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98 TRAVELS
had it in contemplation to propofe a prize for the beft treatife on
the queftion, «‘ By which of all his virtues was his majefty moft
“honourably diftinguifhed?’ This act of fervility, however,
Lewis himfelf, vain as he was, had the good fenfe to prevent ;
but this meannefs of the academicians was not incompatible with
pride on their part. They exhibited, in their condua, a ftrange
mixture of obfequioufnefs to the court, and felf-importance and
arrogance in their deportment bonvence their fellow-fubjects. Ad-
miffion to the academies, particularly the grand Academie Fran- —
coife, now was made an object of ambition. Philofophy, or rather
perhaps the reputation of being a philofopher, became the fafhion
of the day. Few were qualified to be ftatefmen, or hold the prin-
‘cipal places in the gift of the crown; but all could be, or pretend
to be, fcholars and philofophers. Philofophy, combined with lite-
rature, but tinétured with human weaknefs, pleafed vanity, con-
foled difappointment, and employed fometimes as a vehicle of cen-
fure, ferved as an inftrument of revenge. ‘The number of philo-
fophers daily increafed. That philofophy which, under various
forms, and in diverfe ways, had influenced for fome time the |
public councils, feized at lait the helm of the French monarchy ;
and thus the folly of Lewis XIV. blindly laboured for the over-
throw of the Bourbons. :
There is nothing more curious in a philofophical, or more im=
portant in a political point of view, than to trace the mutual in-
fluence of events on opinions, and opinions on events, Their
action and re-ation on one another, the degree and manner in
which
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