D'ALEMBERT. 455 



read this passage I looked to see if there might not 

 have been omitted, by an error of the press, the words 

 " quoique" and " ne pas." It is hardly credible that 

 any one should have singled out for commendation in 

 Tacitus the very quality which he notoriously possesses 

 not. We find the same enthusiastic admiration break- 

 ing out in his correspondence : " Quel homme que ce 

 Tacite !" (Cor. Part., (Euv. xiv., 332.) We find him, 

 too, consoling his afflictions with the writings of that 

 historian, whom he quotes in both the letters addressed 

 to Diderot on Mde. Geonrin's death. (Cor. Part., 

 (Euv. xiv., 251, 261.) 



But it is not only from defective taste and insufficient 

 knowledge, that D'Alembert's literary works fall so 

 immeasurably below his scientific. They are in gen- 

 eral, extremely slight and superficial. His capacity 

 of deep thought no where appears. There is sufficient 

 calmness in the tone of the remarks ; the discussions, 

 when he does discuss, are conducted with commendable 

 impartiality, and the sentiments are generally those of 

 a liberal, enlightened and unprejudiced mind ; but no 

 force is put forth; no difficulty is grappled with; no- 

 thing original or striking appears in the views taken ; 

 nothing very felicitous in the illustrations ; nothing 

 profound in the argument. The u great facility," or 

 quickness, which has been already noted as charac- 

 terizing his geometrical capacity, had a fatal effect 

 when he deviated into lighter studies; it lulled his 

 attention asleep and prevented the severe labour which 

 great works in the belles-lettres demand, as in every 

 other department of human exertion. All his writings 

 are more or less slight and insufficient. By far the 

 most elaborate are, the Discourse in the ' Encyclopedic' 

 and the ' Elements of Philosophy ;' but the first of these 

 must be confessed to fail from the radical defect of its 

 fundamental principles ; and the second, though supe- 

 rior, does not rise much above mediocrity, nor leave 

 on the mind any lively or lasting impression. 



