Retrospect of French Literature—Miscellanies. 
des Droits et des Devoirs du Citoyen,’ 
are his best. 
“ The Academy of Sciences is far more 
celebrated than the French Academy, 
more especially since it has enriched it- 
self at our expence, and possesses M. de 
la Grange. La Place calculates the mo- 
tions of the celestial bodies, while La- 
lande and Messier observe them. Four- 
croy, De Machy, and Lavoisier decom- 
pose terrestrial bodies, and while D’Au- 
benton and De la Cepede write natural 
history, Charles enriches natural pnilo- 
sophy by means of new experiments, in 
the same manner as Teissier and Le Roi 
confer benefits on meteorology, through 
the medium of new observations. 
“‘ The Academies, however, are no 
longer what they were formerly, a point 
of union for the thoughts of great inen, 
and the focus in which were concentrated 
all the scattered rays of genius, in order 
to be reflected with greater force. Not- 
withstanding this observation, the Aca- 
demy of Sciences is far more useful than 
its elder sister the French Academy, not 
only on account of the nature of the 
questions it proposes, the direction and 
encouragement it affords to talents, but 
also by the assistance it presents to agri- 
culture and the arts, in facilitating labours 
of every kind, and inventing or simplify- 
ing machines, in order to economize hu- 
man labour. 
* Condorcet, in his quality of secre- 
tary, after having adjudged the prizes 
and proposed new qnestions, read the 
eulogy of M. Turgot, brother to the cele- 
brated minister of the same name. The 
subject did not afford much scope for 
talent, and the manner in which it was 
written was far from being interesting. 
Condorcet has almost entirely abandoned 
the exact sciences, tn order to devote 
himself entirely to politics. He is much 
occupied about public affairs, and is not 
a little chagrined at not being a deputy 
to the national assembly. His physiog- 
nomy is noble, and his eye betokens 
thought. ‘The walls of this, like those of 
the French Academy, are decorated with 
busts. One there beholds those of Cas- 
sini, the Marquis de |’Hospita!l, Fonte- 
nelle, Maupertuis,- La, Condamine, &c. 
I greatly approve of those monumeuts 
erected to great men in the very sanc- 
tuary of science; it is natural that they 
should preside over their labours, and 
become the tutelary deities of the tem- 
ple. [I wish that the academicians of 
Berlin were also surrounded by Euler, 
Lambert, Margraff, Sulzer, and that 
659 
the statue of Leibnitz were placed in the 
midst of the hall, ; 
The Louvre is no longer the abode of 
kings, it is abandoned to the academies, 
to the men of letters, whom the king 
permits to lodge there, and to the ar- 
chives of the crown. This noble edifice 
communicates with the palace of the 
Thuileries by means of an immense gal- 
lery. What a pity that the gallery in- 
tended to correspond with it has never 
been constructed, and that, instead of 
building new castles, they have never 
finished this superb monument. The cé- 
lebrated colonnade is superior to the re= 
puitation it enjoys, and never did archi- 
tecture speak to my imagination with 
more force. What great and majestic 
proportions! What noble simplicity ! 
Every time I behold it I am irritated at 
Boileau, and indignant at the satire with 
which he unjustly overwhelms the illus~ 
trious Perrault. In truth, if genius con- 
sists In tracing a grand outline, and in 
atfecting the sensibility, I hesitate be- 
tween the merits of the author of the 
satire and those of the author of the 
colonnade. The gallery of communica~ 
tion between the Louvre and the Thuil- 
leries ought to be employcd as a museum. 
They are now busied in coilecting all the 
pictures of the great masters, and placing 
the antiquities, and the statues of all the 
men of genius who have done honour te 
France. 
“ Besides the two I have already men- 
tioned, there are a couple more aca~ 
demies in this capital, that of Inscrip- 
tions and that of Painting. The mem- 
bers of the former support, encourage, 
and facilitate the study of the ancients 
m France. The Abbé Barthelemy, M. 
Dussault, and some others of them, knew 
how to unite what is solid with what is 
agreeable. ‘The first of these reminds us 
of the sages of Greece, whom he himself 
has so admirably descrihed in his Young 
Anacharsis. He never expected that 
that work would have become so popu- 
lar: that Encyclopedia of Greece; that 
composition of simplicity and elegance 
appeared to him scarcely to rise above 
mediocrity; his modesty is equally rare 
and affecting. 
“ Asto the bulk of the people here, 
as every where else, the middle class is 
the best; among them the names of 
father, son, and wife, are still uttered 
with respect. It is far otherwise in the 
fashionable world. My lord and my 
Jady inhabit the two extremities of the 
house, treat each other like strangers, 
4 abanden 
