CAZOTTE, Jacques (1720-1792), a French author, was born at Dijon in 1720. He was educated by the Jesuits, and at twenty-seven he obtained a public office at Martinique, but it was not till some years after, on his return to Paris, that he appeared as an author. His first attempts, a mock romance and a coarse song, gained so much popularity, both in the court and among the people, that he was encouraged to essay something more ambitious. He accordingly produced his Roman d' Olivier. He also wrote a number of sportive effusions, such as Diable Amoureux, among which was a continuation of Voltaire’s Guerre Civile de Genève, the verisimilitude of which was such that no one had the least suspicion of the deception. From all this gaiety and licence Cazotte rushed into the opposite extreme, embracing the views of the Illuminati, and declaring himself possessed of the power of prophecy. It was upon this fact that La Harpe based his famous jeu d’esprit, in which he represents Cazotte prophesying the most minute events of the revolution. Cazotte was attached to the royal cause, and, on the discovery of some of his letters in August 1792, was arrested; and, though he escaped for a time, through the love and courage of his daughter, he was executed on the 25th of the following month. A complete edition of his works was published in 1817.