Constantine Francis Chassebeuf De Volney was born in 1757 at Craon.
From his earliest youth, he devoted himself to the search after
truth, without being disheartened by the serious studies which
alone can initiate us into her secrets. After having become
acquainted with the ancient languages, the natural sciences and
history, and being admitted into the society of the most eminent
literary characters, he submitted, at the age of twenty, to an
illustrious academy, the solution of one of the most difficult
problems that the history of antiquity has left open for
discussion. This attempt received no encouragement from the learned
men who were appointed his judges; and the author's only appeal
from their sentence was to his courage and his efforts. Soon after,
a small inheritance having fallen to his lot, the difficulty was
how to spend it (these are his own words.) He resolved to employ it
in acquiring, by a long voyage, a new fund of information, and
determined to visit Egypt and Syria. But these countries could not
be explored to advantage without a knowledge of the language. Our
young traveller was not to be discouraged by this difficulty.
Instead of learning Arabic in Europe, he withdrew to a convent of
Copts, until he had made himself master of an idiom that is spoken
by so many nations of the East. This resolution showed one of those
undaunted spirits that remain unshaken amid the trials of life.
Although, like other travellers, he might have amused us with an
account of his hardships and the perils surmounted by his courage,
he overcame the temptation of interrupting his narrative by
personal adventures. He disdained the beaten track. He does not
tell us the road he took, the accidents he met with, or the
impressions he received. He carefully avoids appearing upon the
stage; he is an inhabitant of the country, who has long and well
observed it, and who describes its physical, political, and moral
state. The allusion would be entire if an old Arab could be
supposed to possess all the erudition, all the European philosophy,
which are found united and in their maturity in a traveller of
twenty-five. But though a master in all those artifices by which a
narration is rendered interesting, the young man is not to be
discerned in the pomp of labored descriptions. Although possessed
of a lively and brilliant imagination, he is never found unwarily
explaining by conjectural systems the physical or moral phenomena
he describes. In his observations he unites prudence with science.
With these two guides he judges with circumspection, and sometimes
confesses himself unable to account for the effects he has made
known to us. Thus his account has all the qualities that
persuade-accuracy and candor. And when, ten years later, a vast
military enterprise transported forty thousand travellers to the
classic ground, which he had trod unattended, unarmed and
unprotected, they all recognized a sure guide and an enlightened
observer in the writer who had, as it seemed, only preceded them to
remove or point out a part of the difficulties of the way. The
unanimous testimony of all parties proved the accuracy of his
account and the justness of his observations; and his Travels in
Egypt and Syria were, by universal suffrage, recommended to the
gratitude and the confidence of the public. Before the work had
undergone this trial it had obtained in the learned world such a
rapid and general success, that it found its way into Russia. The
empress, then (in 1787) upon the throne, sent the author a medal,
which he received with respect, as a mark of esteem for his
talents, and with gratitude, as a proof of the approbation given to
his principles. But when the empress declared against France,
Volney sent back the honorable present, saying: "If I obtained it
from her esteem, I can only preserve her esteem by returning it."
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!
Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
