Talleyrand was born in 1754, and belonged to one of the most illustrious families in France.  He was destined to the Church against his will, being from the start worldly, ambitious, and scandalously immoral; but he accepted his destiny, and soon distinguished himself at the Sorbonne for his literary attainments, for his wit and his social qualities.  At twenty, as the young Abbe de Perigord, he was received into the highest society of Paris; his noble birth, his aristocratic and courtly manners, his convivial qualities, and his irrepressible wit made him a favorite in the gay circles which marked the early part of the reign of Louis XVI., while his extraordinary abilities and consummate tact naturally secured early promotion.  In 1780 he was appointed to the office of general agent for the clergy of France, which brought him before the public.  Eight years after, at the early age of thirty-four, he was made Bishop of Autun.  In May, 1789, he became a member of the States-General, and with his fascinating eloquence tried to induce the clergy to surrender their tithes and church lands to the nation,—­a result which was brought about soon after, nolens volens, by the genius of Mirabeau.  Talleyrand hated the Church and despised the people, but, like Mirabeau, was in favor of a constitution like that of England, In all his changes he remained an aristocrat from his tastes, his education, and his rank, but veiled his views, whatever they were, with profound dissimulation, of which he was a consummate master.  The laxity of his morals, the secret hatred of his order, and his infidel sentiments led to his excommunication, which troubled him but little.  Out of the pale of the Church, he turned his thoughts to diplomacy, and was sent to London as an ambassador,—­without, however, the official title and insignia of that high office,—­where he fascinated the highest circles by the splendor of his conversation and the causticity of his wit.  On his return to Paris he was distrusted by the Jacobins, and with difficulty made his escape to England; but the English government also distrusted a man of such boundless intrigue, and ordered him to quit the country within twenty-four hours.  He fled to America at the age of forty, with straitened means, but after the close of the Reign of Terror returned to Paris, and six months later was made foreign minister under the Directory.  This office he did not long retain, failing to secure the confidence of the government.  The austere Carnot said of him:—­

“That man brings with him all the vices of the old regime, without being able to acquire a single virtue of the new one.  He possesses no fixed principles, but changes them as he does his linen, adopting them according to the fashion of the day.  He was a philosopher when philosophy was in vogue; a republican now, because it is necessary at present to be so in order to become anything; to-morrow he would proclaim and uphold tyranny, if he could thereby serve his own interests.  I will not have him at any price; and so long as I am at the helm of State he shall be nothing.”