DUPUIS, CHARLES FRANcOIS, a distinguished French savant, was the son of a poor schoolmaster, and was b. at Trie-Chateau, near Chaumont, 16th Oct., 1742. He obtained admission into the college of Harcourt, where he so soon acquired such extensive knowl edge that at the age of 24 he was made professor of rhetoric in the college of Lisieux. At the same time he went through a course of law studies, and was admitted an advocate of the parliament. His acquaintance with Lalande introduced him to the study 3f mathematics and astronomy, and he was led to the thought of explaining mythology by means of astronomy. After several communications in the Journal des Savans, appeared his Mernoire sur l'Origine des Constellations et sur l'Explication de la Fable par l' Astronomie (Par. 1781). He was now appointed professor of eloquence in the college de France, mem ber of the academie des inscriptions, and shortly after a member of the commission of public instruction. Although he rather shunned the storms of the revolution, his repu tation necessitated his becoming a member of the convention, next of the council of 500, and after the 1811,111Thidnaire; of the legislatiVe body. He was also one of the 48 individ
uals who formed the nucleus of the institut national. His great work, Origine de tour les-Oulte§, ou Religion Universelle (12 vols., Par. 1794), which he had long withheld from fear of offending the religious world, was at last published at the instigation of the Cordeliers' club. This circumstance rendered the book more an object of party bitter ness than its own purely scientific character would probably have called forth. It made a considerable impression on France at the time, and no doubt originated the famous commission afterwards appointed by Napoleon to explore Upper Egypt, which D. had pointed out as the general source of southern mythology. No less attention was awakened by his memoirs on the origin and spread of the Pelasgi, and on the zodiac of Denderah (q. v.), In his last work, ifemaire Explicaq du Zodiac uhronologique et My l ue (Par. 1806), he attempts to demonstrate the unity of the astronomical and religious myths of all nations. He died 29th Sept., 1809.