18.39.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



415 



Uroiighani ; but 1 cannot blame it. Gloi'v to tliose people who thus take 

 every opportunity of hononring their great men. 



Thns we sec five statnes have been, in a short time, raised to the memory 

 of Watt. .Mnst we confess it ? These testimonies of filial piety and public 

 gratitude have excited the ill-luimonr of some of those narrow-minded indi- 

 viduals who think, by standing still, to stop the progress of centuries? If 

 we were to believe tietn, warriors, judges, and ministers, (I must confess 

 they have not dared to say all minist'.rs,) have alone a right to statues, and 

 I do not know whether either Homer or .Vristotle, Descartes or Newton, 

 a|)pear to the modern .\ristarchus worthy of a mere linst. Most certainly 

 they would refuse the commonest medallion to I'apin, Vaucansoii, Watt. .\.rk- 

 wright, or any other raeclianic, unknown, perhaps, in a certain world, but 

 whose fame must go on increasing from age to age with the progress of en- 

 lightenment. When such heresies dare to parade themselves in the full glare 

 of day, we must not be ashamed of comljating them. It is not without rea- 

 son tliat the public has l)een called a sponge for prejudices, and as prejudices 

 are hurtful |ilauts, tlie slightest trial is enough to root them out, if they are 

 laid liold of in the birtli, while, on the other hand, tlicy cling firmly when 

 they have had time enough to grow, and to catch in their numerous folds, 

 whatever is within theii* reach. 



If this discussion wound the self-love of some, I must remind them that it 

 has been provoked. Have not the men of learning of our day made their 

 complaints, because they do not see, among the long rows of colossal statues 

 raised by the authorities, so sumptuously on our bridges and public places, 

 any of those great authors whose inheritance they claim ? Do they not know- 

 how perishable are these monuments, which the hurricane can shake and 

 overturn, which even frost can nibble away, and bring down to shapeless 

 blocks. 



Their statuary, theu- limner, is the printing-press, thanks to the admirable 

 invention of which, works emanating from science or imagination, when pos- 

 sessing real merit, can set time and political revolutions at defiance. The 

 exactions of the tax-gatherer, the mistrust and terrors of the tyrant, can 

 never prevent these productions from getting over tlie most strongly guarded 

 barrier ; in every shape a thousand vessels bear them from hemisiiheve to 

 hemisphere ; they are pored over in Iceland and the Isle of ^'an Diemen ; 

 they are read by the cottager's fireside and in the dazzling halls of princes. 

 The writer, the artist, and the mechanic, are known by the whole world, by 

 all which is most noble and exalted in man, by the soul, the thought, and 

 intelligence. How mart would he be, who placed on such a stage, should 

 wish his features sculptured in marljle or in bronze, by the chisel of a David, 

 to be exposed to the gaze of idle loungers. Snch honours, I say again, a 

 savant, a litterator, or an artist, may not envy, but at any rate he shoidd not 

 allow himself to be declared unworthy of them. Snch is, at least, the opinion 

 I have formed from the discussion to which I am about to call your attention. 



Is it not a circumstance truly strange, that such pompous pretensions, 

 against which I contend, shoidrt have lieen brought fonvard just on tlie occa- 

 sion of five statues being erected, which cost not a farthing to the pidjlic 

 treasury. Far he it from me, however, to profit by this mismanagement ; I 

 like better to take the question in its general bearings, such as it has been 

 put, the pretended superiority of arms over letters, sciences, and art ; for do 

 not deceive yourselves, judges and ministers have only been put in company 

 with men of war to give them a spurious passport. 



