ost of justice, than I do
of poets who fancy that they can produce great wonders of imagination
without order and regularity. I know that excessive precision tends to
deaden the fire alike of action and of composition; but there is a
medium in everything. There has never been any question in our
controversy of a capuchin wasting his time in quenching the darts of the
flesh, though, by the way, in the whole sum of time wasted, the term
expressing the time lost in satisfying the appetites of the flesh would
probably be found to be decidedly the greater of the two.' This
parenthesis is one of a hundred illustrations of Turgot's habitual
refusal to be carried out of the narrow path of exact rationality, or to
take for granted a single word of the common form of the dialect even of
his best friends and closest associates. And the readiness with which
men fall into common form, the levity with which they settle the most
complex and difficult issues, stirred in Turgot what Michelet calls
_ferocite_, and Mr. Matthew Arnold calls _soeva indignatio_. 'Turgot
was filled with an astonished, awful, oppressive sense of the _immoral
thoughtlessness_ of men; of the heedless, hazardous way in which they
deal with things of the greatest moment to them; of the immense,
incalculable misery which is due to this cause' (_M. Arnold_).

Turgot died on the 20th of March 1781, leaving to posterity the memory
of a character which was more perfect and imposing than his
performances. Condorcet saw in this harmonious union and fine balance of
qualities the secret of his unpopularity. 'Envy,' he says, 'seems more
closely to attend a character that approaches perfection, than one that,
while astonishing men by its greatness, yet by exhibiting a mixture of
defects and vices, offers a consolation that envy seeks.'

Transcribers' Notes:

Minor printer errors (omitted or incorrect punctuation) have been
amended without note. Minor inconsistencies in hyphenation have been
resolved where possible, or retained where there was no way to determine
which was correct, again without note. Other errors have been amended,
and are listed below.

OE/oe ligatures have not been retained in this version.

List of Amendments:

Page 50--superstitution amended to superstition--"... treated as
superstition by those ..."

Page 126--devolopment amended to development--"... lead gradually to the
development of sound ..."

End of Project Gutenberg's Critic