Marechal

(Pierre Sylva in), French author, b. Paris, 15 Aug. 1750; was brought up to the Bar, which he quitted for the pursuit of literature. He was librarian to the Mazarin College, but lost his place by his Book Escaped from the Deluge , Psalms, by S. Ar. Lamech (anagram), 1784. This was a parody of the style of the prophets. In 1781 he wrote Le Nouveau Lucrece . In 1788 appeared his Almanack of Honest People , in which the name of Jesus Christ was found beside that of Epicurus. The work was denounced to Parliament, burnt at the hands of the hangman, and Maréchal imprisoned for four months. He welcomed the Revolution, and published a republican almanack, 1793. In 1797 and 1798 he published his Code of a Society of Men without God , and Free Thoughts on the Priests . In 1799 appeared his most learned work, Travels of Pythagoras in Egypt, Chaldea, India, Rome, Carthage, Gaul, etc. 6 vols. Into this fiction Maréchal puts a host of bold philosophical, political, and social doctrines. In 1800 he published his famous Dictionary of Atheists , which the Government prohibited and interdicted journals from noticing. In the following year appeared his For and Against the Bible . Died at Montrouge, 18 Jan. 1803. His beneficence is highly spoken of by Lalande.