Before I proceed to any extract from this curious biography, it may not be out of place just to glance at his early life and education.
F—— was the only child of a country gentleman of large fortune, and ancient family, still more distinguished for morality and virtue. At the early age of five years, this youth gave extraordinary proofs of mental energy, having in the short space of four days committed to memory one hundred and five verses of the New Testament, which he used to repeat to his father without a single mistake. With increasing years his genius expanded, and evinced a readiness and power of conception clearly reflecting talents of the first order. It was natural for parents to be proud of such a child, and to determine that his education should be fitted to his capacity. A tutor was accordingly provided, well qualified for the important task, who discharged the duty with honour and fidelity.
At fourteen, having read the whole of the classics, he was already qualified for entering the university, and made considerable progress in mathematics, logic, history, and painting. Being considered too young for college, a year was suffered to elapse, during which he was instructed in music, dancing, and fencing, and also became acquainted with French. In every thing he undertook, the utmost expectation was realized. Thus unusually accomplished, he went to college, and remained there five years; during which period his industry appears not to have relaxed; his avidity for knowledge, on the contrary, increased until he had drunk deeply of every source of information and knowledge.
On his return home he applied himself with such diligence to the cultivation of science, particularly chemistry and astronomy, that his health became impaired, whole nights being spent in a little observatory that had been constructed under his own direction.
That his mind should have all the polish it was capable of receiving, his father wished him to travel; to which, as in every thing else, he at once implicitly yielded. The short peace of Amiens furnished an opportunity for gratifying this wish, which they were the more anxious to see carried into effect, as an elderly gentleman of great scientific and literary attainments, about to proceed to Paris, offered the advantages of his experience and protection.
Dazzled with the lustre which accompanies the high-sounding term “philosopher,” the parents never inquired into the religious sentiments of the man whom they had chosen as the companion of their highly-gifted son: this sad inadvertence, in the issue proved his ruin. The religious principles, in truth, of this man, if religious principles he could be said to have, hung so very loosely about him, that he might be said to live in a sort of practical atheism: every action of his life evinced his belief that there could be no God, nor Governor of the universe; openly abjuring all dependence on that great Being by whose goodness and mercy alone he was permitted to exist.
The first lesson he endeavoured to impress on the generous mind of his pupil, was the non-existence of any omniscient eye to observe, or any omnipotent arm to punish; and that, as life was short, wisdom chiefly consisted in filling it up with as much pleasure as possible. Here it must be acknowledged he was treading upon tender ground; for though religion is by far the most important part of education, in the present case it had been the only one that had been neglected, and here alone could the assault have been made with any hope of success.
Introductory letters and other necessary documents being procured, the travellers commenced their journey. They were amongst the first from England who arrived in Paris, where their introductions, together with that politeness for which the French people have ever been remarked, and the unbounded festivity which always attends cessation of hostilities between contending nations, ensured them a reception not less hospitable than distinguished. Endowed with uncommon talents that gave an irresistible charm to their conversation, the society of both was courted; and neither of them showed much reluctance to drink deep at the voluptuous spring, which too often contaminates the morals of the unreflecting and gay in all countries, and by which the higher ranks of the French have been found to be particularly corrupted.
The accomplishments and agreeable qualities of the reputed philosopher made the pupil at first look up to him as an oracle; but, often staggered by his openly avowed sentiments of infidelity, he could not immediately reconcile that philosophy which destroys all distinctions between right and wrong: for, although his religious education had been so little attended to, still that little furnished many stumbling-blocks, which for a long time could not be got over; and he could not easily be brought to think that debauching the wife, or seducing the daughter, of a friend or benefactor, were not crimes. In maintaining these opinions, his arguments were often troublesome and embarrassing to the learned sceptic, who would either artfully evade the question, or decline the argument by some dogmatical assertion, which, if it did not convince, at least always silenced his young opponent.
Encircled by temptation in every form of allurement, seduced by pleasure the most bewitching, and blinded by passions at all times strong, but now more highly still inflamed by the sophistry and example of his vile associate, he, in a fatal moment of precipitate impulse, destroyed the peace of one who had treated him with the tenderness of a son, committing, it must with pain be confessed, the most deadly injury that human friendship can suffer, or hellish wickedness inflict—the violation of the marriage bed.