One of the French philosophers (I beg Gerard's pardon), who accompanied Napoleon to Egypt, tells us that, when he first visited the great Pyramid, he was surprised to see it so diminutive.

It stood alone in a boundless plain.

There was nothing near it from which he could calculate its magnitude.

But when the camp was pitched beside it, and the tents appeared like diminutive specks around its base, he then perceived the immensity of this mightiest work of man.

In the same manner, it is not till a crowd of petty writers has sprung up that the merit of the great masterspirits of literature is understood.
We have indeed ample proof that Dante was highly admired in his own and the following age.