never can forget their bard so long as their coun- | doubt whether the lines above quoted had any. try shall endure. They carry his works to the thing to do with the Epigram on Franklin. It jungles and mangroves of the East, and bring was undoubtedly suggested by a passage in a them along to our own azure vallies. Their au- Roman philosophical poem, the Astronomica of thor could not help himself, for he was forced by M. Manilius, a writer of doubtful age, but probanecessity irresistible to be a poet. But Byron bly, judging by the purity of his language, and seems to have doubted whether mankind would several other circumstances not necessary to continue to appreciate his writings. He wrote to mention, belonging to the Augustan age. This Moore that Rogers, alone of all his contempora- work was not completed: it is upon Astronomyries, would be remembered by posterity. "We the stars and their influence upon human destiare all Claudian," said he, "except the Banker;" nies-and is much more likely to have been fabut though Rogers be a banker we beg leave to miliar to a French Philosopher of the last cenprotest this cheque on the admiration of the tury, than the Latinity of Milton. The passage world. He is destitute of all invention-his sen- I allude to is in the first book, and forms part of timents are all common-place, and there is an a description of the triumphs of human genius. absence of all vigor in his composition. Lite- I copy a few lines: rary fame is very evanescent. The Faery Queen was as popular in its day as Childe Harold, and Goldsmith has now more readers than Milton, but the dramas of Shakespeare-the songs of Burns--the Traveller of Goldsmith--and the Pennsylvania tale of Campbell must live as long as England and Scotland exist-as the Alps shall rise or the Susquehannah roll. We must take men as we find them, but this paper would have been written with far greater pleasure if Byron and Burns had been as distinguished for morals as for intellect. Could they now speak, the one from his sepulchre along the Nith, and the other from his grave at Hucknall, we feel confident they would call on their readers to blot out some expressions which they have used and even to rend whole pictures from the galleries which they opened to the world. Ringwood Cottage, Va. Omnia conando docilis sollertia vicit: Nec prius imposuit rebus finemque manumque, The last line is undoubtedly the original from which Turgot copied. Yours very respectfully, C. C. FELTON. A LETTER FROM PROFESSOR FELTON. TURGOT'S EPIGRAM ON FRANKLIN. To the Editor of the Southern Literary Messenger. In the very agreeable paper on Epigrams, in your January number, the famous line applied by Turgot to Franklin, Eripuit coelo fulmen sceptrumque tyrannis, is said to be borrowed from Milton's epigram "in inventorem Bombardae," the last two lines of which are "At mihi major erit, qui lurida creditur arma, Et trifidum fulmen surripuisse Jovi." I doubt whether Turgot had ever read Milton's Latin Poems, and if he had, I should equally SONNET. A REMONSTRANCE. How couldst thou, poet, in whose full rich mine Well pleased to see, with living bloom now fraught A smouldering torch, to kindle at thy shrine- C. C. L. FROM OUR PARIS CORRESPONDENT. PARIS, 4th January, 1849. season. Father, mother, and friends of both sexes now contribute zealously to the enjoyment of children. Presents pour in upon them: and if the weather permit, the boulevards, the gardens, and all places of public amusement become radiant with their rosy faces, and noisy with their sports. His calendar is worth two or three sous. From time whereof the memory of man runneth not to the contrary, the week we have just traversed has possessed in Paris a peculiar and All the servants of a family, in addition to their invariable physiognomy. It would require a stipulated wages, expect from their master presrevolution far more radical than that of Febru- ents upon the arrival of New Year. It is lookary, a revolution changing the manners and cus-ed upon by both sides as a matter of course. toms of a people, to deprive the week that is past It is taken into consideration before entering of the privilege that it enjoys of being the gayest upon service: and places are more or less sought and happiest of the year. The Republic with after by domestics according as families have its frequent political crises, and its permanent reputation for generosity in the matter of perifinancial and commercial embarrassments has odical étrennes. left unimpaired the time-hallowed observances of Nor must any inferior by whom you have been le jour de l'an. New Year's day of 1849, like served during the past year be forgotten. Your that of 1848, and like all New Year's days for facteur, (the penny-post man,) some eight or ten centuries back, has been hailed with smiles by all days before the 1st of January, will present himages, sexes and conditions. The universal occu- self to you with a printed calendar for the compation was the giving and receiving pleasure. ing