ANDRE

See also:

• ANDRE MORELLET (1727-1819)

MORELLET (1727-1819)  , French economist and miscellaneous writer, was born at Lyons on the 7th of March 1727 . He was one of the last survivors of the philosophes, and in this character he figures in many memoirs, such as Mme de Remusat's . He was educated by the Jesuits in his native town, and at the Sorbonne; he then took holy orders, but his designation of abbe was the chief thing clerical about him . He had a ready and biting wit, and Voltaire called him " L'Abbe Mord-les." His work was chiefly occasional, and the most notable parts of it were a smart pamphlet in answer to Charles Palissot's scurrilous play Les Philosophes (which procured him a short sojourn in the Bastille for an alleged libel on Palissot's patroness, the princesse de Robeck), and a reply to Galiani's Commerce des Iles (1770) . Later, he made himself useful in quasi-diplomatic communications with English statesmen, and was pensioned, being, moreover, elected a member of the Academy in 1785 . A year before his death in Paris on the 12th of January 1819 he brought out four volumes of Melanges de lilterature et de philosophi du X VIII'siecle, composed chieflyof selections from his former publications, and after his death appeared his valuable Memoires sur le X VIII' siecle et la Revolution (2 vcls., 1821) . A bibliography of his numerous works is given in Querard's La France litteraire, vol. vi . ; see also Sainte-Beuve, Causeries du lundi, vol. i .