STUDY xiii; ^43 



the glory of virtue which affociations and indivi- 

 duals endeavour to merit; ii is the honour of dif- 

 tributing it to others at which they aim. Heaven 

 knows the ftrange confufion which refults from 

 this ! Women of very fufpicious virtue, and kept- 

 miftrefles, eftabliQi Rofe-feafls : they difpenfe pre- 

 miums on virginity ! Opera-girls crown our viélo- 

 rious Generals ! The Marefchal de Saxe, our Hif- 

 torians tell us, was crowned with laurels on the na- 

 tional theatre : as if the Nation had confifted of 

 players, and as if it's Senate were a theatre ! For 

 my own part, I look on Virtue as {o refpedable, 

 that nothing more would be wanting, but a fingle 

 fubjedt, in which it was eminently confpicuous, to 

 overwhelm with ridicule thofe who dared to dif- 

 penfe to it fuch vain and contemptible honours. 

 What ftage-dancing girl, for example, durft have 

 had the impudence to crown the auguft forehead 

 of Turenne, or that of Fenelon. 



The French Academy would be much more 

 fuccefsful, if it aimed at fixing, by the charms of 

 eloquence, the attention of the Nation on our 

 great men, did it attempt lefs, in the elogiums 

 which it pronounces^ to panegyrize the dead, than 

 to fatyrize the living. Befides, poHierity will rely 

 as little on the language of praife, as on that of 

 ccnfure. For, firil, the very term elogium is U^^- 

 pefted of flattery : and farther, this fpecies of elo- 



R 2 quenc-e 



