D'ALEMBERT. 443 



taining ; but, as if to show the incurable vices of the 

 Eloge, a memoir being inserted written by one who 

 had access to know the Abbe's history, D'Alembert 

 admits his having suppressed those portions which re- 

 flected discredit upon him. It is necessary to add that 

 the Eloges which D'Alembert composed officially as 

 Secretary were, according to the custom of the Aca- 

 demy, read at the general or public meetings, which 

 are attended by all who can obtain tickets of admission 

 from the Academicians. At the same meetings were 

 read other pieces of a popular description, as the 

 'Dialogue between Queen Christina and Descartes 

 in Elysium,' that between * Philosophy and Poetry,' 

 and the ' Discourses on Poetry,' on * Eloquence,' and 

 others, upon the annual distribution of the prizes. That 

 D'Alembert suffered himself to be seduced by the com- 

 paratively poor and passing gratification of pleasing 

 or amusing promiscuous audiences on those occasions, 

 cannot be doubted. The productions are of very ordi- 

 nary merit. The two dialogues just referred to contain 

 in their more solid portions nothing at all original or 

 felicitous ; and as jeux d'esprit, they may justly be said 

 to have little of either playfulness or wit. The one in 

 which Christina is a prolocutor, was delivered on the 

 reception of Gustavus III. as a visitor, and it contains 

 some singularly unmerited compliments* to that worth- 

 less and profligate prince, nowise distinguished either 

 for their happy turn or the cautious procedure ever to 

 be used in noting the merits of sovereigns too young 

 to have shown how far taking them on trust is safe. 

 Another jeu d'esprit, the 'Apology for Study,' is ad- 

 mitted among the warmest of D'Alembert's admirers to 

 be a signal failure. 



* " Sa modestie, ou plutot, et ce qui vaut bien mieux encore, sa sim- 

 plieite, car la modestie est quelquefois hypocrite, et la simplicite ne Test 

 jamais." (IV. 82.) It would certainly have been difficult to find a word 

 less applicable than simplicity to the subject of this flattery. See States- 

 men of George III.'s time. 



