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Article SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF M. BRISSOT. ← Page 2 of 3 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Sketch Of The Life Of M. Brissot.
different works : it is for them that I print this memorial , as the result-, or , rather , as the practical versification of the doctrine which I have published . They have read my writings ; they are . on the point of knowing their author ; they are about to hear his confession . I call Heaven to witness that I make it here with the same . sincerity as if I had one foot in the grave . . icable whoduring the
I was born in 1754 . Tllfi desp journalist , , course of five years , has disgusted his readers by absurdly ringing the changes upon the stoves of my father , would , doubtless , have sported also with the anvil of Demosthenes , the stirrup of Amyot , and of the poet Rousseau , the tan-pits of Massillon , and the cutlery of Diderot . He little imagined that , in 1789 , an article of the declaration of rights of birth
would cover " with shame the partizans of the prejudice , by declaring '( what philosophy never ceased to pronounce ) , that men were born equal ; and that there was no birth either illustrious or obscure . . One has not the choice of a father . If my birth had been at my own option , could I have fixed upon the station of the author of my being / l should not have laced it in a palacebut under the simple and
p , rustic roof of an American husbandman . That is the occupation which would have made me proud : it would have enabled my father to have unfolded his character , and all those qualities which rendered him esteemed by his fellow-citizens , but which were buried under his business , as a T ' raiteur . Being the parent of a numerous family , he
employed all the means resulting from his easy circumstances to give them a good education . I then pursued my studies , the success attending Ihe public course of which seemed to invite me , at an early period , to the bar , the only career in France at that time apparently open to talents and to liberty . Previously to my being called to it , a progress through that disgusting noviciate , which is the forerunner of the initiation of candidates into the order of oratorsbecame necessary ..
, The office of an attorney was my gymnasium ; I laboured in it for the space of five years , as well in the country as in Paris . As I advanced in the study of chicane my disgust against the profession increased ; and this aversion was accompanied by that indignation which the feeling and unpractised minds of young persons naturally experience at the discovery of unprincip led impostures . To relieve my weariness and the sciencesThe stud
disgust I applied myself to literature and to . _ y of tiie languages was , above all others , my favourite pursuit . Chance threw in my way two Englishmen , on a visit to my own country ; I learned their language ; and this circumstance decided my fate . The knowledge of the English tongue and of some others , together with the perusal of well-written foreign books , gave the finishing stroke it to resi entirel
to my disgust against the bar . I quitted gn myself y up to the bent of mv own taste . This step offended my parents , who designed me for the bar of Chatres . My resolution , did not , however , g ive way . I had before my eyes the example of a multitude of men of letters who experienced the same fate . I put my dependence upon some friends , upon my humble talents , ' and upon the exceedingly narrow circle to which mv wants were limited ; for , I always conceived that to
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Sketch Of The Life Of M. Brissot.
different works : it is for them that I print this memorial , as the result-, or , rather , as the practical versification of the doctrine which I have published . They have read my writings ; they are . on the point of knowing their author ; they are about to hear his confession . I call Heaven to witness that I make it here with the same . sincerity as if I had one foot in the grave . . icable whoduring the
I was born in 1754 . Tllfi desp journalist , , course of five years , has disgusted his readers by absurdly ringing the changes upon the stoves of my father , would , doubtless , have sported also with the anvil of Demosthenes , the stirrup of Amyot , and of the poet Rousseau , the tan-pits of Massillon , and the cutlery of Diderot . He little imagined that , in 1789 , an article of the declaration of rights of birth
would cover " with shame the partizans of the prejudice , by declaring '( what philosophy never ceased to pronounce ) , that men were born equal ; and that there was no birth either illustrious or obscure . . One has not the choice of a father . If my birth had been at my own option , could I have fixed upon the station of the author of my being / l should not have laced it in a palacebut under the simple and
p , rustic roof of an American husbandman . That is the occupation which would have made me proud : it would have enabled my father to have unfolded his character , and all those qualities which rendered him esteemed by his fellow-citizens , but which were buried under his business , as a T ' raiteur . Being the parent of a numerous family , he
employed all the means resulting from his easy circumstances to give them a good education . I then pursued my studies , the success attending Ihe public course of which seemed to invite me , at an early period , to the bar , the only career in France at that time apparently open to talents and to liberty . Previously to my being called to it , a progress through that disgusting noviciate , which is the forerunner of the initiation of candidates into the order of oratorsbecame necessary ..
, The office of an attorney was my gymnasium ; I laboured in it for the space of five years , as well in the country as in Paris . As I advanced in the study of chicane my disgust against the profession increased ; and this aversion was accompanied by that indignation which the feeling and unpractised minds of young persons naturally experience at the discovery of unprincip led impostures . To relieve my weariness and the sciencesThe stud
disgust I applied myself to literature and to . _ y of tiie languages was , above all others , my favourite pursuit . Chance threw in my way two Englishmen , on a visit to my own country ; I learned their language ; and this circumstance decided my fate . The knowledge of the English tongue and of some others , together with the perusal of well-written foreign books , gave the finishing stroke it to resi entirel
to my disgust against the bar . I quitted gn myself y up to the bent of mv own taste . This step offended my parents , who designed me for the bar of Chatres . My resolution , did not , however , g ive way . I had before my eyes the example of a multitude of men of letters who experienced the same fate . I put my dependence upon some friends , upon my humble talents , ' and upon the exceedingly narrow circle to which mv wants were limited ; for , I always conceived that to