His language was sometimes striking, but harsh and inharmonious.

This charm of the voice is a gift very rare, and most powerful over the senses," she adds, "and does not merely depend on the quality of the sound, but equally upon that delicate sensibility which varies the expression by modifying the accent." This is enough to assure us that Roland had not this charming gift.
X.
Roland, born of an honest tradesman's family, which had held magisterial offices and asserted claims to nobility, was the youngest of five brothers, and intended for the church.

To avoid this destiny, which disgusted him, he fled from his father's roof at nineteen, and went to Nantes.

Procuring a situation with a ship-builder, he was about to embark for India in trade, when an illness at the moment he was to embark prevented him.

One of his relations, a superintendent of a factory, received him at Rouen, and gave him a situation in his office.
This house, animated by the spirit of Turgot, made experiments in the details of its business with all the sciences, and by political economy with the loftiest problems of governments.