This singular and morally-distempered man, was endowed by nature with a warm imagination, a teeming fancy, and ardent feeling; but his whole nature was unhinged, by the absence of conscientiousness and directing principle. He was not only self-loving and vain, but self-engrossed. His early life was passed in reading romances, and in the loose indulgence of his weaknesses and passions. Yet his pen was a potent one, and, even more than that of Voltaire, helped to bring about the Revolution in France, and all its social blasphemies. Whilst Voltaire, with his bright and sharpened wit, cut away the cable that held religion to its moorings, Rousseau penetrated to the households of men, invaded their firesides, and poisoned their hearts. His writings were new, fascinating, and eloquent; abounding in highly-wrought descriptions of nature, and in what seemed genuine bursts of passion. His philosophy attributed all vices to civilization, to the existence of property, and to the tyranny of governments. His career was as disgraceful to himself, as his works proved detrimental to the happiness of others. He committed frequent thefts in his youth, and behaved with infamous ingratitude towards his benefactress, Madame de Warens, who saved him from threatened starvation; yet was left by him to starve in later days, when the condition in life of both had changed. With all his profound sentiment, Rousseau was a cold-blooded and cruel man. He was a subtle, independent, and original inquirer.
[From the bronze in the Louvre which bears the name of Houdon, 1778. The treatment is in the antique manner. The drapery is a mantle, and the head is bound with a fillet. This bust has an especial interest, from its having been executed from a cast taken after death by Houdon, who was sent for to Ermenonville immediately after the decease of Rousseau, by M. de Girardin, with whom he lived. The original cast still exists, and shows its genuineness by the scar on the forehead, caused by Rousseau’s falling from his chair; an accident which gave rise to the report that he had shot himself.]
247*. Jean Darcet. Chemist and Physician.
[Born at Douazit, in France, 1725. Died in Paris, 1801. Aged 76.]
Disinherited by his father for preferring the study of natural philosophy to that of jurisprudence; but befriended by Montesquieu, who appointed him tutor to his sons. His great discovery was the composition of porcelain. He artificially formed from minerals, found in France, the earth of which porcelain is made, and which exists in a natural state in Saxony, where the law forbade its exportation. The first to extract gelatine from bones, and soda from the sea water. Director of the Gobelins and of the Sèvres manufactories.
[Bust to come.]
248. Jean Pierre Duhamel. Man of Science.
[Born at Nicorps, in France, 1730. Died 1816. Aged 86.]
In 1752, Duhamel visited the mines of the Pyrenees, and of various parts of Germany, in order to collect information, his object being to establish a School of Mines in his own country. But he had to wait twenty years for the realization of his idea. As soon as it was carried out, he received the appointment of Professor of Agriculture and Metallurgy. He was a true practical philosopher, and his inventions and discoveries were all of the highest use in the branch of science to the development of which his life-long exertions had been directed.
249. Joseph Louis Lagrange. Astronomer.