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 anv 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 

 an eminent man are certainly his works. Translator. 



