q8 TRAVELS 
4 O 
had it in contemplation to propofe a prize for the Left treatife on 
the queftion, “ By which of all his virtues was his majefty moft 
“ honourably diftinguifhed ?” This a< 5 t of fervility, however, 
Lewis himfelf, vain as he was, had the good fenfe to prevent ; 
but this meannefs of the academicians was not incompatible with 
pride on their part. They exhibited, in their conduct, a ftrange 
mixture of obfequioufnefs to the court, and felf-importance and 
arrogance in their deportment towards their fellow-fubjetts. Ad- 
miffton to the academies, particularly the grand Academie Fran - 
f oife , now was made an objedt of ambition. Philofophy, or rather 
perhaps the reputation of being a philofopher, became the fafhion 
of the day. Few were qualified to be ftatefmen, or hold the prin¬ 
cipal places in the gift of the crown ; but all could be, or pretend 
■to be, fcholars and philofophers. Philofophy, combined with lite¬ 
rature, but tinctured with human weaknefs, pleafed vanity, con- 
foled difappointment, and employed fometimes as a vehicle of ceil- 
fure, ferved as an inftrument of revenge. The number of philo- 
fophcrs daily increafed. That philofophy which, under various 
forms, and in diverfe ways, had influenced for fome time the 
public councils, feized at laft the helm of the French monarchy; 
and thus the folly of Lewis XIV. blindly laboured for the over¬ 
throw of the Bourbons. 
There is nothing more curious in a philofophical, or more im¬ 
portant in a political point of view, than to trace the mutual in¬ 
fluence of events on opinions, and opinions on events. Their 
adfion and re~a< 5 tion on one another, the degree and manner in 
which 
