[214] This personage is said to stand for Constantin Heudebert du Buisson, appointed _intendant des finances_ the same year (1690) the seventh edition of the “Characters” was published. See also page 153, §63. [215] The _livre parisis_, probably meant here, was equal in value to the _franc_, first coined in 1573, under Henri III. An income of ten thousand francs in La Bruyèreʼs time would represent one of fifty thousand francs now. [216] The original has _congratuler_, now only used with a ridiculous meaning attached to it. [217] It is generally supposed Theodemus was a certain Abbé de Drubec, who stopped short in the middle of a sermon preached before the court of Louis XIV.; others imagine it was a hit at the Abbé Bertier, who became bishop of Blois in 1697. [218] In this paragraph, as well as in the preceding one, some commentators imagine there is an allusion to the President Achille de Harlay, so bitterly attacked by St. Simon in his _Mémoires_. See also page 45, note 1. [219] Our author says in a note, “Written in imitation of Montaigne.” [220] The principal antiquated words in this imitation are _estriver_, to strive, to quarrel; _se ramentevoir_, to call to mind, used by Molière in the _Dépit amoureux_ (iii. 4); and _succéder_, to be successful, which, of course, is at present in French _réussir_. [221] According to all the “Keys,” this paragraph refers to a separation of two old friends, Courtois and Saint-Romain, both councillors of state; but they were still friends when the “Characters” were published. [222] Some persons, now totally unknown, have been supposed to represent Cleantes: such as a certain M. Loyseau, _receveur général des finances_ in Brittany; a M. de lʼEscalopier, _conseiller au parlement_, and others. [223] Such a contract was called _les nourritures_ in French legal phraseology. [224] G ... is supposed to stand for François Vedeau de Grammont, _conseiller au parlement_, or for his father-in-law, Philippe Genoud de Guiberville, and H ... for Charles Hervé, _doyen du parlement_; and the quarrel arose about the right of fishing in a brook. Vedeau lost his case, and was convicted of having falsified certain legal documents. Only a few years before La Bruyèreʼs death he fired at different times on a legal officer and some soldiers who were attempting to arrest him in his house in Paris, killed one and wounded another, was finally imprisoned, dismissed from his office, and banished from the kingdom. [225] _Lʼoffrande, lʼencens et le pain benit_, in the original. In small Roman Catholic towns there were formerly always quarrels about the sum to be given to the vicar when kissing the “patena,” about the carrying of the censer, and above all, whose turn it was to give a cake to be consecrated by the officiating clergyman. [226] A _bailli_ was a magistrate who judged certain cases, an _élu_ a sort of assessor of various taxes, and an _assesseur_ an assistant magistrate.