HISTORY OF MARINE ARCHITECTURE.

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suit of. But the characters of very few men have ever been spotless, and thoughthe heinousness of the crime committed by an ambitious prince against mankindmay be justly considered as one of the most injurious kind, few or none of themost renowned personages, whether ancient or modern, have been fortunateenough to surmount so far the general depravity attached to the human system,as to be charged with one failing only. Numbers of equally exalted and eminentpersonages, addicted to still more destructive pursuits, and indulging still moresavage propensities, have occasionally acquired the characters of heroes and offriends to the human race.

Louis naturally possessed a strong and clear understanding ; and, passing inan instant beyond those cold maxims which his predecessors had considered asthe only points which it was incumbent on a sovereign to keep in view, he con-descended to stem all the prejudices which the minds of the nobility in hiskingdom cherished, and to display to the rest of the world the phoenomenon of aFrench monarch, encouraging arts, universal science, or, what was still moreextraordinary, commerce itself. The active principle of his mind lay for sometime in a dormant state, and probably would have continued scarcely less inno-cent for no inconsiderable period longer, had not the insolent assuming conductof his neighbours, the Dutch, kindled the train that communicated with, andserved to inflame that combustible material, which burst forth shortly after-wards, in sufficient strength to spread conflagration over nearly the whole ofEurope.

On his accession to the throne of France, its royal navy is said to have con-sisted of only four or five frigates. It is even asserted by Voltaire, that whenthe states of Holland solicited his alliance against the English in the year 1664,some time after he had himself assumed the government of his realm, theonly vessel of war then at Brest, which was his principal naval arsenal, was anold fireship, so crazy as to be unfit for service even in that particular line forwhich she had been purposely fitted. Some authors have even, ventured toaffirm, that his sole reason for not entering into a league with King Charles theSecond of England, against the Hollanders, to whom he bore the strongestfixed antipathy, was, that he was ashamed, or what was perhaps more likely,that he feared, by entering into such an alliance, the deplorable state of hisnavy would be published to the whole world.

The abilities of the prince, aided by the very valuable assistance he receivedfrom Colbert and Louvois, in their different departments, enabled him, how-

ever,.