He lived on bread that he might rear his brother for the army, and that he might buy books, overjoyed when his savings mounted to the price of some coveted volume.
Perhaps the depressing conditions of his life at Auxonne may account for the acrid tone of an essay which he there wrote in competition for a prize offered by the Academy of Lyons on the subject--"What truths and sentiments ought to be inculcated to men for their happiness." It was unsuccessful; and modern readers will agree with the verdict of one of the judges that it was incongruous in arrangement and of a bad and ragged style.

The thoughts are set forth in jerky, vehement clauses; and, in place of the _sensibilite_ of some of his earlier effusions, we feel here the icy breath of materialism.

He regards an ideal human society as a geometrical structure based on certain well-defined postulates.

All men ought to be able to satisfy certain elementary needs of their nature; but all that is beyond is questionable or harmful.

The ideal legislator will curtail wealth so as to restore the wealthy to their true nature--and so forth.