Joseph Droz

Droz's own legal studies led him to Paris in 1792; he arrived the day after the dethronement of King Louis XVI of France, and was present during the massacres of September.

Discharged on health grounds, he obtained a much more congenial post in the newly founded école centrale of Besançon; and in 1799 he made his first appearance as an author by an Essai sur l'art oratoire (Paris, Fructidor, An VII.

[2] Moving to Paris in 1803, he became friendly not only with the like-minded Ducis, but also with the sceptical Cabanis; and it was on this 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.

[2] Like several other literary men of the time, he obtained a post in the revenue office known as the Droits runis; but from 1814 he devoted himself exclusively to literature and became a contributor to various journals.

The main doctrine that this treatise seeks to inculcate is that society will never be in a proper state until men have been educated to think of their duties and not of their rights.