year, pasted on both sides of a bit of pasteNot in Paris only, but over all France, much board. It is perhaps the only time during the more especially than with us, this season as-year that you have seen the facteur's smiling sumes the character of a great social fete. A face; but your letters and papers have always beautiful idea seems to pervade and to have orig-been left by him at the lodge of the portier beinally dictated all its observances-whether by low. accident or design will perhaps ever remain un- You are expected to pay for it as many francs. known-but in them may be traced, repeated in Then follow the persons who daily bring you wavarious forms, the idea of deference, respect and ter and bread and milk, the garçons of the ressympathy of the strong for the weak, of the high taurant where you habitually dine, the dame du for the low, of the superior for the dependent. comptoir of your reading-room, the conducteurs Power would seem on this occasion to forego the of omnibusses, and last and most important of exercise of the privileges accorded to it, to devote all, your portier or concierge. This is the domesitself, throughout all the departments of social tic functionary, who from his loge, situated usulife, to the benevolent office of causing weakness ally on the ground floor, near the outer door of to forget, and for one day, even rejoice in its in- your house, exercises a sort of charge over the feriority. It is eminently the day on which the whole establishment. He watches all the outgentler sex receives the homage of ours. Wo-goings and incomings, keeps the key of your man, of all classes, from the highest to the low-rooms when you are absent, and receives letters, est, as wife, daughter, sister, mistress, friend, ex- papers, writing cards and messages that may be pects the prodigal profession, more or less sin- left for you. It is he who, if you enter after dark, cere, of kindness and devotion, accompanied, ac- answers to your rap or ring: and if you have occording to the means and station in life of the casion to go out, it is he who promptly, by means donor, with some complimentary offering, the in- of a cord communicating with the lodge, opens dex of his taste, the visible expression of his re- the street door to facilitate your egress. That is, gard. The gentleman who fails in this, or who he promptly opens the door, if, in passing the fails to make his visits of felicitation, or leave his lodge, you solicit his ministry, whether he sees card for all the ladies of his acquaintance, is writ you or not, by the words "Cordon! s'il vous down as a demi-civilized boor, neglectful of the plait." But beware of omitting the s'il vous plainest convenances, and is punished by rigorous plait, or the jealous Cerberus will punish the inexclusion from the salon during the coming year. civility by compelling you to wait a minute in the Children, too, even more eagerly than with us cold, or call in vain till the required appendix welcome the first as the pleasantest day of the year. shall be added. Woe to the frightful or ecoBon-bons, and toys, and release from the prison nomical locataire who omits the customary New of boarding-schools, to which they are condemned Year's offering to the portier. He is a power during the rest of the year, visiting home only that must be propitiated. One would be temptonce a month, though their parents may reside ed to believe the class, portiers, to be under the but the distance of a square, await them at this special protection of the gods, so manifold are the purely accidental mishaps and annoyances | traverses the boulevards beating the rappel. Nothwhich are sure to follow inattention to its mem- ing gives me more satisfaction than to see happy bers. A smiling face, a courteous phrase, with children: and no where can I be more certain of ten, fifteen or twenty francs for the portier is one the enjoyment, than upon the boulevards of Paof the most judicious investments a Parisian can ris during the last three and the first days of each make at the commencement of the year. He year. had better, if need be, dine scantily for a week and thus economize a fund for the discharge of this annual tribute. The new President of the Republic, Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, continues the imperial and royal custom of grand state receptions upon New Year's day. But he dispensed upon this occasion with the usual addresses. Well, in spite of the Republic, of the hard times and of the dolorous faces which all classes have worn, more or less, during the year which Before dismissing the subject of the New Year has just closed, all customary demands upon the I must not fail to notice another custom which purses and consciences of the Parisians have prevails here, and which for aught I know is pebeen duly and satisfactorily paid. I have never culiar to France. The milk-man, baker, butcher, seen New Year's day pass more brilliantly. For grocer, and other tradesmen, who have furnished a month or