op of Spire, was born at Voisenon on
the 8th of June, 1708. Biographers have, perhaps, laid too much stress
on the debility of constitution which he brought with him into the
world, inherited, they say, from his mother, an exceedingly delicate
woman. Since the examples of longevity given by Fontenelle and Voltaire,
of whom the first lived to the use of a hundred, and the second to
upwards of four-score years, and yet both of whom came into the world
with very doubtful chances of existence, it is become a very hazardous
task to determine, or even to foretell, length of days by the state of
health at birth. They add, that an unhealthy nurse, aggravating the
hereditary weakness of the child, infused with her milk into his blood
the germs of that asthma from which he suffered all his life, and of
which he eventually died. These facts accepted--a delicate mother, an
unhealthy nurse, an asthma, and constant spittings of blood--it follows
that, even with these serious disadvantages to contend with, a man may
live and even enjoy life up to the age of sixty-eight. How many healthy
men there are who would be content to attain this age! And if the Abbe
de Voisenon did not exceed the bounds of an age of very fair
proportions, we must bear in mind that, though even an invalid, he
constantly trifled with his health with the imprudence of a man of
vigorous constitution; eating beyond measure, drinking freely, presiding
at all the _petits soupers_--_petit_ only in name--of the capital,
passing the nights in running from _salon_ to _salon_, and seldom
retiring to rest before morning: a worthy pupil of that Hercules of
debauchery, Richelieu, his master and his executioner. Terrified at the
delicate appearance of his child, his father dared not send him to
school, but had him brought up under his own eye, with all the patience
of an indulgent parent and the solicitude of a physician. Five years'
cares were sufficient to develop the intellectual capacities of a mind
at once lively and clear, and marvellously fitted by nature to receive
and retain the lessons of preceptors. At eleven years of age he
addressed a rhyming epistle to Voltaire, who replied,--

"You love verses, and I predict that you will make charming ones. Come
and see me, and be my pupil."

If Voisenon justified the prediction, he scarcely surpassed the
favorable sense which it incloses. Verbose, incorrect, poor in form,
pale and washy as diluted Indian ink, his verses occas