[Footnote 3211: Vaugelas, "Remarques sur la langue française:" "It is the mode of speech of the most sensible portion of the court, as well as the mode of writing of the most sensible authors of the day. It is better to consult women and those who have not studied than those who are very learned in Greek and in Latin."] [Footnote 3212: One of the causes of the fall and discredit of the Marquis d'Argenson in the eighteenth century, was his habit of using these.] [Footnote 3213: Vaugelas, ibid.. "Although we may have eliminated one-half of his phrases and terms we nevertheless obtain in the other half all the riches of which we boast and of which we make a display."--Compare together a lexicon of two or three writers of the sixteenth century and one of two or three writers of the seventeenth. A brief statement of the results of the comparison is here given. Let any one, with pen in hand, note the differences on a hundred pages of any of these texts, and he will be surprised at it. Take, for examples, two writers of the same category, and of secondary grade, Charron and Nicole.] [Footnote 3214: For instance, in the article "Ignorance," in the "Dict. Philosophique."] [Footnote 3215: La Harpe, "Cours de Littérature," ed. Didot. II. 142.] [Footnote 3216: A battle-axe used by the Franks.--TR.] [Footnote 3217: I cite an example haphazard from the "Optimiste" (1788), by Colin d'Harleville. In a certain description, "The scene represents a bosquet filled with odoriferous trees."--The classic spirit rebels against stating the species of tree, whether lilacs, lindens or hawthorns.--In paintings of landscapes of this era we have the same thing, the trees being generalized,--of no known species.] [Footnote 3218: This evolution is seen today as well, television having the same effect upon its actors as the 18th century drawing-room. (SR.)] [Footnote 3219: See in the "Lycée," by la Harpe, after the analysis of each piece, his remarks on detail in style.] [Footnote 3220: The omission of the pronouns, I, he, we, you, they, the article the, and of the verb, especially the verb to be.--Any page of Rabelais, Amyot or Montaigne, suffices to show how numerous and various were the transpositions.] [Footnote 3221: Vaugelas, ibid. "No language is more inimical to ambiguities and every species of obscurity."] [Footnote 3222: See the principal romances of the seventeenth century, the "Roman Bourgeois," by Furetière, the "Princess de Clèves," by Madame de Lafayette, the "Clélie," by Mme. de Scudéry, and even Scarron's "Roman Comique."--See Balzac's letters, and those of Voiture and their correspondents, the "Récit des grands jours d'Auvergne," by Fléchier, etc. On the oratorical peculiarities of this style cf. Sainte-Beuve, "Port-Royal," 2nd ed. I. 515.] [Footnote 3223: Voltaire, 'Esay sur le poème épique', "Our nation, regarded by strangers as superficial is, with the pen in its hand, the wisest of all. Method is the dominant quality of all our writers."]