BOILEAU.

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opened for me the right path, and supported my stepstowards the Parnassus where I ventured to seek her.”

At the age of eighteen he wrote an ode on the warwhich it was expected that Cromwell would declareagainst France. In later days he corrected this ode, andadded to the force of its expressions; but even in itsoriginal state it is remarkable for the purity of its lan-guage, its conciseness, and energy.

At the age of sixteen he lost his father, and thusacquired early that independent position which is theportion of orphans. His relations wished him to followthe profession of the law: he consented, and, applyinghimself with diligence, was named advocate at an earlyage. But the chicanery, the tortuousness, and absurdity jggg.of the practice speedily disgusted him, formed as he was iEtat.by nature to detect and expose error; so that, in the very 20.first cause entrusted to him, he showed so much disgust,that the attorney (who probably was aware that such ex-isted), fancying that he had discovered some irregularityin his proceedings, said, on withdrawing his brief,

“ Ce jeune avocat ira loin.” Boileau, on the contrary,was oidy eager to throw off the burden of a professionso little suited to him ; and he quitted the bar for thestudy of ecclesiastical polity, fancying that religion wouldpurify and elevate the practice of the church. He wassoon undeceived; and was shocked and astonished bythe barbarous language, the narrow scholastic specula-tions, and polemical spirit, of the sorbonne. He foundthat chicanery had but changed its garb ; and, unwillingto debase his mind by such studies, he gave them up,and dedicated himself entirely to literature. Led by hisinborn genius, he boldly entered on the career of lettersand poetry, in spite of the warnings of his family *, for

* Que si quelqu’un, mes Vers, alors vous importune,

Pour savoir mes parens, ma vie, et ma fortune,

Contez lui qu’allie d’assez hauts magistrats,

Fils d’un greffier, ne d’ayeux avocats,

Des le ber^eau perdant une forte jeune mdre,

Reduit seize ans aprSs k pleurer mon vieux p&re,

J’allai d’un pas hardi, par moi-meme guide,

Et de mon seul genie en marchant seconde,

B 3