And, truly, if in rhymes the couplets close, What should it matter that the rest is prose? Who stickles now for antiquated saws, Or cramps his verses with pedantic laws? The fool can welcome every word he meets, With placid joy contemplating his feats; And while each stanza swells his wondering breast Admires them all, yet thinks the last the best. But towering Genius, hopeless to attain That unknown summit which he pants to gain, Displeased himself, enchanting all beside, Scorns each past effort that his strength supplied, And filling every reader with delight, Repents the hour when he began to write. To you, who know how justly I complain, To you I turn for medicine to my pain! Grant me your talent, and impart your store, Or teach me, Molière, how to rhyme no more. GASTON BOISSIER (1823-) Marie Louis Gaston Boissier is known in Paris as one of the most prominent professors of the Collège de France, and to the outside world as the author of a number of scholarly books of essays, most of them on Roman subjects. Born at Nîmes in 1823, his life has been devoted entirely to literature. Soon after his graduation from the École Normale he was made professor of rhetoric at Angoulême, and later held the same position at Nîmes. He has received the degree of Doctor, and occupied a number of high positions, culminating in that of professor of Latin poetry in the Collège de France, which he still holds. His works have a high value in the world of scholars, and have won him the red ribbon of the Legion of Honor, as well as a seat in the Académie Française, which he entered in 1876. His best known works, 'Cicero et ses Amis' (Cicero and His Friends), was crowned by the Académie; and 'Proménades Archéologiques, Rome et Naples,' written in 1880, has been translated into English, as has also his life of Madame de Sévigné, which contains many charming bits of comment on the seventeenth century. As a biographer, and also as a historian, he is quiet and accurate--never dry. He has great charm of style, and writes with elegance, correctness, clearness, and originality. He contributes largely, also, to the Revue des Deux Mondes and to scientific publications. [Illustration: GASTON BOISSIER] MADAME DE SÉVIGNÉ AS A LETTER-WRITER From the 'Life of Madame de Sévigné'