The httle time which is allowed me for this (Uscnssion, compels mc to be 

 methodical, and in order that my sentiments may not be misunderstood, I 

 declare at once, that independence and national freedom are to mc the first 

 of blessings ; tliat to defend them against the foreigner, or against home 

 enemies, is the first of duties ; and that to have defended them at the price 

 of one's blood, is the first of titles to the ptddic gratituile. Raise ! raise 

 your splendid memorials to tlie sohUers who fell on the glorious walls of 

 Meutz, on tlie immortal battle fields of Zmich and Marengo ! my offering is 

 ready ; but why call upon me to act in defiance of ray reason, in contra- 

 (Uction to those feehng!, w liich nature has implanted in the heart of man ? 

 whv ask me to place all miUtary service on the same footing ? 



What Frenchman, who had but feeling, would, even in the time of Louis 

 XIV, have pointed out, as an act of bravery in our troops, the cruel scenes of 

 the Dragonnades, or the wreaths of flame which destroyed the towns, vil- 

 lages, and rich country, of the unfortunate Palatines ? Some time ago, our 

 brave soldiery, after a thousand miracles of patience, skill, and valoiu', rush- 

 ing into Saragossa half overthrown, reached the door of a church, in which 

 the preacher shou'ed, in the ears of his resigned congregation, these pompous 

 words ; '' Spaniards, 1 am going to read your burial service." How do I 

 know but that, in this moment, the true friends of our national glory, ba- 

 lancing the relative merits of the conqueror and the conquered, might have 

 willingly changed the parts ? ^ 



Put liiorality on one side altogether, I give it up to you ; place in the cru- 

 cible of conscientious criticism the personal claims of some winners of battles, 

 and be sure that, after giving a fair share to chance, an ally who is generally 

 put out of the way because he cannot speak for himself, many supposed heroes 

 will seem to you but little worthy of this pompous title. If it were thought 

 necessary, I should not shrink from an examination into detail; I, however, 

 who, in a career purely academic, have found few opportunities for gathering 

 precise documents on such a subject. I coiUd, for instance, quote to you, 

 from oiu- own annals, a modern battle, a Ijattle gained, of which the official 

 dispatch gives an account as of an event foreseen, prepared for with delibe- 

 ration and consummate skill, and wliieh, in tnith, was a spontaneous move- 

 No. 26.— YoL. U.— November, 1839. 



ment of the soldieiT, without any order from the general in command, on 

 whom the honoiu- has been bestowed, without his having been there, without 

 his knowing where. 



To escape the fatal reproach of incompetency, I will appeal to military 

 men themselves for the support of the philosophical thesis which I maintain, 

 and it will be seen with what enlightened enthusiasm they welcome works of 

 mind ; it will he seen that in their jirivate opinion work's of mind did not 

 hold a second rank. Obliged to restrain myself, I will try by fame to make 

 up for number ; I will quote .Mexandcr, I'ompey, Cssar, and Napoleon. 



The admiration of the Macedonian conqueror for Homer is historic ; .Vris- 

 totle, at his request, revised the text of the Iliad. This corrected copy be- 

 came his favourite book, and when, in the midst of .\sia, among the spoils of 

 Darius, a magnificent casket decked with gold, with jewels, and with jiearls, 

 seemed to arouse the greediness of his lieutenants, theconqueror of .Vrbela ex- 

 claimed, " Save it for me, I will keep my Homer in it. He is the best and most 

 faithful councillor in military matters I ever had. It is but right, moreover, 

 that the richest effort of the arts should ser\-e to keep the most precious 

 triumph of the Imman mind." The sack of Thebes had already shown more 

 clearly still the unboiuided respect and admiration of .Vlexander for literature. 

 One only family of this crowded city escaped death and slavery, and that 

 was the family of Pindar ; one only house remained standing amid the ruins 

 of the temples ; the house, not of Epaminondas, but that where Pindar was 

 born. 



Wlien on the conclusion of the war with Mithridates, Pompey went to pay 

 a visit to the celebrated iibilosopher Posidonius, he forbade his Uctors to 

 knock at the doors, according to custom, with their rods ; and thus says 

 Pliny, for the first time were lowered in the humble abode of a savant, those 

 emblems which had seen the East and West prostrated at their feet. 



