Page:Works of Voltaire Volume 36.djvu/65

Rh  Soon the first Francis, nobly bold, Raised a new temple like the old; But his posterity despised An architecture once so prized. Next Richelieu made it all his care The abandoned temple to repair. Lewis adorned the sacred shrine, Colbert invited all the nine; Each art, in which the wise excel, Beneath the temple's roof to dwell. By this the first shrine was surpassed, But much I doubt it will not last. Here might I in descriptive verse The beauties of the shrine rehearse; But let us not, to show our skill in Description, simply write for filling; Let us prolixity avoid, By which Felibien's readers cloyed; Whilst he each trifle to explain, Launches into rhetoric strain. This noble building's not disgraced With heaps of rubbish round it placed; For thus our sires, but little skilled, Their Gothic structures used to build. The shrine from all the faults we see, In Versailles Chapelle famed is free; That gewgaw which strikes vulgar eyes, But which all men of taste despise. It is much easier to give a negative than a positive idea of this Temple. To avoid so difficult an attempt I shall only add,  The structure's of a simple taste, Each ornament is justly placed;