgraced the sessions of that body.  His merits as a statesman and a Mecaenas are equal.  Several historical works, designed to advance the honour of Poland, were published under his care and at his instigation.  Amid all his numerous avocations, he found time to write several pieces for the national stage; which, as a promoter of the purity of the language, was a subject of his particular care and attention.[50]