Strict in his attention to economy, Colbert never showed a niggardly disregard to the arts and sciences, which furnish our best and most intellectual pleasures, and offer the purest incentives for men to labour in amassing national or individual wealth. France, under his administration, saw a profuse expenditure in works of public splendour or utility; and Paris owes to him a large portion of the magnificence which it now boasts. The Quays, the Boulevards, the Palace of the Tuileries, the Hotel des Invalides, &c., were improved or constructed under his care; and the splendid colonnade of the Louvre was designed and executed by Perrault, a native artist, in preference to the Italian, Bernini. Colbert was anxious to persuade the king to complete the Louvre in preference to wasting money on the sandy plains of Versailles. “Your Majesty knows,” he said, “that in the absence of dazzling actions nothing so strongly indicates greatness of mind in princes as splendour in building. While you have spent immense sums in Versailles, you have neglected the Louvre, which is the grandest palace in the world, and the one most worthy of your Majesty.” Nor was he careless of more homely improvements; for the paving, lighting, and watching of the capital were remodelled, and taken under the charge of government. To literary and scientific merit, Colbert was a liberal and active patron. At his instance Louis XIV. granted pensions to the most distinguished _savans_ of Europe, as well foreigners as Frenchmen; and though the amount of the gratifications thus conferred was not large, it was sufficient to make the praises of ‘Le Grand Monarque,’ as of a second Augustus, ring through Europe. Under his auspices were founded the Académie des Inscriptions, and the Académie des Sciences; the Academies of Painting and Sculpture, and the School of Rome, whither the most promising pupils of the Parisian Academies were sent to complete their studies. The King’s Library, and the Jardin des Plantes, were extended; the Observatory of Paris was founded; and the celebrated astronomers, Cassini and Huygens, were invited thither.