THE FRENCH AC AD EM F. 319 



not allow that a man can be an adept at more than 

 one thing. The world listens to you when there is 

 an isthmus to be cut in twain; and there are certain 

 questions with respect to which it is pleased to give 

 me a favourable ear. Upon other subjects we are not 

 consulted, though we might, perhaps, have some good 

 advice to offer. The will of Providence be done; 

 we must not complain of the part which has been 

 assigned to us. 



" Yours, assuredly, was a very enviable one. Next 

 to Lamartine, you have, I think, been the most be- 

 loved man of our century the man upon whom the 

 greatest number of legends and dreams have been 

 built. We thank you, as we thank the great poet 

 who is seated by your side, and who introduces you 

 into our company, for having afforded at a period the 

 great defect of which is the spirit of jealousy and 

 detraction to our downcast people the opportunity 

 of exercising the noblest faculty of the human heart, 

 that of admiration and love. The nation which knows 

 how to admire and love is not at the point of death. 

 To those who tell us that the bosom of this people 

 has ceased to beat, that it has lost the faculty of 

 adoration, and that the spectacle of so many abortive 

 efforts and disappointments has extinguished all its 

 confidence in what is good, all its belief in what is 

 great, we reply with the names of you our two 

 beloved and glorious colleagues. We recall the wor- 

 ship which is paid you, these wreaths, these fetes 



