CABANIS (PETER JOHN GEORGE), a distinguish ed Writer, and Physician at Paris, was born at onac in 1757. His &Aber, John Baptiste Cabana), was a lawyer of eminence, and chief Magistrate of a dis trict in the lower Limousin ; highly respected for his extensive knowledge and inflexible integrity, and entitled to the gratitude of his country for the many improvements he has introduced in agriculture and farming. He brought the culture of the vine to great perfection in his province, and introduced a mixed breed of sheep, by crossing the Spanish with those of Limousin and Berri. France is more par ticularly indebted to him, however, for the success ful methods he discovered of grafting fruit trees, and also for contributing to render more general the use of the potatoe in the southern provinces. He was exceedingly anxious that his son, the subject of the present article, and who had given early indications of talent, should have the advantage of a learned education ; and, accordingly, placed him, when only seven years old, under the tuition of a neighbouring priest. It was remarked, that, even at this early age, he had acquired habits of steadiness and perse verance, from which, under proper direction, the best results might be expected. At the age of ten, he entered the college of Brive, where the severity of discipline to which he was subjected, had an in jurious effect upon his temper, and fostered that ha bitual impatience of restraint which formed part of his character, and which afterwards so . fitly operated operated to interrupt his progress. When to the second class, he was fortunate in meeting with a master whose kind treatment soon softened a dispo sition, which harshness only had rendered stubborn and intractable. He was not only reconciled to study, but applied to it with the utmost diligence, and became passionately fend of the great models of poetry and eloquence that were put into his hands. At a later period, being again exposed to the rigorous control of one of the heads of the college, his spi rit was again roused ; he came to the determination of provoking the anger of his master, and even suf fered himself to be accused of a fault of which he was innocent, in the hope that he might get expell ed. Persisting in this extraordinary mode of con duct, be soon accomplished his object, and was sent back to his father. But far from enjoying any re laxation under the paternal roof, he now found him self under a subjection still more rigorous andinsup portable than that from which he had managed to escape. Indignant at the yoke imposed upon him, he relapsed into his habits of obstinacy, and would do nothing. After a year had thus passed in sul lenness, his father became sensible that other mea sures than those of severity must be tried, and adopt - ed the bold• expedient of taking him to Paris, and leaving him there, at the age of fourteen, without any restraint on his actions, or even commissioning any one to superintend Ms coadlicit. Tha wag hazardous in the extreme ; but it was attevitied with complete success. Young Cabanis no sooner felt himself at full liberty to do as he pleased, than his love of literature revived, and he engaged with ardour in the pursuit. He had formerly paid no at
tention to the lectures of his professors ; but he now, of his own accord, resumed those branches of his education in which he had re.nained deficient, and prosecuted them with the same perseverance which throughout marked his character. He devoted him self entirely to the cultivation of his mind, and asso ciated only with a few chosen• companions of his own age, who had a congenial taste for literature, and an equal desire of improvement.
Thus constantly occupied, two years passed away with a rapidity which astonished him, when he re ceived a letter from his father, offering him the place of secretary to a Polish nobleman of high rank. He had now to choose between accepting a situation, which, although it would totally Interrupt his pre sent pursuits, might give him the power of resuming them at some future period, or returning to his fa mily, where he felt that all his exertions must be paralysed, and his hopes blighted by neglect. He embraced, therefore, without hesitation, the offer made to him, and, though only sixteen, committed himself into the hands of strangers, in a distant country, which was represented to him as in a state of barbarism. This was in 1773, the year during which that Diet was sitting, which was to deliberate upon giving its sanction to the first partition of Po land. The corrupt intrigues and compulsory mea sures which were practised On that occasion, gave him an insight into the affairs of the world peculiar ly revolting to a youthful and generous mind, and inspired him with a contempaor mankind, and a de gree of misanthropic gloom, which are generally the fruits of a later experience of human depravity. He returned to Paris two years after, when Turgot, the friend of his father, was Minister of Finance. On being presented to him, he was received with kind ness, and would soon have been placed in a situation perfectly conformable to his tastes and wishes, had net a court intrigue produced the sudden downfal of the minister.
Thus, the only fruits which he had gathered from his travels, were the knowledge of the German lan guage, and a premature acquaintance with the World. He now felt the necessity of making up for the time he had lost, and again applied to his studies with his former ardour. His father feeling it incumbent upon him to second his efforts, secured to hint • the means of subsistence for two or three years longer, which was all that Cabanis desired. He had contracted a friendship with the poet Rou cher, who possessed some celebrity. This connec tion rekindled his taste for poetry ; and the French Academy, having proposed, as a prize subject, the translation of a passage in the Iliad, he not only ventured to appear as competitor, but set about translating the entire poem. The two specimens which he sent to the Academy, did not obtain any public notice ; but they were judged of favourably by seVeral persons of taste ; and some other frag