six weeks previously, industry and you with necessaries during the year, are bound ingenuity were taxed for the production of the va- by custom to make you a present at this season. rious articles to serve as presents. This gave The one offers butter, or a fine cheese, another a great activity to almost every branch, especially few pounds of flour, the grocer a loaf of sugar perof ornamental industry. About the middle of haps, the butcher something in his line. These December, the exhibition of the objects began to presents, in families where there are servants, be noticed. The papers teemed with advertise- usually form part of their perquisites; where ments, and the shop windows blazed with the there are no servants, and among the lower ortempting articles, of rare beauty and rare price, ders, they are accepted, and enter into the family arranged with a taste and an effect peculiarly consumption. They are intended in theory as a French. It is one of the most popular amuse-sort of grateful acknowledgment for the preferments of the capital during the last two weeks ence shown to themselves over other tradesmen, of the year, to stroll, especially at night, upon the and as an inducement to continuance. They boulevards, and along the principal streets, stop-may in fact be justly considered by the recipi ping every two minutes, to gaze at the beautiful ents as a partial compensation for the systematic and costly objects exposed in the shop windows. petty cheating to which they have been subjected On the 1st January and the three previous days, during the year, and from which the tradesmen the side-walks of the boulevards, from the Mad- have reaped profits much greater in amount than eleine to the Porte St. Denis, are occupied with the aggregate value of their presents. I allude the innumerable portable shops of the petty mar-to the practice of adulterating coffee and wine, chands. They are devoted chiefly to the sale moistening salt, short weights, and heavy paper of cheap objects for children, containing every bags in which articles bought are placed to be imaginable trinket and toy for the amusement of weighed. These tricks are not perhaps peculiar both boys and girls from one to fifteen years of to France; but they are practised in Paris, very age. During these days, from ten in the morn- generally, and to a villainous extent. During my ing till ten at night, this portion of Paris exhib-residence here I have paid many a franc, for its an extremely animated and interesting ap- heavy paper bags, in which custom permits supearance. It is like an immense fair. Iufant gar, coffee, tea, &c., to be placed before weighFrance seems all there. Conducted by their fa- ing. Sand is often found artfully insinuated in thers, their male friends, or their bonnes, they the pasted bottom; and the abominable stuff is surround the shops in noisy groups, and select unfit even to kindle the fire-for it will not flame. their purchases. There marches a little fellow One of the most interesting incidents of the six years of age, holding his father's hand, and 1st January, out of the usual course, was the comfitted out with a complete uniform of the Na-plimentary visit made to Louis Napoleon Bonational Guard; here comes another, or a guard parte by the old soldiers of the Hotel des InvaMobile. You feel something jostle your knee, lides. Most of those who have found a retreat and looking down, perceive a charmingly attired and quiet for their remaining days in this grand little girl, her face beaming with delight, tottering national establishment are veterans of the Emalong beside her bonne, with a smartly dressed pire, in whose memory the Emperor and the glodoll under each arm. Here a little trumpeter ries of the Empire are cherished with religious cracks your ears with his dissonant instrument, veneration. It is curious and interesting to the and there a little drummer amuses the beholders visiters of the Invalides to notice the thousand by the earnestness and industry with which he ingenious forms by which they have managed, But each in his own little dormitory and garden, to of Russia and the Duke of Wellington. perpetuate those souvenirs with which is associ-Louis Napoleon is a bachelor, and it has been for ated so much of their own past, in the contem-some time past an interesting subject of specuplation of which is consumed nearly all their lation among quidnuncs, to determine who would present. They have preserved, in most cases, be selected by him to do the honors of a splendid their old uniforms and weapons; in which they palace converted into the residence of a Republove to appear, the marvel and the gaze of Paris lican President. The most current on dit upon upon one or two remarkable anniversaries con- the subject is that provisionally, until the Presinected with the Emperor. The most important of dent shall have chosen his companion for life, these is that of the day upon which the remains the favored lady is to be the Grand Duchess of of Napoleon, brought