His mouth was long, thin-lipped, and humorous.

He was only just redeemed from ugliness by the splendour of a pair of ever-questing, luminous eyes, so dark as to be almost black.

Of the whimsical quality of his mind and his rare gift of graceful expression, his writings--unfortunately but too scanty--and particularly his Confessions, afford us very ample evidence.
Of his gift of oratory he was hardly conscious yet, although he had already achieved a certain fame for it in the Literary Chamber of Rennes--one of those clubs by now ubiquitous in the land, in which the intellectual youth of France foregathered to study and discuss the new philosophies that were permeating social life.

But the fame he had acquired there was hardly enviable.

He was too impish, too caustic, too much disposed--so thought his colleagues--to ridicule their sublime theories for the regeneration of mankind.