242 STUDIES OF NATURE. 



is a fine national monument ! Latin infcriptions 

 for French readers, and pagan fymbols for a ca- 

 thedral ! Had the Artift, whofe chifel I in other 

 refpeèls admired, meant to difplay only his own 

 talents, he ought to have recommended to his fuc- 

 ceffor, to leave imperfecfl a fmall part of the bafc 

 of that monument, which death prevented himfelf 

 from finifhing, and to engrave thefe words upon 

 it : CousTOu moriens faciehat *. This confonance 

 of fortune would have united him to the royal 

 monument, and would have given a deep impref- 

 fion to the refledions on the vanity of human 

 things, which the fight of a tomb infpireSr 



Very few Artifts catch the moral objeft ; they 

 aim only at the pidurefque, " Oh, what a fine 

 " fubjed: for a Belifarius /" exclaim they, when 

 the converfation happens to turn on one of our 

 great men, reduced to diftrefs. Nev^rthelefs, the 

 liberal arts are deftined only^o revive the memory 

 of Virtue, and nor Virtue to give employment 

 to the fine Arts. I acknowledge, that the cele- 

 brity which they procure is a powerful incentive 

 to prompt men to great aftions, though, after all, 

 it is not the true one ; but though it may not in- 

 fpire the fentiment, it fometimes produces the aéls. 

 Now-a-days we go much farther. It is no longer 



* The work of Cok/Jou^ left xinfiniflied by death. 



the 



