Jean Paul Marat’s Sister.
The Right Hon. J. W. Croker, in a letter to John Winter Jones, dated 23rd October, 1854, says that Colin, who had been Marat’s printer or publisher, “introduced him to Marat’s sister, who was as like her brother, he said—and as from all pictures and busts I readily believed—as ‘deux gouttes d’eau’. She was very small, very ugly, very sharp, and a great politician. Her ostensible livelihood was making watch-springs, but she told me she was pretty easy in her circumstances, and I either gathered from her, or saw cause to suspect, that she had some secret charitable help.”—[Ed.]
Laréveillère-Lepaux (page [283]).
Laréveillère-Lepaux left orders in his will that his Memoirs were to be printed and published. His heirs were not proud of the part the Director had played, so, after complying with the terms of his will and printing the Memoirs, they destroyed the whole issue at once; and the only copy extant is the one which, in accordance with the law of France, was sent to the Bibliothèque Nationale at Paris.
THE THEOPHILANTHROPISTS.
These (Gr. “Lovers of Gods and Men”) were a sect of Deists which appeared in France amid the confusion and disorder of the first Revolution. While the State was indifferent to all forms of Religion, and the Republican Directory was afraid of the Christianity which prevailed in the Church, a felt consciousness of the necessity of some religion led many to adopt a form of worship adapted to Natural Religion.
“This Sect” (says Southey, in the Quarterly Review, vol. xxviii.) “began with more circumstances in their favour than ever occurred to facilitate the establishment of a religion or of a sect. Many persons of considerable influence and reputation engaged in the project with zeal, and it was patronised by La Réveillère Lêpaux, one of the Directory.... His motives for putting himself at the head of the Theophilanthropists are said to have been twofold: if the scheme succeeded, he intended to become their High Priest; and he hated Christianity. Through his means the Theophilanthropists obtained a decree from the Government giving them a right of holding their meetings in the Churches, as national buildings, which were open to any religion, but belonged to none.
“Nearly twenty Churches in Paris were taken possession of; but by occupying so many, they injured themselves.... They took up too extended a position, and had neither numbers nor means answerable to the scale upon which they set out.... Their Service began at noon, and lasted about an hour and a half. It was, they said, a worship for those who had no other, and a moral society for those who had. The Ritual consisted of Prayers, Hymns original or selected from the best French Poets, readings from their Manual, and Discourses. The Hymns were, in general, judicious, and set to good music, and the Prayers well composed; but had their books been stript of all that they had borrowed from the Gospel, and from the works of Christian writers, they would have been meagre indeed. In one part of the Service there was a short pause, during which the congregation were expected to consider each in silence what his own conduct had been since the last of these meetings. A basket of fruit or flowers, according to the season, was placed upon the altar, as a mark of acknowledgment for the bounties of the Creator; and over the altar was the inscription, Nous croyons à l’existence de Dieu, et à l’immortalité de l’âme.... La Réveillère, in a speech at the Institute, declaiming against Christianity, as being opposed to the liberty of mankind, expressed his wish that a form of religion were adopted, which should have only a couple of articles. He wished also for a religion without priests; and this, it was pleasantly observed, would be like a Directory without a Director.
“This was the Creed of the Theophilanthropists. And on each side of it, the following sentences were inscribed in their temples, to take place of the Decalogue:—
“‘Adore God, cherish your fellow-creatures; render yourselves useful to your