242 
him, without delay, the plans which they 
had to propofe, fome of which he had al- 
ready received, &c.” 
Citizen Peyre did not conceive himfelf 
called upon to enter the lifts, not being 
able-to bring his plans to any degree of 
perfection, but till after long ftudy and 
very mature refleGtion. He withdrew the 
rough fketch he had teo haftily made, and 
continued to proceed on the difpofitions 
whick the laying of the firft ftone re- 
quired. 
On the 3d Fruétidor, year 8, the Con- 
fuls had decreed that the tomb of Marfhal 
de Turenne fhould be placed under the 
dome of the Invalids; and that the body 
of that great man fhould be depofited in 
the -maufoleum, on the 1f of Vinde- 
miaire, year 9. On the 21ft of the 
fame month, the execution of the decree 
was. intrufted to Citizen Peyre, by the 
Minifter of Interior. 
Our Colleague has drawn up a defcrip- 
tion of this fuperb monument, the defign 
of which was furnifhed by Lebrun. At 
Saint Denys, the tomb was only elevated 
above the flooring of the church, by the 
height of a ftep (marche). Inthe Mu- 
feum of French monuments, the Pyramid 
had been fuppreffed, which reduced the 
height to five metres. Under the dome, 
the height of whichis fifty-fix metres, it 
was neceffary to place the tomb in one of 
the arcades of the cafement or window- 
work, which is twenty-three metres and 
a half in height—it was neceflary, more- 
over, to give it a proportion, which might 
place it in accordance with the vaft and 
majeftic edifice where it was to be depo- 
fited. It was to appear great in an im- 
menfe fpace, of which it was to form the 
principal decoration: 
The {kilful archite& has furmounted 
all difficulties, by raifing it ona grand 
pedeftal, and by re-eltablifhing the Py- 
ramid, 
It would have been poffible to enrich it 
with all thefe fine ornaments, of which 
antiquity offers us fo many examples. 
would have been eafy to adorn she pedeftal 
with new attributes. But fuch a vain 
magnificence, after having coit confidera- 
ble fums, vould have been an eye-fore to 
-men of tafte, and merited the cenfure of 
men of judgment. There would have 
been no relation, no harmeny, between - 
the temb of Turenne and the dome of 
Tnvalids. “Our Colleague felt the neceffity 
of conciliating together the immortal com- 
pofitions of Lebrun, and of Hardouin 
Manlart. ; 
He had only twelve days wherein to fet 
Proceedings of Learned Societies, 
It 
rApril 1, 
up the maufoleum. ) In this fhort fpace of 
time, he has conftructed in ftone the, infide 
wall-work of the fpace left for the cafe- 
ment, the furface of whith is forty metres 
and a half, he has found means to fubjeét 
the lay or coirfe of ftones to that of the 
edifice (they are both of equal height), 
and to coat with marble a fuperficies of 
about thirty-eight metres; from a {pirit 
of economy, he has made ule of the fone 
of ’Ifle Adam, which was fiored up ia 
the building of Ja Madelaine, and which 
refembles the {tone of which the dame has 
been confiructed. As to the blocks of 
marble, he has taken them out of the na- 
tional magazines. 
His bill of. expence amounted at firit — 
to the fum of five thoufand eight hundred 
and eleven francs. ‘The works completed 
have coft only, according, to the final ar- 
rangement of the bills, the fum of five 
thoufand two hundred and fifty-four 
francs, fifty-one crowns. It is impoflibie- 
to fhew either more celerity m execution, 
or more probity in expenditure. : 
Citizen Cainus has given to the Clafs 
the Abfrad of a Dittionary of the French 
Language, the plan of which is highly in- 
teretting to the learned, and thole-ef‘the 
French who with to be thoroughly ae- 
quainted with the language which they 
{peak. 
La Curne de St. Palaye, a member of 
the Academy of Infcriptions and Belles 
Lettres, fir conceived the idea’ of this 
Di&tionary ; he employed in the execution 
of it, a number of young perfons that 
were then ftudying the ‘hiftory of France, 
the greater part of whom-have fince dif- 
tinguifhed themfelves by valuable works. 
We hall only name the late Citizen Le . 
Grand, member of the Inftitute; the 
others are ftill living. 
The project of La Curne de St. Palaye, 
was to write the phyfical and moral hif- 
“tory of every French word. 
Of all»thefe words, there is not one 
which has not begun to exit at a certain 
epoch. All have entered into the lan-— 
cuage and iuto writing, witha particular. 
form and compofition of letters. , But all 
have fuffered from variations, fo much the 
more multiplied, as each of them has fur- 
vived the longeft. Every word either ftill 
preferves its exiftence, or elfe has loft it 
by experiencing the fate to be banifhed 
from the language. ‘ 
The word, at the moment in which 
ufe confecrates it, has a determinate ac- 
ceptation. This acceptation is peculiar, — 
and the inventor has -no equivocal term. 
But fociety, by admitting the word, ac- 
f quires» 
