CHARACTERS. 



349 



he foresaw the catastrophe which 

 put an end to the dream of the 

 legislative body. His age, and some 

 remaining consideration for his ta- 

 lents, saved him from transporta- 

 tion ; but his election was an- 

 nulled. 



Restored to liberty and his fa- 

 mily, he hastened back to his rural 

 retreat, where, with a tranquil con- 

 science, he died on the 30th of De- 

 cember last, at the age of 69 years ; 

 a good father, an affectionate hus- 

 band and a Christian. 



Here let me remove one of those 

 slanders engendered by the preju- 

 dices of sect and party, which from 

 the French papers has found its 

 ■way to those of other countries. 

 They accused Marmontel of hypo- 

 crisy, for defending the interests 

 of religion in the legislative body, 

 after having, they say, attacked it 

 in his works. Nothing is more 

 absurd and false than this assertion. 



But supposing that a writer in 

 the effervescence of youth, and 

 hurried away by example, or the 

 passions, had taken unwarrantable 

 liberties with religious principles, 

 would it follow that when matured 

 by age and reason, when taught by 

 dreadful experience the effects of 

 incredulity, he should not acknow- 

 ledge the danger of it, and oppose 

 it without being guilty of hypocrisy.'' 

 It was the case of another acade- 

 mician, whose conversion made still 

 more noise than his errors. 



But, as for Marmontel, he never 

 had grounds to lament his publica- 

 tions. He never sheltered himself 

 by writing anonymously ; and in 

 which of his acknowledged works 

 shall we find a proof to support the 



imputation I am refuting? Will any 

 one venture to adduce the censure 

 of Belisarius by the doctors of the 

 Sorbonne, who with a rage and ab- 

 surdity worthy of the tenth century, 

 anathematized the maxims of tole- 

 ration displayed by the author of it, 

 and which were adopted by all 

 enlightened Christians awake to the 

 spirit of the Gospel.'' 



To listen to the crowd of de- 

 claimers and ignorant persons who 

 pretend to explain the causes of the 

 revolution, we should believe it to 

 be the result of an universal conspi- 

 racy of men of learning and science 

 against the throne and the altar. 

 They are, no doubt, right, accord- 

 ing to their meaning ; for in their 

 eyes, whoever requires that the 

 power of the laws should be .su- 

 perior to that of a minister, or of a 

 lieutenant de police, is a rebel and 

 a jacobin; just as they, with equal 

 sagacity, pronounce him an atheist 

 who wrote against the Jesuits, or 

 laughed at the legend. 



Fact is the answer to these ab- 

 surd assertions. In spite of the in- 

 terested declamations and invectives 

 of the Linguets, Merciers, and 

 Chamforts, it is certain that the 

 French academy was composed of 

 men the most distinguished by their 

 literary talents. Mark then; of 37 

 members, the number of that body 

 in 1790, only eight embraced and 

 served the revolution.* Most of 

 the members of the Academy of 

 Inscriptions and Belle Lettres were 

 clear of all participation in it. The 

 Academy of Sciences alone merited 

 that reproach which was so unjustly 

 thrown upon men of letters worthy 

 of the title : and to its everlasting 



* Cardinal He Lomenie, La Harpe, Dacis, Chamfort, Condorcet, the marquis 

 d« Montesquieu, Bailly, and Target. 



