of his power. His subsequent fall was caused in part at least by his hostility to the Jesuits.

267. Mme. du Deffand (1697-1780), friend and confidant of Voltaire and famous for her salon, her affair with d'Alembert and, at the age of seventy, her love affair with Horace Walpole. "Je ne sais pas de correspondence au XVIII siècle qui ait un intérêt psychologique plus sérieux que ces lettres (the letters of Mme. du Deffand).” (Lanson.)

268. Ferney, in France (Ain), very near the Swiss border. Voltaire lived here from 1760 till his return to Paris at the time of his death (1778).

269. François Joachim de Bernis (1715-1794), prelate and poet, author of light verse and memoirs. His "avenir" was to become

cardinal and ambassador to Venice and Rome.

270. Freron (1719-1776), French journalist and critic, bitter enemy of Voltaire.

271. Jacques le Franc, marquis de Pompignan (1709-1784), author of a tragedy of Dido and of "poésies sacrées," of which Voltaire said: ''Sacrées,' ils sont car personne n'y touche."

272. i. e., quarrels between natives and strangers (Lanson). The Dictionnaire Générale gives bibus: un rien.

273. Perses: Parisians; Persépolis: Paris.

274. Region between the Tigris and Euphrates.

275. Gold coin of ancient Persia with head of Darius on it; worth about five dollars.

276. i. e., through the Faubourg Saint-Marceau.

277. Hôtel des Invalides, begun by Louis XIV.

278. "Conseiller au parlement," this office could be sold by the incumbent or handed down to members of his family.

279. Abbot or superior of an order.

280. Jansenist (Moland).

281. Zoroaster, one of the great teachers of the East and founder of the wisdom of the Magi.

282. The pope.

283. Jansenists.

284. Cardinal de Fleury (1657-1743), minister of Louis XV.

285. Probably Mme. de Pompadour (1721-1764), mistress of Louis XV.

286. Jean François Rameau (born 1716), nephew of the musician Jean Philippe Rameau (1683-1764). Diderot's portrait while artistically exaggerated seems to tally fairly well with the few existing descriptions of this ne'er-do-well.

287. In the Allée d'Argenson to the east of the Jardin du Palais Royal.

288. "Fancies."

289. This café, founded in 1718, still exists and is still a rendezvous of chess players.

290. Proprietor of the café.

291. Philidor, a musician of note as well as a chess player, is the only one of these personages whose name is still remembered.

292. "Differs."

293. A trappist monastery whose rules were extremely severe.

294. A branch of the Cistercian order reorganized by St. Bernard 295. "Gentleman."

296. "Cocher de fiacre."

297. Cours-la-Reine, a fashionable promenade along the banks of the Seine, a favorite with Marie de Médicis, for whom it was named. 298. He was a musician.

299. "Neither to the physical nor mental well-being."

300. "Intelligence."

301. Refers to "personnes" by syllepsis.

302. "Dans quels cas."

303. "Intelligence."

304. "Wit."

305. "Opinion."

306. Hecyra.

307. Valet of comedy.

308. i. e., that cannot be treated in some one of the serious forms of drama.

309. "Would not find."

310. "Distinctive."

311. "Class" or "social station."

312. "Ressortir."

313. "Condition" or "social station."

314. Gil Blas, after divers more or less unhappy experiences as student, doctor's assistant, wit, etc., enters the service of the Archbishop of Grenada as his secretary.

315. "Élégante."

316. Nephew of the archbishop who had obtained the position for Gil Blas.

317. The Athenians regarded the Boeotians as a stupid race lacking in refinement. The expression "Boeotian ear" became proverbial to designate a person having no ear for rhythm or beauty in expression.

318. Cardinal Jiménès (1436-1517), archbishop of Toledo, Spain, and statesman, was past sixty when he entered upon his strenuous

career.

319. "Se répétait."

320. "Professeur de collège."

321. Former teacher of Gil Blas, who had bequeathed him some valueless books.

322. Aristarchus, a famous Greek critic and grammarian who flourished about 150 B. C.

323. Marianne, having sprained her foot, has been compelled to take a cab to return to Mme. Dutour's, where she has a room.

324. "Cocher."

325. "Stingy."

326. Oaths used chiefly by peasants, frequent in early French comedies.

327. "To compromise."

328. Cf. p. 175, note 326.

329. Cf. English proverb: "The better the day, the better the deed." 330. "Direction marks."

331. He was separated from Julie and did not know whether he would ever see her again.

332. "Stretches of countryside."

333. Vevey, across the lake from Meillerie.

334. Cf. Part I, letter XXVI.

335. "Avec constance."

336. "La bécassine du lac de Genève n'est point l'oiseau qu'on appelle en France du même nom. Le chant plus vif et plus animé de la nôtre donne au lac, durant les nuits d'été, un air de vie et de fraicheur qui rend les rives encore plus charmantes." (Note de Rousseau.)

337. “And such perfect trust, such sweet memories, and long companionship," verses of Metastasio.

338. "Supporté."

339. "On vendange fort tard dans le pays de Vaud parce que la principale récolte est en vins blancs et que la gelée leur est salutaire." (Note de Rousseau.)

