Dupuis

Dupuis, Charles Francois (1742-1809), a French man of letters, was the son of a village schoolmaster in the department of Oise. At 11 years old he attracted by his talent the Duke of Rochefoucauld, who put him to college. At the age of 24 he was professor of rhetoric at Lisieux. He was a good-Latinist. and two of his discourses were much admired. He studied under Lalande, and published in 1781 a memoir on the origin of the constellations. His anti-religious spirit brought him into some disrepute; but it brought him to the notice of Frederick the Great, who invited him to Berlin, but he died before the invitation could be accepted. In 1787 he was professor of eloquence at the College de France, and in the Revolution he was a member of the Five Hundred and president of the Directoire Executif. His chief work was Religion Unirerselle (1795), in which he spoke much of Upper Egypt as the cradle of religion.