4. Feutry (1720–89), born at Lille, abandoned a legal career to become a writer. He began publishing in the early 1750’s, largely verse, and made a name for himself. He was also interested in ballistics and invented a number of military machines, which cost him much of the income from his literary works. Larousse, Dictionnaire universel; Dictionnaire de biographie; Henri Pajol, Feutry, sa vie et ses ouvrages (Lille, 1854). As a friend of the Chaumont family, he composed poèmes de circonstance such as a verse to Mme. Foucault, Chaumont’s daughter (dated May 2, 1777 and among BF’s papers in the APS); he was thus part of the Passy circle when BF joined it. Feutry’s admiration for him (the last sentence of this note is not mere rhetoric) shone through his published works and helped to burnish the American’s halo. For the next four years Feutry sent him letters, memoranda, and verse. BF reciprocated with his own works, and doubtless saw him frequently; but no letter of his to Feutry is extant.