340. Greek surname of Bacchus.

341. A large wine cask.

342. Now: où.

343. During these Roman festivals, master and slaves often changed places.

344. "Scutching hemp," i. e., breaking the fibres of hemp and separating them from the stalk ("chènevotte") in preparation for spinning.

345. "Comprende."

346. In reality, the second. Rousseau has stated that he has not the text before him.

347. "Dans."

348. Many words that became obsolete during the XVII and XVIII Centuries came back into use when the interest in the Middle Ages was revived towards 1800.

349. La Fontaine wrote du Corbeau.

350. "Carelessly."

351. La Fontaine wrote se rapportait. Hence Rousseau's criticism was pointless.

352. The correct text is êtes.

353. "We are not interested in them." Rousseau excluded from early education general maxims, abstract advice, etc.

354. "Knoll," "bluff."

355. "Cabbage-palm."

356. "Sapwood," layer of wood next to the bark. 357. "Flint."

358. "Peaks."

359. Small hut constructed of stakes and branches.

360. Island in the Egean Sea famous for its marble.

361. Goddess of the sea.

362. God of poetry and the arts.

363. Muse of epic poetry and eloquence.

364. Muse of astronomy.

365. Isaac Newton (1646-1727), English scientist and discoverer of the laws of gravitation.

366. Goddess of shepherds and flocks.

367. Celebrated Spanish poet and dramatist (1600-1681).

368. Cf. p. 141, note 257.

369. German poet very popular in the XVIII Century, second only to Goethe (1747-1794).

370. Château some thirty miles from the port of St. Malo in Brittany where Chateaubriand passed part of his youth.

371. A nautical term meaning "the points of the compass." Here the sense is "in all parts."

372. Lucile de Chateaubriand, later Mme. de Caud.

373. Cotton cloth from Siam with a design in wavy threads of different colors giving the impression of flames.

374. "Ratteen," a sort of woolen stuff.

375. The years passed at Comburg in the company of a stern and taciturn father, a meek mother always sighing or praying and a sister as dreamy and melancholy as René himself, left an indelible impression on the boy's soul. Chateaubriand at Comburg was already suffering from the "mal de René."

376. The act of breaking the enchantment or spell.

377. "Mississippi."

378. Perhaps the Nelson River, flowing North from Lake Winnipeg, formerly Lake Bourbon, into Hudson Bay.

379. A floating, aquatic plant, sometimes called "tropical duckweed."

380. "Green wood-pecker."

381. "God of war."

382. An Indian dish made of coarse hominy.

383. "Day fly," an insect living in the water in its larval state and perishing a few hours after reaching the perfect winged form.

384. "Sweet gum tree," a variety of liquidambar.

385. A musical instrument.

386. (René is perhaps the most complete study in French literature of that type of melancholia known at the beginning of the XIX Century as "le mal du siècle," whose salient traits were morbid in

trospection, incurable ennui and the bitter pleasure that the victim derived from his own suffering, a disease of which various phases had already been seen in Werther, Ossian and Byron. The story is a vivid recollection, altered for literary purposes, of two years that Chateaubriand spent at Comburg with his sister Lucile in a sort of exaltation bordering on folly.) (Cf. Mémoires d'Outre-Tombe, lère partie, livre III.)

387. "Aurochs," an extinct species of wild ox.

388. A Germanic tribe.

389. A Germanic god, regarded by the Western tribes as the author of their race.

390. "Mille Francos, mille Sarmatas semel occidimos; Mille, mille, mille, mille, mille Persas quærimus." (Note of Chateaubriand.) Probus, a Roman emperor (276-282), stopped the first German invasion on the banks of the Rhine.

391. Originally a hymn in praise of Apollo, refers also to the battle hymn and song of victory.

392. Song of the bards.

393. Chateaubriand quotes Tacitus as saying that the Germans placed their shields against their mouths in order to produce a deep sound like a subdued murmur.

394. War song.

395. Louis de Courcillon, abbé de Dangeau (1643-1723), academician and grammarian.

396. Richelet (1631-1698), grammarian, author of the first methodical dictionary of the French language and of numerous essays on grammar and versification.

397. Beauzée (1717-1789), a grammarian.

398. Symbols of the French court indicating the aristocratic character of the language.

399. i. e., for the forty members of the Académie Française.

400. Tristan l'Hermite (1601-1655), poet, whose tragedy Mariane enjoyed a great success in 1636.

401. "Confessing culprit."

402. Vaugelas (1585-1650), grammarian and one of the founders of the Academy. His Remarques sur la Langue française (1647) was long the authority in matters of language. Cf. Selection from "Remarques."

403. Madame Charles, whom Lamartine celebrates as Elvire in Le Lac and Le Crucifix, died in December, 1817.

404. M. Lanson in his edition of the Premières Méditations contradicts Lamartine's own commentary and says the poem was written in 1818 and published with one or two others in an edition "à tirage limité" in 1819.

405. Le Lac de Bourget, near Aix-les-Bains, where Lamartine met Elvire in September, 1816. She was already consumptive and died fifteen months later.