The use of the novel for "purpose"; Voltaire--General characteristics of his tales--_Candide_--_Zadig_ and its satellites--_Micromegas_--_L'Ingenu_--_La Princesse de Babylone_--Some minors--Voltaire, the Kehl edition, and Plato--An attempt at different evaluation of himself--Rousseau: the novel character of the _Confessions_--The ambiguous position of _Emile_--_La Nouvelle Heloise_--Its numerous and grave faults--The minor characters--The delinquencies of Saint-Preux--And the less charming points of Julie; her redemption--And the better side of the book generally--But little probability of more good work in novel from its author--The different case of Diderot--His gifts and the waste of them--The various display of them--_Le Neveu de Rameau_--_Jacques le Fataliste_--Its "Arcis-Pommeraye" episode--_La Religieuse_--Its story--A hardly missed, if missed, masterpiece--The successors--Marmontel--His "Telemachic" imitations worth little--The best of his _Contes Moraux_ worth a good deal--_Alcibiade ou le Moi_--_Soliman the Second_--_The Four Flasks_--_Heureusement_--_Le Philosophe Soi-disant_--A real advance in these--Bernardin de Saint-Pierre. CHAPTER XII "SENSIBILITY." MINOR AND LATER NOVELISTS. THE FRENCH NOVEL, _c._ 1800 428 "Sensibility"--A glance at Miss Austen--The thing essentially French--Its history--Mme. de Tencin and _Le Comte de Comminge_--Mme. Riccoboni and _Le Marquis de Cressy_--Her other work: _Milady Catesby_--Mme. de Beaumont: _Lettres du Marquis de Roselle_--Mme. de Souza--Xavier de Maistre--His illustrations of the lighter side of Sensibility--A sign of decadence--Benjamin Constant: _Adolphe_--Mme. de Duras's "postscript"--_Sensibilite_ and _engouement_--Some final words on the matter--Its importance here--Restif de la Bretonne--Pigault-Lebrun: the difference of his positive and relative importance--His life and the reasons for giving it--His general characteristics--_L'Enfant du Carnaval_ and _Les Barons de Felsheim_--_Angelique et Jeanneton_--_Mon Oncle Thomas_--_Jerome_--The redeeming points of these--Others: _Adelaide de Meran and Tableaux de Societe_--_L'Officieux_--Further examples--Last words on him--The French novel in 1800. CHRONOLOGICAL CONSPECTUS OF THE PRINCIPAL WORKS OF FRENCH FICTION NOTICED IN THIS VOLUME 475 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES 479 INDEX 483 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTORY [Sidenote: The early history of prose fiction.]