"The Selection of Children in Sparta" ("Le Choix des enfants de Sparte"), based on a story in Plutarch, shows a combination of the severe moralizing impulses of Neoclassicism and the contemporary cult of "sentiment" in the figure at left of the exiting father whose infant has failed the selection; the baby is retained for later exposure.By 1792, after Revolutionary France invaded Italy, Rome became dangerous for French-speakers, and Saint-Ours returned to Geneva, where he married and entered politics, becoming elected to the Geneva Assemblée Nationale.