He really thought the
universe was composed of shells and the remains of shells and that the
whole earth was only the sand of these in different stratae. His
attention thus constantly engaged with his singular discoveries, his
imagination became so heated with the ideas they gave him, that, in
his head, they would soon have been converted into a system, that is
into folly, if, happily for his reason, but unfortunately for his
friends, to whom he was dear, and to whom his house was an agreeable
asylum, a most cruel and extraordinary disease had not put an end to
his existence. A constantly increasing tumor in his stomach
prevented him from eating, long before the cause of it was discovered,
and, after several years of suffering, absolutely occasioned him to
die of hunger. I can never, without the greatest affliction of mind,
call to my recollection the last moments of this worthy man, who still
received with so much pleasure, Leneips and myself, the only friends
whom the sight of his sufferings did not separate from him until his
last hour, when he was reduced to devouring with his eyes the
repasts he had placed before us, scarcely having the power of
swallowing a few drops of weak tea, which came up again a moment
afterwards. But before these days of sorrow, how many have I passed at
his house, with the chosen friends he had made himself! At the head of
the list I place the Abbe Prevot, a very amiable man, and very
sincere, whose heart vivified his writings, worthy of immortality, and
who, neither in his disposition nor in society, had the least of the
melancholy coloring he gave to his works: Procope, the physician, a
little AEsop, a favorite with the ladies; Boulanger, the celebrated
posthumous author of Despotisme Oriental, and who, I am of opinion,
extended the systems of Mussard on the duration of the world.
Pages:
515
516
517
518
519
520
521
522
523
524
525
526
527
528
529
530
531
532
533
534
535
536
537
538
539