3 82 LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC MEN.

Villars, and in the distinguished circles of mesdames deBouillon, Mazarin,and La Sabliere were the charm of hiswritings wholly wanting in his conversation. His writingswould have been admired, and their author neglected, asin the case of Corneille, were his conversation equallycommon-place and uninteresting. La Fontaine probablywas dull to those who neither understood nor were un-derstood by him. He was La Fontaine, the charmingfabulist, only when the subjects and the society in-terested him; and those around him could, by mutualintelligence, bring his genius into play. Goldsmith,in the same manner, was depreciated by persons whodid not understand him. Topham Beauclerk, a man of wit and fashion about town, thought his conver-sation absurd and dull; but Edmund Burke found init the poet and observer of mankind. The admirationof Horace and Varus, and the society of Maecenas andAugustus, did not protect Virgil ’s simplicity of cha-racter from being sneered at by the court satirists andpetits-mattres of his time. The well-known descrip-tion of him by Horace is not without resemblance toLa Fontaine’s character.

La Fontaine was buried in the cemetery of St. Joseph,at Paris, by the side of Moliere , who had died manyyears before. Boileau and Racine survived him. Hisbest epitaph is the following, written, by himself: itrecords his character with equal fidelity and humour.

“ Jean s’en alia comme il etait venu,

Mangant son fonds aprez son revenu,

Croyant le bien chose peu necessaire.

Quant & son temps bien le s<;ut depenser,

Deux parts en fit dont il soluoit passer —

L’une St dorrrrir, et l’autre a ne rien faire.”