Avant qu'il soit fini ce temple magnifique,
Les saints et Dieu seront proscrits,
Par la secte philosophique
Et des temples et de Paris."
In the original pediment, since altered by the sculptor David (of Angers), a bas-relief represented a cross in the midst of clouds; and on the plinth was the following inscription:—
"D. O. M. SUB INVOC. STÆ. GENOVEFÆ—LUD. XV. DICAVIT,"
which, in 1791, when a decree of the National Assembly appropriated this monument of religion to the reception of the remains of illustrious Frenchmen, was changed to—
"AUX GRANDS HOMMES LA PATRIE RECONNAISSANTE."
On the restoration of the Bourbons, and of the edifice to its first purpose, the Latin inscription resumed its place, with the addition of "LUD. XVIII. RESTITUIT," which, however, again gave way to the French epigraph after the revolution of 1830, still probably to be retained, while accompanied with a due reference to the sanctified patroness of the church.
The French inscription was the happy thought of M. Pastoret, one of the few Academicians that embraced at its origin the principles of the Revolution, which he followed through its varying phases, until he attained an advanced age. The first mortuary deposit in the Pantheon was that of Mirabeau, in August, 1791; and, on the 30th May ensuing, the anniversary of the death of Voltaire, "L'Assemblée Nationale déclara cet écrivain le libérateur de la pensée, et digne de recevoir les honneurs décernées aux grands hommes," &c. On the 27th August following, a similar distinction was decreed to J. J. Rousseau; but in January, 1822, the tombs of these apostles of incredulity were removed, until replaced in 1830. In July, 1793, the monster Marat was inhumed there, "amidst the deepest lamentations and mournful expressions of regret for the loss sustained by the country in the death of the most valued of her citizens," whose corpse, however, on the 8th February, 1795, was torn from its cerements and flung, with every mark of ignominy, into the filth of the sewer of Montmartre. In the vicissitudes of popular favour even Mirabeau's effigy was burned in 1793. Such have been the alternations and ever-recurring contests in the feelings and principles of the ascendant parties—