A blank like that which designates the place of
Marino Faliero in the Ducal palace at Venice, is left here for Le Sage, as
the nativity of the author of Gil Blas is yet disputed. We look at
Rousseau to revert to the social reforms, of which he was the pioneer; at
La Place to realize the achievements of the exact sciences, and at St.
Pierre to remember the poetry of nature. Voltaire's likeness is not
labelled for the same reason that there is no name on the tomb of Ney;
both are too well known to require announcement. How incongruous become
the associations as we proceed; old Pere la Chaise cheek by jowl with the
American Presidents; Cagliostro, who died before the word his career
incarnated had become indispensable to the English tongue--the apotheosis
of humbug; Marmontel, dear to our novitiate as royal leaders; and near to
the original Pamela; Chateaubriand's ancestor the Marshal; Bisson going
below to ignite the magazine, rather than "give up the ship;" and the
battered war dog, with a single eye and leg, beneath whose fragmentary
portrait is inscribed that Mars left him only a heart.
It is with singular interest that we look upon the authentic resemblance
of persons with whose minds and career literature has made us familiar,
and compare what we have imagined of their appearance with the reality.
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