4.38 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
fe any of your chemical correfpondents 
would inform me (through the medium 
of your uleful magazine) of the beft method 
of taking greafe {pots out of leather bree- 
ches, they would render a fervice to the 
public, and to your conftant reader, 
Piccadilly. i ie bee 
— 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
DESCRIPTION OF THE FRENCH PAN- 
THEON, BY DR. MEYER. 
‘¢ To great men, 
6¢ Their grateful country !” 
HIS dedicatory infcription, which an- 
nounces the exalted deftination of 
that magnificent temple, is in the higheft 
degree impreflive, and {peaks in forcible 
accents to the foul of every man of fenfi- 
bility. But alas! the pleafing impreffion 
we feel on reading it, is weakened and 
almoft obliterated by the galling remem- 
brance that we have feen the confecration 
oi that temple profaned by the corpfe of 
the infamous [Marat repofing near the ho- 
Moured remains of Roufleau. May the 
guardian genius of France for ever hence- 
forth avert a fimilar inftance of national 
blindnefs! May the republican fenate, in 
awarding the honours of the Pantheon, 
never lofe fight of the genuine idea of true 
greatneis, of real civic merit, to which 
alone that monument is appropriated, and 
of which the memory is fo deeply graven 
in its in{cription— 
‘< To great men, 
«¢ Their grateful country! __ 
That gigantic edifice, begun about for- 
ty years ago, on the plans of Soufflot, for 
a deftination widely different from that 
which the revolution has afligned to it, 
was a church dedicated to St. Genevieve, 
the patrone/s ot Paris. It is not yet fi- 
nithed : and the works undertaken under 
the direftion of Antony Quatremere, in 
order to accommodate it toits new deftina- 
tion, proceed flowly, and will yet require 
feveral years betore it is fully completed. 
In fetting afide the plan of the original 
architect, pains are taken to make the re- 
cent alterations accord, as far as is prac- 
ticable, with what he had already built. 
The mott material ef thofe alterations are 
as follow : 
The Attic, fupported by twenty-two 
fluted columns of the Corinthian order, 
above the portico, was filled with a mytti- 
cal baffo-rilievo, by Couftou, reprefenting 
the triumph of Faith. ‘This has been 
33 
Defeription of the French Pantheon. 
[July 
removed ; and The Country*, diftributing 
civic crowns to Virtue and Genius, is the _ 
fubject of the new baffo-rilievo by MOITE, 
which is in unifon with the import of the 
beautiful infcription on the portico. 
Under the magnificent periftyle of the 
noble parvis, two lateral doors have been 
walled up. Two great tablets, deftined to 
bear in{criptions derived from legendary 
lore, have been pulled down, “together 
with the analogous baffo-rilievos ; and 
their places have been fupplied by two 
groups and two ftatues of coloffal fize, 
with fine baffo-rilievos fuited to the new 
plan. The in{cription ‘* French Pantheon, 
third year of Liberty,” will be canceled 
when the public ear is fufficiently famili- 
arifed to the new name of this monument; 
and the date of its foundation will alone be 
fuffered to remain, as on the ancient tem- 
ples. The four ftatues, which are at pre- 
fent but of plafter, but which will be fuc- 
ceeded by marble ones, are, as well as the 
baffo-rilievos and infcriptiens, too inte- 
refting to be paffed over unnoticed. 
Batfo-rilievos over the grand gate of the 
temple, by Baichot:—The Declaration 
of the Rights of Man: Nature, holding 
the table of the law expofed to view; nea 
her, Liberty and Equality. 
Group, by Chaudet: Public inftruétion 
—Minerva, arrayed in the long robe of 
peace, with her right hand extended pre- 
fents a crown to a young man, who clings 
to the goddefs. 
Baflo-rilievos above the group, by 
Lefueur: Toacrowd. of parents, accom- 
panied by their children, the country pre- 
fents the. Infiztutrefs diltributing . public 
inftruction. In{cription over this group : 
*¢ Inftruction is neceflary for all: Society 
owes it alike to all her members.” ‘This 
group is perfeétly conceived, and well ex- 
ecuted. The drapery of Minerva is beau- 
tiful. 
Group on the oppofite fide of the paras, 
by Maffon :—Dying for one’s country. A 
female figure, reprefenting The Country, 
{upports a naked and wounded warrior, 
who dying leans on his buckler, covered 
with a lion’s fkin. Her looks, attentively 
fixed on him, are expreflive of maternal 
tendernefs. 
Baffo-rilievos, by Chaudet :—The Ge- 
nius ef Glory fuftains a foldier who falls 
expiring at thealtar of The Country, on 
which he depofits his {word. Infcription: 
* I with that fome good writer would furnifh 
the Englifh language with an expreifion equal 
to. LA patrie — patria—*H grarpeg — which 
we might ufe abfolutely, as in French, Latin, 
and Greek. 
ec Jt 
