He was of an ancient Norman family, whose name suggests the god Thor. He was born at Paris, 1727, and died, 1781. Being a younger son, he was destined for the Church, and began his studies as an ecclesiastic at the ancient Sorbonne. Before registering an irrevocable vow, he announced his repugnance to the profession, and turned aside to other pursuits. Law, literature, science, humanity, government, now engaged his attention. He associated himself with the authors of the “Encyclopédie,” and became one of its contributors. In other writings he vindicated especially the virtue of Toleration. Not merely a theorist, he soon arrived at the high post of Intendant of Limoges, where he developed talent for administration and sympathy with the people. The potato came into Limousin through him. But he continued to employ his pen, particularly on questions of political economy, which he treated as a master. On the accession of Louis the Sixteenth he was called to the Cabinet as Minister of the Marine, and shortly afterwards gave up this place to be the head of the Finances. Here he began a system of rigid economy, founded on curtailment of expenses and enlargement of resources. The latter was obtained especially by removal of disabilities from trade, whether at home or abroad, and the substitution of a single tax on land for a complex multiplicity of taxes. The enemies of progress were too strong at that time, and the King dismissed the reformer. Good men in France became anxious for the future; Voltaire, in his distant retreat, gave a shriek of despair, and addressed to Turgot remarkable verses entitled “Épître à un Homme.” Worse still, the good edicts of the minister were rescinded, and society was put back. The discarded minister gave himself to science, literature, and friendship. He welcomed Franklin to France and to immortality in a Latin verse of marvellous felicity. He was already the companion of the liberal spirits who were doing so much for knowledge and for reform. By writing and by conversation he exercised a constant influence. His “ideas” seem to illumine the time. We may be content to follow him in saying, “The glory of arms cannot compare with the happiness of living in peace.”[333] He anticipated our definition of a republic, when he said “it was founded upon _the equality of all the citizens_,”[334]--good words, not yet practically verified in all our States. Such a government he, living under a monarchy, bravely pronounced “the best of all”; but he added, that he “never had known a constitution truly republican.”[335] With similar plainness he announced that “the destruction of the Ottoman Empire would be a real good for all the nations of Europe,” and he added, still further, for humanity also, because it would involve the abolition of negro slavery, and because “to despoil an oppressor is not to attack, but to vindicate, the common rights of humanity.”[336] With such thoughts and aspirations the prophet died.