back from St. Helena, Baden Stephanie, cousin of Queen Hortense, were committed to the care of the veterans of the President's mother. By the way, though the Imperial armies, and deposited beneath the we pretend to be in full republic here, it is to dome of the Invalides. It was not their custom be remarked that the new President is never to honor Louis Philippe with a complimentary called M. Bonaparte. He is always alluded to visit on New Year's day. Perhaps no other than in the journals, and in conversation, either simthe actual President of the Republic would have ply as Louis Napoleon, or with the rather unrebeen thus honored: but how could these old publican adjunct of Prince. In the returns of crippled, mutilated, tottering remnants of Napo- the elections, published lately by the papers, he leon's glorious armies refrain from welcoming was generally called by the single name of Nahis nephew and heir to the chair of Chief Ex-poleon. I merely mention this as one indication ecutive Magistrate of the State; which some be- of the tendency which I think politics are taking lieve and many hope will ere long be converted in France, and which I have sufficiently signaliinto a throne! It was not to be thought of. Many of them, therefore, uniting with others, their brothers in arms, resident in Paris, but not belonging to the Invalides, clothed in the brilliant, but antiquated uniforms of olden times, met and forming in order their motley ranks, proceeded along the principal thoroughfares with music at their head to the palace in the rue Faubourg St. Honoré, formerly Elysée Bourbon, (now Elysée National,) which by decree of the National Assembly has been assigned as the Presidential mansion in Paris. It caused a melancholy smile and made one moralize in spite of himself to see those shrivelled faces beneath the heavy casque, and those shrunken figures tottering in the gaudy uniforms that loosely flapped about their emaci- ted in place of M. G. de Beaumont resigned. ated limbs. Forty years ago, in the flush of youth But the intention has been abandoned, and Adand health, how well they filled those uniforms and miral Cecille is to go. A son of Marshal Ney is how proudly they bore those flashing casques over to go to Russia in a similar capacity. Another a hundred battle-fields! The veterans carried, Bonaparte, a mere youth, son of Lucien, and to be offered to the President, an immense basket named after him, has arrived in Paris to take his of flowers. A cordial reception awaited them seat in the Assembly as representative just chofrom the President, who accepted with many sen from Corsica. We have now in the Assemthanks their New Year's offering. The Presi-bly five nephews of the Emperor-a son of Louis, dential mansion is a small palace in comparison a son of Jerome, two sons of Lucien and a Muwith many others belonging to the State, but it is rat, son of his sister Caroline. The other day illustrated by some interesting historical souve-large crowds were stationed in front of a tailor's nirs. It was built about one hundred and twenty shop in rue Vivienne, where appeared on the years ago and afterwards became the property sign-“P—, tailor to His Imperial Highness, and residence of Madame de Pompadour. In Prince Louis Napoleon." The sign seemed to 1804 it was purchased by Murat, who occupied excite more amusement than indignation; but it it till his departure for Naples. It then became was soon removed. zed in previous letters. Before dismissing the Napoleon family, let me note en passant, that Jerome Bonaparte, the sole surviving brother of the Emperor, has just been installed in office as Governor of the Invalides, in place of the illustrious Marshal Molitor, who has been appointed chief of the Legion of Honor, with the title of Grand Chancellor of that Order. The appointment of Jerome was one of the first acts of the new President. It was made at the special instance of the Council of Ministers. Napoleon Bonaparte, a young man of twenty-five, son of Jerome, already a member of the National Assembly, was generally designated as ambassador of the Republic at London, soon to be nomina a favorite residence of the Emperor himself. It About two months since the friends of Litwas his residence during the Hundred Days and erature, the Arts and Sciences in France were was the last palace he occupied in France. In thrown into utter dismay by the report of the 1814 and 1815 it was inhabited by the Emperor Committee of Finances in the Assembly. It re commended the most sweeping reductions with opposed by several of the most distinguished orregard to the appropriations made under the mon-ators, especially by Mons. Dupin and Victor archy, the empire, and even under the former Hugo. The latter made what Frenchmen call Republic, for the support of the National Insti- un discours magnifique. After Lamartine, he is tutions to which France owes so much of her the finest phrase-maker of the House. "The glory among nations. Nothing escaped the Van- grand error of