Page:The Harvard Classics Vol. 51; Lectures.djvu/50

 40 is gone. That of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded; and the glory of Europe is extinguished for ever."

Thus Burke proudly looked down on the miseries of France, while Voltaire had admiringly looked up to the prosperities of England. And we who come more than a century later, while recognizing their preeminence as men of letters, may perceive that as thinkers they were perhaps a little too near their objects. Burke's arguments are always admirable but unconvincing; while Voltaire's often justified praise of the English reposes on an obvious failure to understand them.