443 



APPENDIX A. 



Page 7. I received the following from Mr. Morse Stephens, 

 Oxford : 



' The following short chronology of Marat's earlier life will show 

 where there may be* a fragment of truth, and what is undoubtedly 

 false. Marat was born 1743 at Neufchatel ; left home 1759 ; pub- 

 lished " Essay on Man " 1773 in London. Here comes the great 

 lacuna, from 1759-1773. He asserts that he travelled in France, 

 spent some time at Bordeaux and Paris (the latter fact is certainly 

 indicated by the pamphlet I have unearthed), spent a year in 

 Holland, and then came to England. He states in his later 

 writings that he spent eleven years in England : he undoubtedly 

 went back to Paris, when he received his Court appointment in 

 1777 so that I date his arrival in England at 1766 or 1767. 

 What did he do between 1766 and the publication of his book in 

 1773? He undoubtedly studied science much and read much, 

 for his book on " Man " is full of classical and mediseval lore. He 

 also thoroughly learnt English. I am inclined to think he spent 

 those years studying medicine, and later in practice in London, 

 as we find him a well-known doctor in 1776, and sufficiently 

 famous to be summoned from England to fill a Court post at Paris 

 in 1777. Now it is just possible that he may have taught French 

 at the Unitarian Academy of Warrington in the earlier years of his 

 stay, say 1767-69, though I should be inclined to doubt it. The 

 point deserves investigation, and I should be glad if you could 

 help me, but the latter part ot the extract is utterly impossible. 

 The trial of Le Maitre for the robbery at the Ashmolean took 

 place in 1778, when Marat was in Paris, writing scientific books, 



