THE OLD WEEVILS 173 



of our days wear perched upon their heads. What a 

 singular freak is fashion, so fruitful in the means of 

 uglification ! Business knows nothing of beauty, says 

 this divinity of the traders ; it prefers the profitable, 

 embellished with luxury. Thus speaks the drachma. 



On the reverse, a lion clawing the earth and roaring 

 wide-mouthed. Not of to-day alone is the savagery 

 that symbolizes power under the form of some formidable 

 brute, as though evil were the supreme expression of 

 strength. The eagle, the lion and other bandits often 

 figure on the reverse of corns. But the reality is not 

 sufficient ; the imagination invents monstrosities : the 

 centaur, the dragon, the hippogriff, the unicorn, the 

 double-headed eagle. Are the inventors of these emblems 

 really superior to the redskin who celebrates the prowess 

 of his scalping-knife with a bear's paw, an eagle's wing or 

 a jaguar's tooth stuck into his scalp-lock ? We may 

 safely doubt it. 



How preferable to these heraldic horrors is the reverse 

 of our own silver coinage brought into circulation of 

 late years ! It shows us a sower who, with a nimble 

 hand, at sunrise, fills the furrow with the good seed 

 of thought. It is very simple and it is great ; it makes 

 us think. 



The Marseilles drachma has for its sole merit its magni- 

 ficent relief. The artist who made the dies was a master 

 of the graver's tool ; but he lacked the breath of inspira- 

 tion. The chub-faced Diana is a rakes' wench and no 

 better. 



Here is the NAMASAT of the Volscse, which became the 

 colony of Nimes. Side by side, profiles of Augustus and 

 his minister Agrippa. The former, with his hard brow, 

 his flat skull, his grasping, broken nose, inspires me with 



