454 D'ALEMBERT. 



insomuch that we actually find him infinitely flat- 

 tered "par le suffrage accorde a 1' article 'Geometric/" 

 and hoping that Voltaire would be equally pleased 

 with the articles on Forces and Gravitation, and beg- 

 ging him to read that on the Figure of the Earth, the 

 merit of which consists in his correcting Clairaut's 

 hypothesis, and on this correction Voltaire was utterly 

 incapable of offering an opinion. The article on Gravi- 

 tation consists of four sections, three of which are full 

 of calculus, and so unintelligible to Voltaire that it 

 seemed like a mockery to mention them. (Cor. de Volt., 

 (Euv., xv., 41.) 



The admiration which he expresses for Tasso is cer- 

 tainly quite legitimate. But who can allow him to 

 single the ' Gerusalemme' out of all ancient and modern 

 epics, as the " only one which we can read from be- 

 ginning to end with pleasure and interest ?" (CEuv. 

 iv., 116.) He had just pronounced, dogmatically, the 

 somewhat astounding dictum, that no one can read 

 Virgil or Homer through without being weary of the 

 task. When he singles out Tasso, indeed, he makes 

 him the solitary exception " among dead poets ;" but 

 this qualification is manifestly introduced on behalf of 

 the ' Henriade,' the author of which was still alive. 



It is another proof of defective taste that he admires 

 Tacitus beyond all the writers of antiquity, which critics 

 of a much less severe taste than D'Alembert have not 

 been tasteless enough to do. " Prejuge de traducteur 

 a part (says he) comme il est sans comparaison le plus 

 grand historien de 1'antiquite, il est aussi celui dont il 

 y a le plus a recueiller." He goes on to speak of the 

 " various kinds of beauty of which this incomparable 

 writer gives the model," and after mentioning " the 

 energy of his descriptions of men, and the pathos of 

 his narrative of events," ends with this astounding as- 

 sertion, " qu'il possede dans un si haut degre la veri- 

 table eloquence, le talent de dire simplement de grandes 

 choses." (CEuv. vii., 23.) I own that when I first 



