Going back in time, Aphra Behn, better known as a writer of plays and   
of the "first" or at least one of the earliest novels in the English   
language, Oroonoko, also translated French texts including   
Fontenelle's Entretiens sur la pluralite des mondes (1686) [as A   
Discovery of New Worlds - 1688]  
  
You can find Behn's introduction to her translation in Vol. 4 of The   
Works of Aphra Behn, ed. Janet Todd, pp. 73-86.  
  
There used to be a website at a French university that had a database   
of French-English and English-French translations of that period, but   
I haven't been able to track it down again.  
  
Best,  
  
Catherine Labio