242 Biographical Account of [April, 



first order, and at the same time to have possessed a singular dispo- 

 sition and train of sentiments, which had a very marked influenca 

 upon the character and pursuits of his son. He was the author 

 of a considerable number of treatises, upon a great diversity of 

 topics, metaphysics, belles lettres, natural philosophy, and eco- 

 nomics ; but we believe that their reputation has not extended 

 into this country. The subject of our memoir acquired the first 

 rudiments of his education entirely from his father, who appears 

 to have been very anxious to procure for his son every advantage 

 of which his confined resources admitted, and to have spared no 

 pains, or labour, in giving his young mind what he conceived to 

 be the right direction in the pursuit of knowledge. It, however, 

 unfortunately happened, that no two individuals, perhaps, ever 

 possessed a more decided opposition in their natural tastes and 

 intellectual faculties, than the elder and younger Le Sage. The 

 father's sole object was to acquire the knowledge of insulated 

 facts, and to store up individual pieces of information, at the 

 same time that he discarded all system, or attempts at general- 

 ization. The son, on the other hand, seems to have been slow 

 in obtaining knowledge, and still more in retaining what he 

 learned, in consequence of a singularly defective memory, while, 

 from a very early period of his life, he was fond of arranging facts 

 and connecting them into a systematic form. This disposition 

 of the son was checked by the father with constant and even 

 harsh perseverance ; which, while it had no effect in altering 

 the natural bent of the young man's mind, repressed the warmth 

 and impetuosity of his feelings, and tended most materially to 

 increase and confirm a tendency to shyness and reserve, which 

 he very early manifested. This was still further increased by 

 the behaviour of his mother, and by the general habits of the 

 family, in which parental authority and filial obedience seem 

 each of them to have been carried to an extraordinary extent. 

 In a less tender and complying mind than that of Le Sage, this 

 undue restraint might have been productive of the most unfa- 

 vourable consequences, both to the intellect and the morals of 

 the individual subjected to it. But although he felt it, and even 

 did not scruple to call it a system of tyranny, his gentle disposi- 

 tion never led him to think of rebelling ; but induced him to 

 spend his leisure hours in silent meditation, deprived, as it 

 would seem, of most of the gratifications and amusements of 

 childhood, but without degenerating into spleen or misanthropy. 

 One point, which was a regular part of the discipline of his 

 father's house, was the keeping silence, and never asking what 

 his parents were pleased to consider as idle questions ; and this 

 Pythagorean system was adopted with so much strictness, that 

 through life he never acquired a facility of expressing himself, 

 although he afterwards made many useless efforts to counteract 

 this defect of his education. 

 This cruel restraint had, however, its advantages, although 



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