, a man of letters in France, who was for some time professor of
, a man of letters in France, who
was for some time professor of eloquence in the royal college of la Fleche, was born in 1741, at Villa Franca in
Rouergue. He was a disinterested scholar, a plain, modest,
and vjrtuous man. His eulogium on the great Colbert received the public approbation of the French academy in
1773. His principal fame has arisen from a poem (as he calls it) in prose, named “Telephus,
” in twelve books.
It was published in octavo in I have,
” said he,
“200 livres a-year.
” Some wonder being expressed how
he could subsist on so little, “Oh,
” said he, “the doctor
has plenty more.
” The doctor died first of a contagious
disorder, through which his friend attended him, and died
only twenty days after, a victim to the strength of his friendship. He died about the end of April 1785, at the age of
only forty-four.