230 literary and scientific men.

whose worth is crowned by the graceful and conciliat-ing virtue of modesty. Mirabeau had been oppressed— he had suffered much; his ostensible errors werevenial, and such as many a man might have com-mitted without entire condemnation ; but the publicitythat attended them, and the readiness with which heexposed his faults, and his family persecution, to publicview, displeased and offended. He was feared as afalse friend, as well as a dangerous enemy. Yet,wherever he appeared, he gained the hearts of thosewhom he addressed. He had the art of renderinghimself agreeable and fascinating to all. The truth isthat, though in theory and absence, we may approvethe unblameable, the torpid, and the coldly good, ournature forces us to prefer what is vivacious, exhila-rating, and original. This is the secret of the influenceexercised hy men, whose biographers labour to excuseand to account for the spontaneous ebullitions of sym-pathv and affection that follow their steps, Mirabeauwas easy, complaisant, gav, and full of animation andvariety in his conversation ; he had, in a supremedegree, what bis father named the dangerous gift offamiliarity. It was his delight to cast aside all eti-quette, and to reduce his intercourse to the inter-change of the real emotions of the heart and expression ofideas, unaccompanied by any disguise or conventionalrefinements;—for this, he did not scruple to appear attimes rude and even vulgar ; but also by this he inspiredconfidence, as being frank and true.

At length, the hour long expected, long desired,came, when the states-general were convoked by aroyal decree of the 27th December, 1788. Mirabeaupassionately desired to belong to the assembly ; and,relying on the popularity which he enjoyed in his nativeJ7Sq province, departed for Aix early in the followingjjjtat month. The nobles and high clergy of Provence were40 . vehemently opposed to the changes they apprehendedin government, and were zealously wedded to the pri-vileges of their order. They entered a protest against