He has
left behind him three historical pictures, which are so many
master-pieces.
The beautiful statue of the youthful Cyparissus, by CHAUDET, the most
eminent French sculptor, reminds us of the full and elegant form of
the fine Greek Bacchus, which decorates the peristyle of the
antichamber or Hall of Introduction.
Thus the amateur and the student will find, in this Museum, an
uninterrupted chronology of monuments, both antique and modern,
beginning by those of ancient Greece, whose date goes back to two
thousand five hundred years before our era, to examine those of the
Romans, of the Lower Empire, of the Gauls, and thence pass to the
first epoch of the French monarchy, and at length follow all the
gradations through which the art has passed from its cradle to its
decrepitude. The whole of this grand establishment is terminated by a
spacious garden, which is converted into an
ELYSIUM.
There, on a verdant lawn, amid firs, cypresses, poplars, and weeping
willows, repose the ashes of the illustrious poets, MOLIERE, LA
FONTAINE, BOILEAU, &c.; of the learned DESCARTES, MABILLON,
MONTFAUCON, &c., inclosed in sarcophagi; there, they still receive
the homage which mankind owe to talents and virtue.
But hold! mark the sepulchre of the learned and tender HELOISE.
Pages:
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313