55H 
ftyle, in which it is fhewn, that Wifdom, 
which is direéted towards reaion and hap- 
pinefs, would deviate from both thele 
ends, if, thinking to confult only Pru- 
dence, and being too much under the 
guidance of Circumfpeétion, fhe were to 
iuffer herfelf to be controuled by pufil- 
lanimity and falfe fhame. = ° 
There are in effect, and the ftorms in 
politics have thewn us proofs of it—there 
are perils, in prefence of which timidity is 
rafhnefs, and courage only is prudent. 
“© Courage,”” fays Citizen Dupont, 
in his reflections on this virtue, “ does 
sot confift in not having fear, it is the 
manner of being afraid which diftin- 
guifhes the brave man from the coward,’” 
He thinks that courage depends on a 
fund of boldnefs within itfelfi; that it 
' ftrengthens by habit, is augmented chiefly 
by comparifon, that grand fpring of hu- 
man morality; and that, laftly, it rifes 
to*heroifin by the defire of efteerm>. The 
author obferves, that phyfical dangers 
are not the only dangers. There are 
guch, moral and politica]; and courage, 
which meafures and confronts them; ho- 
nours alfo the man and the citizen. But 
when # peril becomes fuperior to all ef- 
forts, then the virtuous man begins in 
effect to have no more fear, becaufe the 
_ event being decided, it only remains to 
colfeét all the force of a great foul, to fail 
with decency and dignity. 
Yo nourifh and inflame courage, to 
propagate all che other republican vir- 
tues, antiquity has known nothing more 
efficacious than the celebration of national 
feftivals. But thefe mftitutions will 
hardly obtain among us that vale and 
happy mfluence which they exercifed in 
Greece, until we fhall have hit upon the 
means ef communicating to an immenfe 
number of f{pectators, all the pleature and 
inftru€tion which thefe folemnities ought 
to exhibit. The invettigation of thele 
means has been the object of a memoir, 
which Citizen REVEILLIERE Lepaux 
has read to the clafs, and which has fince 
been rendered public by printing it. - 
The clafs has heard two difcourfes of 
Citizen TOULONGEON ; oneon memory, 
the other on wit (e/fri#). In developing 
the fecond, the author proceeds to diftin- 
suit wit from the other intellectual ta- 
culties. Genius creates, the imagination 
paints, talent executes, judgment appre- 
eiates; wit, according to Citizen Tou- 
longeon, is only a brilliant varnith, which, |p 
without having a colour proper to it, 
animates and makes refplendent whatever 
it covers. But what is ats ‘influence on 
National Infiitute, 15th Nivofe, 1798. 
[Nove 
manners and the happinefs of the people ? 
‘The author does not think it always fa- 
lutary 5 all the wit of the Greeks, fays 
he, could not fland againft the frmne(s 
of the Romans, who in their turn having 
changed at Conftantinople their frm- 
neis tor wit, fell under the {word of 
the Arabs. Citizen Toulongeon thinks 
it is ufelefs to recali thefe exampleS in 2 
country, and in a time, wherein wit, dif- 
fufed on all fides, tends to its di¢ribution 
with lefs inequality than ever. La Roche- 
foucault has faid, that a man of wit 
would be frequently embarraffed without 
the company of fools ; this is, precifely, an 
embarraflment in which, according » te 
Citizen Tonlongeon, the man of wit finds 
himfelf at this day; fools are rare and 
no longer enough to keep him company ; 
wit is*no more at its eafe, becaufe wit 
preffes it on all fides ; it has every where ~ 
neighbours which level and reftrain it. 
Citizen GaRAT read to the clafs and 
in the public fitting, a report- on the 
works fent to one of the competitions 
opened by the Inftitute; the competition - 
had for its object to determine the in- 
fluence of figns upon ideas. mihie 5 
In a memoir on Oftracifm, Citizen 
Bsvupin has proved that that famous in- 
ftitution could never be otherwife thas 
hurtfirl, even ina territory very circum-. 
icribed, in a population much condenfed, 
in a country where the people. exercifed. 
immediately different powers. He fhews 
how it would become more difaitrous fill 
in the botom of an immentfe republic, and 
how much more it would difagree with 
the reprefentative fyftem which alone can 
fecure the liberty of a great nation. Citi- 
zeit Baudin thinks that the worthieft ho- 
mage which can be rendered to the an- 
tient republics, confilts in the enlightened 
choice of the inftitutions we with ta bor- 
row from, them. Let us take, fays. he, 
from the Romans, not their patticiate 
and its pride, not their tribunefhip and 
its violences, but that all-powerful pa-~ 
triotifm which united all interefis and ai! 
factions againit the common enemy: let 
us imitate from the Spartans their fruga- 
lity, net the impunity of expert larce- 
nies; and laftly, from the Athenians, 
their atticifim, and not their ofracifn. 
Citizen Baudin read alfo a memoir on 
the labours of the clafs appropriated 
in the National inftitute to the moral and 
political fciences. After having com- 
ared this clafs with that of {peculative 
philofophy which exifts in the academy of 
Berlin, he has confidered the influence’ 
which the fciences, cultivated there, fhould 
exercile 
a 
