ITALIAN POTTERY MAJOLICA. 



which were continued for a long period of time, and pursued with 

 tin admirable patience, he expended all that he was worth, even 

 to the sale of his furniture and wardrobe. 



Palissy had the weakness and ignorance so common with prac- 

 tical men, of inveighing against theory, yet in the only work 

 which he has left on the subject of his art, he has not only been 

 sparing, obscure, and mysterious in his practical details, but has 

 mixed them up with theories of his own which only prove how- 

 much painful toil, how many abortive experiments, and how great 

 an expenditure he would have been spared, had he condescended 

 to consult those who were qualified to inform him of the true 

 principles of physical and chemical sciences applicable to his 

 researches. 



14. The character of this great improver of his art was strongly 

 marked, not only by patience, perseverance and sagacity, in the 

 pursuit of his purposes, but by eminently high moral firmness, and 

 unshaken rectitude. Ko example can be found of one to whom 

 the well-known lines of the Roman poet are more truly applicable : 



" Justum ac tenacem propositi virum, 

 Non civium ardor prava jubentium, 

 , Non vultus instantis tyrauni 



Mente quatit solida." HORACE. 



*' The man, in conscious virtue bold, 

 Who dares his secret purpose hold, 

 Unshaken hears the crowd's tumultuous cries, 

 And th' impetuous tyrant's angry brow defies." 



FRANCIS. 



15. Palissy was a conscientious Protestant, and did not hesitate 

 publicly to avow and express his opinions even in his discourses 

 on subjects of his art. By this boldness and indiscretion, he was 

 in his ninetieth year dragged before the ecclesiastical authorities, 

 and refusing peremptorily to renounce his opinions, or to retract 

 his expressions, he was thrown into the Bastille. He was visited 

 there by the King, Henry III., who wished to liberate him, when 

 the following memorable colloquy took place between the monarch 

 and the manufacturer : 



"My good man," said the king, "if you cannot conform 

 yourself on the matter of religion, I shall be compelled to leave 

 you in the hands of my enemies." " Sire," replied the old man, 

 " I was already willing to surrender my life, and could any regret 

 have accompanied the action, it must assuredly have vanished 

 upon hearing the great King of France say ' I am compelled.' 

 This, sire, is a condition to which those who force you to act 

 contrary to your own good disposition can never reduce me; 



