DROZ, François-XavierJoseph (1773-1850), a French writer on moral and political subjects, was born on October 31, 1773, in the city of Besançon, where his family had furnished men of considerable mark to the legal profession. His own legal studies led him to Paris in 1792; he arrived on the very day after the dethronement of the king, and was present during the massacres of September; but on the declaration of war he joined the volunteer bataillon of the Doubs, and for the next three years served in the army of the Rhine. Receiving his discharge on the score of ill health, he soon after obtained a much more congenial post in the newly-founded école centrale of his native city; and in 1799 he made his first appearance as an author by an Essai sur l’art oratoire, Paris, Fructidor, An VII., in which he acknowledges his indebtedness more especially to Hugh Blair. This early reference to Scottish literature is interesting in connection with the peculiarly Scottish tone of mind which is observable in his writings, and has attracted the notice of Sainte-Beuve. Removing to Paris in 1803, he became intimate not only with the like-minded Ducis, but also with the sceptical Cabanis; and it was at the philosopher’s advice that, in order to catch the public ear, he produced the romance of Lina, which Sainte-Beuve has characterized as a mingled echo of Florian and Werther. Like several other literary men of the time, he obtained a post in the revenue office known as the Droits reunies, then under the control of Μ. François of Nantes; but from 1814 he devoted himself exclusively to literature and became a contributor to various journals. Already favourably known by his Essai sur l'art d'être heureux, Paris, 1806, his Eloge de Montaigne, 1812, and his Essai sur le beau dans ...