[Footnote 16: It is curious enough that such pieces often replace the higher tragedy with great effect in days when poetry is at a low ebb, and an audience desires rather to be amused than deeply moved. Such at this time are the delightful dramas of Sheridan Knowles, such the charming "Lady of Lyons," which portray the serious romance of real life, and impart the interest of situation and character, without pretending to the sublime terrors or pathos of heroic tragedy.] [Footnote 17: Corneille gives much the same account of himself in some verses written in his youth, and which he calls a slight picture of himself:-- "En matière d'amour je suis fort inégal; J'en écris assez bien, et le fais assez mal; J'ai la plume féconde, et la bouche sterile: Bon galant au théâtre, et fort mauvais en ville; Et l'on peut rarement m'écouter sans ennui; Que quand je me produis par la bouche d'autrui."] [Footnote 18: See his "Excuse à Arioste." In another place he says,-- "Si mes quinze lustres Font encore quelque peine aux modernes illustres; S'il en est de fâcheux jusqu'à se chagriner, Je n'aurai pas longtemps à les importuner."] [Footnote 19: Corneille had three sons: two entered the army; the third became an ecclesiastic; one fell at the battle of Grave, in 1677; they all died without posterity. He had one daughter, from whom descended the family of Guenebaud.] ROCHEFOUCAULD 1613-1680 Grimm, in his correspondence, records, that it was a saying of d'Alembert, that, in life, "Ce n'est qu'heur et malheur," that it was all luck or ill luck. The same thing may be said of many books; and, perhaps, of none more than that which has given literary celebrity to François, duke de la Rochefoucauld. The experience of a long life, spent for the most part in the very nucleus of the intrigues of party and the artifices of a court, reduced into sententious maxims, affords food for curiosity, while it flatters our idleness. The most indolent person may read a maxim, and ponder on its truth, and be led to meditate, without any violent exertion of mind. In addition, knowledge of the world, as it is called, always interests. Voltaire says of the "Maxims," "Though there is but one truth in this collection, which is that self-love is the motive of all, yet this thought is presented under such various aspects that it is always impressive. If we considered the pervading opinion of the book theoretically, we might be inclined to parody this remark, and say, "though there is but one multiformed falsehood in this collection,"--but we defer our consideration of the principles of this work till we have given an account of its author, who was no obscure man, meditating the lessons of wisdom in solitude, but the leader of a party, a soldier, a man of gallantry and of fashion; one such as is only produced, in its perfection, in a society highly