l that unqualified devotion
towards the human species which is the charity of philosophers. He
detested society, for in it there was no place awarded to him; but what
he hated with unmitigated hate was the state of society; its
prejudices--its falsehoods. He would have recast it, less for himself
than for the benefit of mankind. He would have consented to be crushed
beneath its ruins, provided those ruins were to give place to his ideal
plan of the government of reason. Brissot was one of those mercenary
scribes who write for those who pay best. He had written on all
subjects, for every minister; especially Turgot. Criminal laws,
political economy, diplomacy, literature, philosophy, even libels,--his
pen was at the hire of the first comer. Seeking the support of
celebrated and influential men, he had adulated all from Voltaire and
Franklin down to Marat. Known to Madame de Genlis, he had, through her,
some acquaintance with the Duc d'Orleans. Sent to London by the minister
on one of those missions which are nameless, he there became connected
with the editor of the _Courrier de l'Europe_, a French journal, printed
in London, and the boldness of whose style was offensive at the court of
the Tuileries. He engaged himself to Swinton, the proprietor of this
newspaper, and edited it in a manner favorable to the views of
Vergennes. He knew at Swinton's several writers, amongst others one
Morande. These libellers, outcasts of society, frequently then become
the refuse of the pen, and live at the same time on the disgraces of
vice and in the pay of spies. Their collision infected Brissot. He was
or appeared to be sometimes their accomplice. Hideous blotches thus
stain his life, and were cruelly revived by his enemies, when the time
came in which he was compelled to appeal to public esteem.

Returning to France at the first symptoms of the Revolution, he watched
its successive phases, with the ambition of an impatient man, and with
the indecision of one not knowing what part to take. He was frequently
wrong. He compromised himself by his devotion, too early displayed,
towards certain men who had seemed to him for a moment to be all
powerful, especially towards La Fayette. Editor of the _Patriote
Francais_, he had occasionally put forth revolutionary feelers, and
flattered the future by going even faster than the factions themselves.
He had even been disowned by Robespierre. "Whilst I content myself,"
said Robespierre, referring