Ca:sar, whom literature may also claim, shows in twenty places of his im- 

 mortal Commentaries, what rank the different faculties with which nature 

 had so liberally endowed him, held in his esteem. How short, how quick be 

 is, when he tells his battles and his feats of war! See on tlie other band, if 

 he finds any detail too much in rlescriliing the bridge he had made fur his 

 army to cross the Rhine. Here it was that success depended only on cou- 

 ccptiou, and that conception belonged to him alone. It has also been already 

 remarked, that the part which Caesar assumed in preference in the events of 

 war, that of wliicli he was jirondest was amoral influence. Ccvmr karmir/iied 

 /lis arimj is almost always the first phrase of his description of battles gained. 

 Ctesnr did not arrive soon enouf^h to nj/cak to fiis soldiers, to ertiort tlicm to 

 act veil, is the habitual accompaniment of the account of a surprise or of a 

 momentary defeat. The general constantly takes care to lower himself to 

 the writer, and in good triitti, as the judicious Montaigne says, ttis tonijue did 

 tiiin ill many places notable service. 



Now without any digression, without even recalling that exclamation of 

 Frederick, " I would rather have written Voltaire's .\ge of Louis XIV. than 

 have won a thousand battles," I come to Napoleon. .Vs we are in haste, 

 I will neither remind you of his celebrated proclamations \\Titten in the shade 

 of the Egyjitian pyramids, by the Member of the Instilvte, General in Chief 

 of the -Vnuies of the East ; nor of those treaties of peace in w hich works of 

 art and (science were the ransom jirice of conquered people ; neither of the 

 profound esteem which the General when Emperor never ceased to manifest 

 towards I.agiange, La))lace, .Mouge and BerthoUet ; neither will I speak of 

 the riches which he showered on them. An anecdote little known will more 

 directly fulfil my object. 



Every one recollects the ten year prizes. The four classes of the Institute 

 had drawn up short accounts of the progress of science, literature and art. 

 The President and Secretaries were to read them successively before Napo- 

 leon, the great dignitaries of the empire, and the council of state. On the 

 27th of FebruaiT, 1808, it came to the turn of the French .\cademy — as may 

 he supposed on that day, there was a more umnerous attendance than in general, 

 for who does not think himself a judge in matters of taste ? Chenier addressed 

 the assembly. He is listened to in solemn silence, when suddenly the Em- 

 peror stops him, and bending forward, his hand upon his heart, and in a voice 

 affected by evident emotion, he cried, " It is too much, gentlemen, you bear 

 me down ; I want words to express my gratitude." I leave you to guess the 

 siu-prise of the assembled courtiers who were witness to this scene, they who 

 from adidation to adulation, had gone so far as to say to their master, without 

 his seeming surprised by it, "When God creittcd Napoleon, he was forced to 

 rest from his laboiu'." 



But what were the words which went so straight, so directly to the heart 

 of the Emperor ? These were they, " In those camps, where far from the 

 misfortunes of home, our national glory was maintained untarnished, arose au 

 eloquence unknowu tiU then to the people of modern days. We must even 

 confess that when we read in ancient authors the harangues of the most re- 

 nowned cajitains, we are often tempted to admire only the genius of the his- 

 torian ; but here doubt is impossible ; the records exist ; and history has 

 but to gather them together. They came from the army of Italy, those noble 

 proclamations, in which the conqueror of Lodi and .Vrcola, while he created 

 a new art of war, founded a military eloquence, of which he alone is the best 

 model." 



On the 28th of February, the day after the celebrated meeting, which I 

 have just related, the Moniteiir, with its ivell knon-n fidelity, pubUshed a reply 

 of the Emperor to the discourse of Cbrnicr. It was cold, cramped, and in- 

 significant, it possessed all the characters, some woidd say all the qualifica- 

 tions of an official docmneut. .Vs to the incident wliich I have related, uo 



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