late years," says Victor Hugo, dalic sword of the Financial Committee. The" has been to bend men to the search of the mafund for the support of promising young artists terial well-being and turn them from the pursuit in Rome, while perfecting themselves by the of the religious and intellectual well-being. The study of the masterpieces contained in its illus- fault is the greater, inasmuch as material welltrious museums, a fund already too small, was to being can never be possessed but by the few; be fatally cut down. This school of Rome, da- while intellectual and religious well-being may ted from Louis XIV. and Colbert. The famous be imparted to all. It is all important, gentleConservatory of Music, a grand creation of the men, to remedy this evil. The spirit of man first Republic, was menaced with a notable dim- must be made straight again. The spirit of man inution of its annual resources. The Republic must be raised up, and must be turned toward of 1796 gave 25,000 francs; that of 1848 was to God, toward conscience, toward the Beautiful, give 15,000. The Public Libraries, the Thea- the Just, the Unselfish, the Grand." A material tres, the Museums, Literary pensions, various and practical American would suggest to M. funds for the encouragement of Literature and Victor Hugo that the grand misfortune of late the Arts, by the distribution of prizes and the pur- and former years in France has been to theorize chase for the State of fine paintings and statues, charmingly and talk magnificently, but to pracall came in for a share. It was loudly proclaim- tise very imperfectly. It is doubtless very fine, ed that the French Republic, after refusing to this raising up the spirit of man and directing imitate the great American Republic in several it to the Beautiful, the Just, the Unselfish, the particulars, which form the glory, the strength, Grand-teaching it to despise vile material inand the wisdom of its political Constitution, was about fatally to imitate that Republic in its debasing devotion to mere material interests. It was about to sacrifice by one fell blow, artists, painters, musicians, savans, poets-in one word, all that constitutes the intellectual glory of France: and set up as a god for exclusive worship-the Dollar! A member of the Mountain in 1793, when signing the death-warrant of an illustrious savant, facetiously remarked, "la Republique n'a pas besoin de savans." It was to be feared that there were too many in the Assembly of 1848 of the same opinion. It was time for the friends Dame de Paris," or of Chateaubriand's “Marof the Intellectual glory of France" to bestir tyrs." Now what is this "material well-being" themselves, for the budget of '49 was under dis- the pursuit of which is so decried by the magcussion, and the order of the day for the reduc- niloquent Frenchman, but the possession and tions in question was close at hand. The Insti- the assured possession of dinner and a blanket? tute, the Academies, and the numerous associa-Let him assure to the ill-fed and ill-clothed miltions of men of letters were all on the alert. The lions of his own countrymen a sufficiency of this lobbies of the National Assembly swarmed with despised material well-being to make existence their members, and the journals teemed with cease to be for them a curse, and then, but not their protests and exposés. But don't suppose, till then, may he hope that after some centuries though it was a money question which produced of amelioration the mass of Frenchmen may all this excitement, a money question too upon perhaps arrive at the degree of "intellectual and the decision of which many of them were de- religious well-being" actually enjoyed by the pendent for their daily bread, that this fact had masses in the United States. At the conclusion the slightest effect in quickening their literary of his harangue, M. V. Hugo, turning to the auand scientific zeal. Could the generous, patri- thors of the proposed reductions, thus addressed otic and magnanimous soul of a Frenchman give them: "I have but one word more to say to you. entrance for an instant to the worship of the Dol-You have fallen into a most deplorable error. lar! Was it not American breasts only which You supposed yourselves to be economizing mowere accessible to such ignoble considerations! ney. You have economized glory. I reject these In the Assembly the proposed reductions were economies for the dignity of France, for the terests as of the earth, earthy. But a material and practical American would suggest that material well-being must precede religious and intellectual well-being. It is this which fits man to be their recipient. A man whose bowels are pinched with hunger, whose limbs are shivering with cold, is hardly in the fittest state to profit by, or relish the reading of, twenty pages of Burke's essay upon "the Sublime and Beautiful." We may venture a doubt whether a man in such a situation would not prefer a dinner and a blanket, even to an hour's loan of Victor Hugo's "Notre |