, he would have been held up as
a model of genius, perseverance, courage, disinterestedness of purpose,
and purity of life, by the men who now find him no better name than the
"Blasphemer." We hope that those not previously acquainted with the
facts of his life, will find in the present sketch sufficient reason to
think and speak otherwise of a man who made the world his country, and
the doing good his religion.

"As Euclid near his various writings shone,
His pen inspired by glorious truth alone,
O'er all the earth diffusing light and life,
Subduing error, ignorance, and strife;
Raised man to just pursuits, to thinking right,
And yet will free the world from woe and falsehood's night;
To this immortal man, to Paine 'twas given,
To metamorphose earth from hell to heaven."

J. W.

BAPTISTE DE MIRABAUD

Jean Baptiste de Mirabaud was born at Paris, in the year 1675. Of his
early life we can glean but very scanty information. He appears first to
have embraced the military profession, but it not being consonant with
his general character, he soon quitted the army, and devoted himself to
literature. He was, however, nearly forty-nine years of age before
he became known in the literary world. He then published a French
translation of Tasso's "Jerusalem," which brought him much fame; and
many of the contributors to the French Encyclopaedia appear to have
associated with him, and courted his friendship. He was afterwards
elected a member of the French Academy of which he became the Secretary
in 1742. Mirabaud was a constant visitor at the house of his friend, the
Baron d'Holbach, down to the period of his death. He wrote "The World:
its Origin and its Antiquity," "Opinions of the Ancients upon the Jews,"
"Sentiments of the Philosophers upon the Nature of the Soul," and other
minor works. The "System of Nature" was also for many years attributed
to Mirabaud, but it appears now to be extremely doubtful whether he ever
wrote a single line of the work. The Abbe Galiani was one of the first
who pointed out D'Holbach as the author. In the memoirs of M. Suard,
edited by M. Garat, the same hypothesis is supported with additional
firmness. Dugald Stewart seems to put much faith in the latter
authority, as fixing the authorship of the "System of Nature" upon
D'Holbach. Voltaire attributes the work to Damilaville, in a somewhat
positive manner, for which he is sharply criticised in the "B