LITERARY MERIT DURABLE. 453 



by that which there is in man of most noble, of most 

 elevated : by the soul, by the thoughts, by the intellect. 

 How foolish must that man be who, placed on such a 

 theatre, should be detected in wishing that his lineaments 

 were preserved by the chisel of a David.* to be some day 

 exposed to the glances of idlers taking their walk. Such 

 honours, I repeat it, need not be envied by the learned 

 man, by the author, or by the artist ; but they ought not, 

 on any account, to allow themselves to be declared un 

 worthy of them. Such, at least, have been the thoughts 

 that lead me to submit the following discussion to your 

 judgment. 



Is it not a truly strange circumstance, that these vain 

 pretensions that I am combating should have been raised 

 merely on account of these five statues, not one of which 

 cost a single obolus to the public treasury ? Far from 

 me, however, to take advantage of this inconsiderateness. 

 I prefer taking the question in a more general point 

 of view, such as it was laid down : the pretended pre 

 eminence of arms over letters, over science, over art ; for 

 we must not deceive ourselves if magistrates and ad 

 ministrators have been mentioned together with military 

 men, it was only as a passport. 



The shortness of the time allowed me for this discus- 



* It is uncertain whether the noted Jacques Louis David, or Pierre 

 Jean David is here meant; for though the former is generally known 

 as a painter only, he proposed to construct a huge colossus in honour 

 of the people, out of the ruins of royal statues ; and of this he made a 

 model. But we could have wished that our author s taste had pre 

 vented his intruding the truisms in this and in the tirade which fol 

 lows ; at least, the biography of the enriched and greatly honoured 

 Watt hardly appears to be a fit peg whereon to hang so laboured a 

 declamation. Even now, one of the finest line-of-battle ships in the 

 British fleet is the JAMES WATT; still, we admit, the best records of 

 fin eminent man are certainly his works. Translator. 



