Note 33 — Chapter II · 1799-1801. (continued 2)

Antony, Count Rivarol, was born in 1753, and made literature his profession. His discourse On the Causes of the Universality of the French Language was crowned by the Berlin Academy in 1784, and still keeps its place as a valuable contribution to the history of the French language. He fled from the Revolution, first to Hamburg and then to Berlin, where he died rather suddenly in 1801, aged 47. A sketch of his life and character, by M. Berville, prefixed to his Mémoires, Paris, 1824, exactly bears out this account of him.—Ed.