Helvetius had proved to him that education can do all; and before he was eight years old, the little Jean's favourite expressions were, "La lumiere et la vertu." (Light and virtue.) The boy showed talents, especially in art.
The protector sought for a master who was as free from "superstition" as himself, and selected the painter David.

That person, as hideous as his pupil, and whose dispositions were as vicious as his professional abilities were undeniable, was certainly as free from "superstition" as the protector could desire.

It was reserved for Robespierre hereafter to make the sanguinary painter believe in the Etre Supreme.

The boy was early sensible of his ugliness, which was almost preternatural.

His benefactor found it in vain to reconcile him to the malice of Nature by his philosophical aphorisms; but when he pointed out to him that in this world money, like charity, covers a multitude of defects, the boy listened eagerly and was consoled.