Constantin-François de Chasseboeuf, comte de Volney, the French philosophe and historian, was born in Anjou. He early showed a scholarly disposition, and at fifteen he asked for Hebrew lessons in order to verify translations of the Bible. Inheriting independent wealth, he left for Paris at seventeen, turned down his father's plea to study law, and, interested in the relation between the moral and the physical aspects of man, chose medicine instead. He also pursued his study of history and languages, and he became involved in the polemics and ideological struggles of the time. In 1783 he gave himself the name Volney and left for Egypt and Syria "to acquire new knowledge and embellish the rest of my life by an aura of respect and esteem." After eight months in a...