hat I have been, but what I wished to be." St. Pierre
would most likely have given the same answer, had a similar question
been put to him with regard to the Colonel in "Paul and Virginia."
This at least, appears the sort of old age he loved to contemplate, and
wished to realize.

For six years, he worked at his "Etudes," and with some difficulty found
a publisher for them. M. Didot, a celebrated typographer, whose daughter
St. Pierre afterwards married, consented to print a manuscript which had
been declined by many others. He was well rewarded for the undertaking.
The success of the "Etudes de la Nature" surpassed the most sanguine
expectation, even of the author. Four years after its publication, St.
Pierre gave to the world "Paul and Virginia," which had for some time
been lying in his portfolio. He had tried its effect, in manuscript,
on persons of different characters and pursuits. They had given it no
applause; but all had shed tears at its perusal: and perhaps, few works
of a decidedly romantic character have ever been so generally read, or
so much approved. Among the great names whose admiration of it is on
record, may be mentioned Napoleon and Humboldt.

In 1789, he published "Les Veoeux d'un Solitaire," and "La Suite des
Voeux." By the _Moniteur_ of the day, these works were compared to the
celebrated pamphlet of Sieyes,--"Qu'est-ce que le tiers etat?" which
then absorbed all the public favour. In 1791, "La Chaumiere Indienne"
was published: and in the following year, about thirteen days before
the celebrated 10th of August, Louis XVI. appointed St. Pierre
superintendant of the "Jardin des Plantes." Soon afterwards, the King,
on seeing him, complimented him on his writings and told him he was
happy to have found a worthy successor to Buffon.

Although deficient in the exact knowledge of the sciences, and knowing
little of the world, St. Pierre was, by his simplicity, and the
retirement in which he lived, well suited, at that epoch, to the
situation. About this time, and when in his fifty-seventh year, he
married Mlle. Didot.

In 1795, he became a member of the French Academy, and, as was just,
after his acceptance of this honour, he wrote no more against literary
societies. On the suppression of his place, he retired to Essonne. It is
delightful to follow him there, and to contemplate his quiet existence.
His days flowed on peaceably, occupied in the publication of "Les
Harmonies de la Nature," the republ