English throne the smart family, to whose head he had ordered the excavations, presented Polignac -with a
was indebted for his n mation t<» the cardinalate. bass-relief containing fourteen figures, embodying the
be negotiations al Utrecht were closed, the legend of Bacchus and Ariadne, h had formed the
promotion of Polignac was promulgated, and he re- highest step of the state platform constructed for the
ceived the cardinal's hat at Antwerp, Feb. 10, 1713. In imperial audiences. From the Columbarium of the
the summer of the same year the beretta was delivered Libertines of Livia he obtained several beautiful urns,
to him al Versailles by Louis XIV himself. He did He expressed the wish thai he could be master of Rome,
• cl hi- poetic defence "i Christianity even in in order that he mighl turn the course of the Tiber for
the perplexity of diplomatic cares. He added new a fortnight, and rifle its bed of the precious relics sup-
during his sojourn al Utrecht, and posed to be concealed beneath its yellow stream, lie
read his poetic labors to the eminent and aged scholar had surveys executed with the view to the gratification
: after his return to Paris he received the appointment of master of the Roj al < Impel, an office which he resigned alter three year-' tenure. His influ- ence and acceptability al court declined after the death of the ureal monarch. His stately manners belonged to the old regime, and were uncongenial to the license of the regency. He was involved in the conspiracy of through his attachment to the duke and duchess of Maine, and hi- opposition in the regent < >r- i Ic was exiled to his abbey of Anchin, in Flan- i though his arrival was distasteful to the sim- ple and uncultivated Flemish monks, he won their re- gard bj his gentleness and < sideration, by the iu-
tegrity of his government, and by the decoration of their church. He employed himself here « itfa the con- tinuation of his poem; bul alter three years returned to Paris "ii the death of the cardinal Dubois and of the regent, [n 1724 he attended the conclave in Rome
of such adesire. Could it have been satisfied, the proj- ect of Garibaldi would have been anticipated by one hundred and fifty years; but recent discussions have in- dicated the hopelessness of obtaining any considerable i reasures by such a laborious proa dure. The numerous relics which Polignac acquired by these and other op- portunities were arranged as a graud museum of an- tiquities at his hotel in Paris. They ultimately met with a sorrowful fate. The cardinal had hoped to in- crease them by the examination of the ruins of the Templum Pacis, burned in A.D. 191, in the reign of Commodus. He expected to find amid the ashes and debris the sacred vessels carried oil' from Jerusalem by Titus. The hope and the expectation both remained ungratified.
Polignac's liberal studies were by no means restricted to poetry and classical archaeology. A portion of his time was always devoted t<> philosophy, mathematics,
which resulted in the electi f Benedict XIII, and and physics. He thus gained that diversified .and ex-
rendered himself singularly acceptable to him and to I mem XII. He was appointed shortly after his arrival in Rome ambassador of France at the papal court, and ai length brought to a happy termi- nation the long i troversy of the Gallican Church on
eel of the bull Unigenitus. He returned to his
native land iii 1730, ■• la len with the spoil- of Rome"
both the tributes paid to his dexterity, wit, eloquence,
ination of manner, and the ami. pie treasures
brought from the capital ol the ancienl world. During
. he had been appointed, in 1726, archbishop
oid in 1728 Commandeur des Ordres <ln A'../.
During this Ion- political and diplomatic career
' bi -ai many intervals of literarj retirement,
ensive knowledge which is strikingly hut not convinc- ingly displayed in his Anti-Lucretius. The last decade of his life seems to hai e been chiefly consecrated to this graceful and remarkable poem; bul it was al- icupied
with the arrangement and study of his ample gallery of instructive curiosit its. and enlivened by pleasant in- tercourse vvilh his friend-, and vvilh the distinguished strangers who were attracted to his hotel by his wide and long-established reputation, for half a century he w as one ot' the notabilities of Europe, lie died at Paris Nov. 20, 1711. and his collection was scattered at his death. His habits had hen elegant and courtly his living generoii- his public employments and his pri- v ate pur-nil- expensive his ample means consumed in
c which had heen sedulously employed eosllv accumulations. He was emharrassed with debt,
'" •'""1 appl'Cati I various knowl- and after his decease his | ks. his gems, his medals.
octic taste and hi- learned labors he never his sculptures, and his numerous articles ol virtu were rendered them profitable to him- offered for sale. His Btatues were purchased by Fred- men and couniers wher- crick the Great, and were transported to Berlin, whew d him. His public avocation- they were destroyed on the capture of thai .it % in the filling up the measure of his dis- Seven-Years' War. All that remains as a memorial of n I. "I he succeeded the illustrious Bossuel Polignac is his confutation of Lucretius.