TSCHOUDY (Baron de). Moral and Christian Testament. In French, manuscript [autograph?]. France, s.d. (ca. 1789). 87 pp. with 6 ink vignettes. Bound in half tan basane, framed with double cold fillet on the boards, spine ribbed and decorated, red edges, superficial spotting on the first board, corners rubbed. This small book, here in manuscript copy (autograph?), was printed without place or name of publisher, probably in Yverdon in 1789, for the author and in a small number of copies. The text begins with a prayer freely inspired by Psalm 129, in which Tschoudy implores God to guide his words so that he may protect his children against "the perils and seductions without number" that await them "in the world and especially in the world of the present age". Baron de Tschoudy came from an ancient Swiss family. One of his branches came to France in the region of Metz when a member of the family left Switzerland to fight for Henry IV. One of his descendants was knighted by Louis XIV. In the foreword the father urges his children to consider their lack of fortune as a grace. After they have put all their strength and will into their studies, God will help them to find the state they should embrace. "According to the order of your birth and the mediocrity of your fortune, I can see only two that will suit you: the ecclesiastical state and the military state.».