Page:Reflections upon ancient and modern learning (IA b3032449x).pdf/392

 Respect to Men of Letters. Afterwards, when she setled at Rome, her Palace was always an Academy of the Virtuosi of that City. The present French King, whilst Monsieur Colbert lived, took a singular Pride in sending Presents to the most celebrated Scholars of Europe; without regarding whether they were his own Subjects, or of his own Religion, or no. This he did purely for his Glory, the Principle which Sir William Temple (n) so very much applauds. His own Protestant Subjects, before he involved them in one common Ruin, tasted of his Liberality of that Kind upon Occasion: And whatsoever his other Actions are, and have been; yet his extraordinary Care to breed up his Son to Learning, his erecting of Academies for Arts and Sciences at Paris, and his frequent Bounties to Men of Letters, justly require that, upon this Account, he should be mentioned with Honour. Cardinal de Richelieu, Cardinal Mazarini, Monsieur Fouquet, and Monsieur Colbert, though no Sovereign Princes, yet had Purses greater than many of them. Cardinal de Richelieu was himself a Scholar; and all of them were