assacres of September; on the declaration of war he joined
the volunteer _bataillon_ of the Doubs, and for the next three years
served in the Army of the Rhine. Receiving his discharge on the score of
ill-health, he obtained a much more congenial post in the newly-founded
_ecole centrale_ of Besancon; and in 1799 he made his first appearance
as an author by an _Essai sur l'art oratoire_ (Paris, Fructidor, An
VII.), in which he acknowledges his indebtedness more especially to Hugh
Blair. Removing to Paris in 1803, he became intimate not only with the
like-minded Ducis, but also with the sceptical Cabanis; and it was on
this philosopher's advice that, in order to catch the public ear, he
produced the romance of _Lina_, which Sainte-Beuve has characterized as
a mingled echo of Florian and _Werther_. Like several other literary men
of the time, he obtained a post in the revenue office known as the
_Droits reunis_; but from 1814 he devoted himself exclusively to
literature and became a contributor to various journals. Already
favourably known by his _Essai sur l'art d'etre heureux_ (Paris, 1806),
his _Eloge de Montaigne_ (1812), and his _Essai sur le beau dans les
arts_ (1815), he not only gained the Monthyon prize in 1823 by his work
_De la philosophie morale ou des differents systemes sur la science de
la vie_, but also in 1824 obtained admission to the Academie Francaise.
The main doctrine inculcated in this last treatise is that society will
never be in a proper state till men have been educated to think of their
duties and not of their rights. It was followed in 1825 by _Application
de la morale a la philosophie et a la politique_, and in 1829 by
_Economie politique, ou principes de la science des richesses_, a
methodical and clearly written treatise, which was edited by Michel
Chevalier in 1854. His next and greatest work was a _Histoire du regne
de Louis XVI_ (3 vols., Paris, 1839-1842). As he advanced in life Droz
became more and more decidedly religious, and the last work of his
prolific pen was _Pensees du Christianisme_ (1842). Few have left so
blameless a reputation: in the words of Sainte-Beuve, he was born and he
remained all his life of the race of the good and the just.

See Guizot, _Discours academiques_; Montalembert, "Discours de
reception," in _Memoires de l'Academie francaise_; Sainte-Beuve,
_Causeries du lundi_, t. iii.; Michel Chevalier, Notice prefixed to
the _Economie politique_.

DRUG