butions. Thus the author of "Psyché," "Adonis," and "Joconde," was led to the composition of pious hymns, and versifications of the Psalms of David. Gifted by nature with the utmost frankness of disposition, he sympathized fully with Arnauld and Pascal in the war against the Jesuits; and it would seem, from his Ballade sur Escobar, that he had read and relished the "Provincial Letters." This ballad, as it may be a curiosity to many, shall be given entire : BALLADE SUR ESCOBAR. C'EST à bon droit que l'on condamne à Rome On y parvient, quoi qu'ARNAULD2 nous en die : Veut-on monter sur les célestes tours, Chemin pierreux est grande rêverie, Il ne dit pas qu'on peut tuer un homme ' Corneille Jansenius,—the originator of the sect called Jansenists. Though he was bishop of Ypres, his chief work, "Augustinus," and his doctrines generally, were condemned by Popes Urban VIII. and Innocent X., as heretical (16+1 and 1653).—ED. 2 Arnauld.-This was Antoine Arnauld, doctor of the Sorbonne, and one of the Arnaulds famous among the Port Royalists, who were Jansenists in opposition to the Jesuits. He was born in 1612, and died a voluntary exile in Belgium, 1694. Boileau wrote his epitaph.-ED. 3 Escobar.-A Spanish Jesuit, who flourished mostly in France, and wrote against the Jansenists. Pascal, as well as La Fontaine, ridiculed his convenient principles of morality, the " chemin de velours," as La Fontaine puts it. His chief work in moral theology was published in seven vols., folio, at Lyons, 1652-1663. He died in 1669.-ED. Pour un fêtu ou bien pour une pomme; Mais qu'on le peut pour quatre ou cinq ducats. S'il est besoin conserver ses amours. Au nom de Dieu, lisez-moi quelque somme Près d'ESCOBAR ce ne sont qu'esprits lourds. ENVOI. Toi, que l'orgueil poussa dans la voirie, ESCOBAR sait un chemin de velours. Thus does the Bon-homme treat the subtle Escobar, the prince and prototype of the moralists of expediency. To translate his artless and delicate irony is hardly possible. The writer of this hasty Preface offers the following only as an attempted imitation: BALLAD UPON ESCOBAR. GOOD cause has Rome to reprobate His followers reject and hate All pleasures that we taste below. Whatever crazy ARNAULD saith, Although he does not say you can, You can for ducats four or five. When Love must needs the door unbar. Now, would to God that one would state As well attempt to drain the sea!— All other books put under ban; Burn ARNAULD and his rigid clan They're blockheads if we but compare ;— It is no joke,-I tell you, man, A velvet road hath ESCOBAR. ADDRESS. Thou warden of the prison black, The verses of La Fontaine did more for his reputation than for his purse. His paternal estate wasted away under his carelessness; for, when the ends of the year refused to meet, he sold a piece of land sufficient to make them do so. His wife, no better qualified to manage worldly gear than himself, probably lived on her family friends, who were able to support her, and who seem to have done so without d blaming him. She had lived with him in Paris for some time after that city became his abode; but, tiring at length of the city life, she had returned at Château-Thierry, and occupied the family mansion. At the earnest expostulation of Boileau and Racine, who wished to make him a better husband, he returned to Château-Thierry himself, in 1666, for the purpose of becoming reconciled to his wife. But his purpose strangely vanished. He called at his own house, learned from the domestic, who did not know him, JEAN s'en alla comme il était venu, Quant à son temps, bien sut le dispenser: This confession, the immortality of which was so little foreseen by its author, liberally rendered, amounts to the following: JOHN went as he came-ate his farm with its fruits, Held treasure to be but the cause of disputes; And, as to his time, be it frankly confessed, Divided it daily as suited him best,— Gave a part to his sleep, and to nothing the rest. It is clear that a man who provided so little for himself needed good friends to do it; and Heaven kindly furnished them. When his affairs began to be straitened, he was invited by the celebrated Madame de la Sablière to make her house his home; and there, in fact, he was thoroughly domiciliated for twenty years. "I have sent away all my domestics," said that lady, one day; "I have kept only my dog, my cat, and La Fontaine." She was, perhaps, the best-educated woman in France, was the mistress of several languages, knew Horace and Virgil by heart, and had been thoroughly indoctrinated in all the sciences by the ablest. masters. Her husband, M. Rambouillet de la Sablière, was secretary to the king, and register of domains, and to immense wealth united considerable poetical talents, with a thorough knowledge of the world. It was the will of Madame de la Sablière, that her favourite poet should have no further care for his external wants; and never was a mortal more perfectly resigned. He did all honour to the sincerity of his amiable hostess; and, if he ever showed a want of independence, he certainly did not of gratitude. Compliments of more touching tenderness we nowhere meet than those which La Fontaine has paid to his benefactress. He published nothing which was not first submitted to her eye, and entered into her affairs and friendships with all |