Annual Meeting at St. Joseph. 233 



man of unusual intelligence, having at an early age mastered 

 seven languages, he investigated every subject and was finally 

 lost in the labyrinth of study. So like many students he fell. 

 Like Thomas, he doubted. 



He came to look upon history as a stuijendous lie, heaped up 

 from age to age. Like many other students he assumed to change 

 things to his own understanding. Thus his historical romance was 

 derided from envy (no doubt) by the learned and society, by 

 ignorance. Living in an age of revolution, he was carried by des- 

 tiny into politics. He engaged to point out some of the worst 

 abuses, but so rooted had they become in the social system, so many 

 destinies builfupon false principles that he became disheartened and 

 again plunged into metaphysics. The further he advanced into 

 their mysteries, the greater the confusion in his mind. It, like the 

 will-o'-the-wisp, allured only to mislead. 



After being thus tossed about after first one doctrine then an- 

 other, between deism, atheism and every other ism, lie took refuge 

 in universal skepticism. 



Thus Charney became a disciple of gross pantheism, refusing 

 to believe in one superior intelligence. He reasoned thus : The 

 disorder inherent in creation, the perpetual contradictions between 

 ideas and things, the unequal distribution of strength and fortune 

 among mankind, fixed in his mind that blind matter alone had 

 created all. Thus Chance became his G-od, annihilation the object 

 of liis hope. 



Having engaged in a consiDiracy he was seized by the great 

 Bonaparte and consigned in 1804 to the fortress of Fenestrella. 

 Here, now, we find the philosopher, sage and scientist shut out 

 from men and society. . All that wealth could bestow he exchanged 

 for a prisoner's cell — a most gloomy chamber. 



One day, while perambulating his cell, he saw a tiny plant 

 between the crevice of the stone pavement. At first he raised his 

 foot to crush it — he hesitated, and said to himself, " perhaps, 

 some day, this plant may emit fragrance." Another thought came 

 to him, how was it possible for that plant so small, tender and 

 fragile that a touch might break it, to rise, separate and throw 

 out that earth, dried and hardened by the sun. trodden under foot 

 by him, and almost cemented to the two blocks of granite between 

 which it was pressed. He bent over it again to examine it the more 

 closely, and saw how wisely nature had provided it with valves which 

 folded and protected its tender petals. This was his first lesson in 

 true philosophy, for he said, behold the secret : "^ It receives from 



