322 



Biogmpical Account of 



that Churchill wanted merit as a poet ? During his short and 

 rapid literary career he appeared to wield the thunderbolts in his 

 hand, and was an object of dread and adoration, like a kind of 

 Divinity. But where is his reputation now? It has sunk, since 

 his death, as much below the true level, as it rose above it during 

 his life-time. And this we believe will always be the case. 

 Mankind will atone for the excessive adulation which they pay 

 to a man during his life-time, by a corresponding negligence 

 after his death. 



Antoine Fran 9015 de Fourcroy, Comte of the French Empire, 

 Counsellor of State, Commander of the Legion of Honour, 

 Member of the Institute, and of most scientific societies in 

 Europe, Professor of Chemistry at the Museum of Natural 

 History, Professor of the Faculty of Medicine at Paris, and 

 Teacher in tlie Polytechnic School, was born at Paris, on the 

 15th of June, i?^^? and was the son of Jean Michel de Four- 

 croy and of Jeanne Laugier. 



His family had long resided in the capital, and several of his 

 ancestors had distinguished themselves at the bar. One of them, 

 during the reign of Charles IX. was honoured with the epithet 

 of fori decus, 



Antoine Fran9ois de Fourcroy sprung from a branch of the 

 family that had gradually sunk into poverty. His father exercised 

 in Paris the trade of an apothecary, in consequence of a charge 

 which he held in the house of the Duke of Orleans. The 

 Corpomiion of Apothecaries having obtained the general sup- 

 pression of all such charges, M. de Fourcroy, the father, was 

 obliged to renounce his mode of livelihood ; and his son grew 

 up in tlie midst of the poverty produced by the monopoly of the 

 privileged bodies in Paris. He felt this situation the more 

 keenly, because he possessed from nature an extreme sensibility 

 of temper. W hen he lost his mother, at the age of seven years, 

 he attempted to throw himself into her grave. The care of an 

 elder sister preserved him with difficulty till he reached the age 

 at which it was usual to be sent to the college. Here he was 

 unlucky enough to meet with a brutal master, who conceived an 

 aversion to him, and treated him vi'ith cruelty. The consequencs- 

 was a dislike to study ; and he quitted the college at the age of 

 14, somewhat less informed than when he went to it. 



His poverty now was such, that he was under the necessity of 

 endeavouring to support himself by commencing writing-master. 

 He had even some thoughts of going upon the stage ; but was. 

 prevented by the hisses bestowed upon a friend of his, who had 

 unadvisedly entered upon that perilous career, and was treated in 

 consequence without mercy by the audience. While uncertain 

 what plan to follow, the advice of Viq. d'Azyr induced him ta 

 commence the study of medicine. 



