Many faults may be found in the old translations, but I have endeavoured to amend them; and I never scrupled to adopt any expressions, turn of thought, or even page of any or every translation of my predecessors, whenever I found I could not improve upon them. Translations of the “Characters” have appeared in several other languages; four of these were published in German, the last one printed in 1872, whilst already the final chapter of La Bruyèreʼs book “Of Freethinkers” had come out in a German dress in 1739; moreover, La Bruyèreʼs book has been translated twice into Italian, once into Spanish, and once into Russian. The imitations of the “Characters” into English are— 1. “The English Theophrastus, or the Manners of the Age, being the modern Characters of the Court, the Town, and the City,” by Boyer: London, 1692 and 1702. 2. The Chapter “Of the Manner of Living with Great Men,” written after the method of M. Bruyère, by N. Rowe, mentioned already. 3. Imitations of the Characters of Theophrastus: London, 1774. I imagine that the author of the “English Theophrastus” was M. Abel Boyer, the compiler of the well-known dictionary, born at Castres in 1664, who fled to England at the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and died at Chelsea in 1729. The direct influence of La Bruyèreʼs writings on English literature is not easily to be traced. Swift may, possibly, have studied him, though he never mentions him,[17] and so may, perhaps, Anthony Cooper, third earl of Shaftesbury,[18] “who spoke French so fluently, and with so perfect an accent, that in France he was often mistaken for a native.”[19] I venture to think that Addison and Steele were also acquainted with our Frenchman;[20] but the English author who in expression, turn of thought, art of delineating character, and in his mixture of seriousness and familiarity, is most like him, is a doctor of divinity, R. South, Prebendary of Westminster, and Canon of Christ Church, and yet he wrote before La Bruyère, and therefore cannot have imitated him.[21] I am not aware La Bruyère knew English, though his successor at the French Academy states that he spoke several foreign languages;[22] he was well acquainted with German, Italian, and I think also Spanish; nor do I know if any of Dr. Southʼs sermons were published separately before La Bruyère wrote, and if he, therefore, could have seen them. I should imagine he never read any of them. Six portraits, which adorn these volumes, have been specially etched for this edition by M. B. Damman, whilst the portrait of La Bruyère, and the vignettes at the head of each chapter, have been drawn and etched by M. V. Foulquier. In the biographical memoir of La Bruyère, I have only stated what is known of him, which is very little. HENRI VAN LAUN. [Illustration] [Illustration] A BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR OF JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE.