THE FRENCH ACADEMY. 



293 



mittse. Tho result was, tliat the j year that the Hercules was sold by 



glazed palace was at length chosen 

 unanimously, not only by the build- 

 ing committee, but by the royal 

 commission also. Sir Joseph Pax- 

 ton has acknowledged, not only that 

 the Victoria Lily first started the 

 idea of a palace of glass, but that 

 the wonderful venation in the un- 

 der surface of its leaves suggested 

 the mechanical arrangement of its 

 iron girders. 



TOWNLEY'S ANTIQUARIAN ENTHU- 

 SIASM. 



The following anecdote is related 

 in Nichols' Illustrations of Litera- 



ture, upon 

 Dallaway. 



the authority of Mr. 

 Upon receipt of a let- 



ter from Mr. Jenkins, the then 

 English banker at Home, promis- 

 ing him the first choice of some dis- 

 covered statues, Mr. Townley " in- 

 stantly set off for Italy, without 

 companion or baggage, and, taking 

 the common post conveyance, ar- 

 rived incognito at Rome on the pre- 

 cise day when a very rich cava was 

 to be explored. He stood near, as an 

 uninterested spectator, till he per- 

 ceived the discovery of an exquisite 

 statue, little injured, and which 

 decided his choice. Observing that 

 his agent was urgent in concealing 

 it, he withdrew to await the event. 

 Upon his calling at Mr. Jenkins' 

 house in the Corso, who was not a 

 little surprised by his sudden ap- 

 pearance, the statue in question was 

 studiously concealed, wh ile the other 

 pieces were shared between them 

 with apparent liberality. Mr.Town- 

 ley remonstrated, and was dismiss- 

 ed with an assurance that, after due 

 restoration, it should follow him to 

 England. In about a year after, 

 Mr. Townley had the mortification 

 to learu that the identical young 

 Hercules hail been sold to Lord 

 Lausdo wne at an extreme, yet scarce- 

 ly an equivalent price." This trans- 

 action must have occurred some 

 time before 1790. It was iu that 



Mr. Jenkins to Lord Lansdowne. A 

 different story is, however, told of 

 this Hercules in the account of it 

 in the first Dilettante volume. Mr. 

 Townley is there stated to have had 

 the choice of the two statues at the 

 time they were discovered ; to have 

 fixed from description, but after- 

 wards to have repented of his choice. 



THE FRENCH ACADEMY. 



It was from a private meeting 

 that the " French Academy " de- 

 rived its origin ; and the true be- 

 ginners of that celebrated institu- 

 tion assuredly had no foresight of 

 the object to which their conferences 

 tended. Several literary friends iu 

 Paris, finding the extent of the city 

 occasioned much loss of time in 

 their visits, agreed to meet on a 

 fixed day eveiy week, and chose 

 Conrat's residence as central. They 

 met for the purposes of general con- 

 versation, or to walk together, or, 

 what was not least social, to par- 

 take in some refreshing collation, 

 All being literary men, those who 

 were authors submitted their new 

 works to this friendly society, who, 

 without jealousy or malice, freely 

 communicated their strictures ; the 

 works were improved, the authors 

 were delighted, and the critics wero 

 honest. Such was the happy life 

 of the members of this private 

 society during three or four years. 

 Pelisson, the earliest historian of 

 the French Academy, has delight- 

 fully described it : " It was such that 

 now, when they speak of these first 

 days of the Academy, they call it the 

 golden age, during which, with all 

 the innocence anil freedom of that 

 fortunate period, without pomp and 

 noise, and without any other laws 

 than those of friendship, they en- 

 joyed together all which a society 

 of minds and a rational life can yield 

 of whatever softens and charms." 



They were happy, and they re- 

 solved to be silent; nor was this. 



