LA FONTAINE.

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and charm. “ He who would reduce, ” says he,“ Ariosto and Boccaccio to the modesty of Virgil wouldassuredly not be thanked for his pains —(ne feraitassurement rien qui vaille"). An enervating tendermelancholy is, he says, much more injurious. Hisonly object, he protests, was to procure the reader apassing smile ; and, for his part, he could not compre-hend how the reading of his tales should have a badeffect upon others when the composition had none uponhim.”

But can it be true, or possible, that this enchantingfabulist was not merely subject to absences and musings,but the dullest of mortals in conversation ;—his thoughtsand expressions alike clumsy and confused ? Two, themost positive testimonies, will suffice, out of many. Thedaughter of Racine, who had seen him frequently at herfather’s table, described him as “slovenly, stupid, andtalking of nothing but Plato." La Bruyere obviouslymeant the following character for him : — “A manappears — clumsy, heavy, stupid. He cannot talk, oreven tell what he has just seen. If he sits down towrite, he produces the model of tales. He endowswith speech brutes, trees, stones, — all to which naturehas denied speech; and all is levity, elegance, beauty,nature, in his works.”* These testimonies, though sopositive, are far from conclusive. The lady had notaste for Plato, and La Bruyere ’s style of portraiture,always overcharged, seems particularly so in this in-stance, where his object was contrast and effect. LaFontaine may have fallen into reveries and solecisms inthe company of his friends; he may have been silentand dull at the table of a financier, where he was amongstrangers to be stared at; but his society would not havebeen sought and prized, not only by the Molieres, Soi-leaus, and Racines, but by the Condes, Contis, and

* Un homme parait— grossier, lourd, stupide. II ne s^ait pas parler, niraconter ce qu’il vient de voir. S’ii se met 4 ecrire, c’est Je modele desbeaux contes. II fait parler les animaux, les arbres, les pierres,—tout ce quine parle pas. Ce n’est^que legSrete, que elegance, que beau naturel, dansses ouvrages. * ,

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