honour to the memory of Burckhardt.
CONSTANTIN FRANCOIS CHASSEBŒUF DE VOLNEY.
Born 1757.--Died 1820.
This traveller, who is very justly enumerated among the most
distinguished which France has produced, was born on the 3d of
February, 1757, at Craon, in Anjou. His father, an able provincial
barrister, was unwilling that he should bear the name of _Chassebœuf_
(ox or bull hunter), which in his own case had been, though we are
not told how, a source of a thousand uneasinesses, and therefore gave
his son the name of Boisgirais, under which appellation our traveller
studied at the colleges of Ancenis and Angers, and was at first known
in the world. At a later period, just as he was about to depart for the
East, he quitted the name of Boisgirais, and assumed that of Volney,
which he was shortly after to render so celebrated.
Becoming his own master at the age of seventeen, with a small
independence bequeathed him by his mother, he quitted the country for
Paris, where he applied himself to the study of the severer sciences.
Volney felt no inclination for the profession of a barrister, which
it was his father’s desire he should follow; physic appeared to have
greater charms for him, and he at first seemed disposed to adopt this
as his profession; but his speculative turn of mind soon led him to
look with disdain on its practical part. Scarcely had he reached his
twentieth year when he entered with enthusiasm into the study of the
science of nature, delighting to discover the relations which subsist
between the moral and the physical world. He moreover devoted a
portion of his time to the study of the history and languages of
antiquity.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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