EULOGY OX QUETELET. 171 



been formed, and became a member of the reading committee for the 

 royal theaters. In the latter capacity he had free access to a stage 

 "Which was favored each year by Talma, Mile. Mars, and the i^rincipal 

 French comedians of the day. 



The literary society i)uljlished annually a poetical almanac, the twen- 

 tieth and last volume of which appeared in 1825, when the society quietly 

 ceased to exist. Quetelet was a contributor, and, as his poetical life 

 seems also to have ended about this time, it may be well to notice here 

 some of the pieces published by him since the Eulogy on Gretry. The 

 article entitled '•'-The laM moments'^ resembles somewhat, but is inferior 

 to, the ''■Fareicell of the poct to his lamp" oT^e of \i\^hi:?!tYAQCQS. ^'TlielQtTi 

 of January, or the night-ratch of the ladies." contains some charming 

 lines. An ode to Tollens is m the style of Horace, the favorite poet 

 of Quetelet. An ode to Odevare, a painter, greatly admired in 1821, 

 although now but little known, is much more elevated in charac*^er. TJie 

 investiture of the principal'ty of Orange, given by Charlemagne to William 

 the Cornet, was also ably treated in verse by our associate. Works of the 

 imagination, whether in prose or verse, greatly interested Quetelet. His 

 ^'Essay upon Eomance" published in 1823 in Belgic Annals, has lost none 

 of its interest, and, with his poetry, ought to be reprinted. He studied 

 the romances of different nations, translated into verse Schiller's tale 

 called •• The Knigbt of Toggenburg,'' and into prose various Spanish 

 and English ballads. 



He had no predilection for the classical, in literature or art, and says, 

 of modern painting, '-The pictures of antiqnity. full of life and genius 

 as they are, can never produce in our minds the illusive effect they had 

 upon the Greeks and the Eomans. Flora, Zephyr, Venus, so charming 

 in their pictures, are seldom so in ours. It is no doubt good to be the 

 echo of antiquity, but only those can understand the sounds repeated 

 who can go back to past ages and assume for the moment their religion 

 and national character. Let us imitate the Greeks in their simplicity 

 and in their admirable portraiture of nature, but let us have, as they did, 

 our own heroes, our groves, and our religion. What would the age of 

 Pericles have said if Euripides and Sophocles had represented only 

 Osirus or the mysterious fites of the Eg-yptians ?" 



"T//e Lords of the Castk'^ and "The Countess Ida." (fables,) ••.1/^^ Lit- 

 tle Boat." an allegorical ballad, dedicated to M. Falk, an elegy upon the 

 death of Adolph Deleraer. an ode to Orion, translated from the Dutch 

 of Xieuland, a translation of a portion of Byron's '"Siege of Corinth." 

 and the '■•Scald and Lysis^" a romance, are among others of his i>oetical 

 pieces worthy of mention. The latter was commended by the classic 

 Eaonl in the "Bilgic Mereury." He says, in reference to it, " Quetelet, 

 with whom poetry is only a relaxation, writes verse with great facility. 

 He is of the number of those who illustrate the truth that the musesare 

 sisters." 



We have endeavored to give some idea of Quetelet as a poet, a man 



