for benevolence. He had no children; he resolved to adopt an enfant du peuple. He resolved to educate this boy according to "Reason." He selected an orphan of the lowest extraction, whose defects of person and constitution only yet the more moved his pity, and finally engrossed his affection. In this outcast he not only loved a son, he loved a theory! He brought him up most philosophically. Helvetius had proved to him that education can do all; and before he was eight years old, the little Jean's favourite expressions were — "La lumière et la vertu".[1] The boy showed talents, especially in art. The protector sought for a master who was as free from "superstition" as himself, and selected the painter David. That person, as hideous as his pupil, and whose dispositions were as vicious as his professional abilities were undeniable, was certainly as free from "superstition" as the protector could desire. It was reserved for Robespierre hereafter to make the sanguinary painter believe in the Etre Suprême. The boy was early sensible of his ugliness, which was almost preternatural. His benefactor found it in vain to reconcile him to the malice of nature by his philosophical aphorsims; but when he pointed out to him that in this world money, like charity, covers a multitude of defects, the boy listened eagerly and was consoled. To save money for his protégé — for the only thing in the world he loved — this became the patron's passion. Verily, he had met with his reward.
"But I am thankful he has escaped," said the old
- ↑ Light and virtue.
