34 ^^s earlieft Accounts of 



It matters not how a prince fquanders 

 ^vIlat he has tyrannically fqueezed from the 

 llibjed : If he exceeds his revenue, it is 

 almofl as ill fpent on edifices as on mini- 

 fters. But it is perhaps no more than 

 jutlice to make fome allowance for par- 

 tial or exaggerated relations. Henry was 

 not a wife prince — may I venture to fay 

 more — He was not a martial prince. Even 

 in thefe more fenfible ages one illuftrious 

 defed in a king converts all his other 

 foibles into excellencies. It muft have 

 done fo much more in a feafon of fuch 

 heroic barbarifm as that of Henry III. and 

 the want of an enterprizing fpirit in that 

 prince made even his patronage of the arts 

 be imputed to effeminacy, or be overlook- 

 ed. The extravagance of Louis XIV. in 

 his buildings, gardens, water-works, paiTed 

 for an obje6l of glory under the canon 

 (if I may fay fo) of his ambition. Hen- 

 ry III. had no conquefls to illuminate his 

 cielings, his halls, his bafreliefs. Yet per- 

 haps the generous fentiment implied in his 

 motto, ^i non dat quod hahet, non accipit 

 ille quod optat, contained more true glor)' 

 than all the Faft couched under Louis's 



emblem 



