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LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC MEN.

Soit qu’ainsi de tout terns 1’ordonnat le destin,

Fit tomber & nos yeux le pulpitre un matin.

J’eus beau prendre le ciel et le chantre & partie:

11 fallut l’emporter dans notre sacristie,

Ob depuis trente hyvers sans gloire enseveli,il languit tout poudreux dans un honteux oubli.

Entends-nioi done, Prelat, des que l’ombre tranquilleViendra d’un crepe noir envelopper la ville,

11 faut que trois de nous, sans tumulte et sans bruit,

Partent & la faveur de la naissante nuit;

Et du lutrin rompu reunissantla masse,

Ailient d’un zele adroit le remettre & sa place.

Si le chantre demain ose le renverser,

Alors de cent arrets tu peux le terrasser.

Pour soutenir tes droits, que le ciel autorise,

Ablme tout plut6t, e’est l’esprit de lVglise.

C’est par 1& qu’un prelat signafe la vigueur. *

Ne borne pas ta gloire & prier dans le chceur :

Ces vertus dans Aleth peuvent fetre en usage,

Mais dans Paris , plaidons : c’est-15. notre partage.”

The last couplet contains a compliment to the bishopof Aleth, who dedicated his life to the instruction andimprovement of the people of his diocese. We are alittle astonished at the freedom with which Boileau ralliesthe clergy. At this period, when the quarrels of thejesuits and jansenists were dividing and convulsing theFrench church, the sarcasms of Boileau must have hada deep, perhaps a salutary, effect. The priesthood wasenraged, and denounced the “ Lutrin ” as blasphemous ;but the whole laity, with the king at their head, enjoyedtlie wit, and acknowledged its appositeness.

To return to the story of the poem. The advice ofSidrac is eagerly adopted. They draw lots, and three arethus selected for the task. Brontin comes first ; thenL’Amour, a hairdresser, a new Adonis with a blond wig,only care of Anne his wife, so haughty of mien that heis the terror of his neighbourhood ; lastly, the name ofBoirude, the sacristan, is drawn. This choice satisfiesthe chapter, and the first canto ends with the notice,that

“ Le Prelat, reste seul, calme une peu son depit,

Et jusqu’au souper se couche et s’assoupit.”

The second book commences with a description ofRenown, imitated from Virgil’s Fame, who reveals thewigmaker’s purpose to his wife, and a scene of remon-strance ensues and reproach, parodied on the parting ofJEneas and Dido. The portions of the poem which are