The philosophers counted upon taking possession of the mind of a good young sovereign, who was said to have his heart set upon his people's happiness; the clergy and the Jesuits themselves expected everything from the young prince's pious education; the old parliaments, mutilated, crushed down, began to raise up their heads again, while the economists were already preparing their most daring projects.

Like literature, the arts had got the start, in the new path, of the politicians and the magistrates.

M.Turgot and M.de Malesherbes had not yet laid their enterprising hands upon the old fabric of French administration, and already painting, sculpture, architecture, and music had shaken off the shackles of the past.

The conventional graces of Vanloo, of Watteau, of Boucher, of Fragonard, had given place to a severer school.

Greuze was putting upon canvas the characters and ideas of Diderot's _Drame naturel;_ but Vien, in France, was seconding the efforts of Winkelman and of Raphael Mengs in Italy; he led his pupils back to the study of ancient art; he had trained Regnault, Vincent, Menageot, and lastly Louis David, destined to become the chief of the modern school; Julien, Houdon, the last of the Coustous, were following the same road in sculpture Soufflot, an old man by this time, was superintending the completion of the church of St.Genevieve, dedicated by Louis XV.