Influenced by prejudice, Voltaire has been unjust to Madame Guyon; he denies that she possessed talent, and sneeringly says, that “she wrote verses like Cotin, and prose like Punchinello.” This is not the first time that truth has been sacrificed, for the sake of giving an epigrammatic turn to a sentence. To the opinion of Voltaire may be opposed that of the shrewd Duke of St. Simon, which is very different. Nor is it probable that Fenelon would have held in high estimation a mere senseless enthusiast. That in her writings, which extend to nine-and-thirty volumes, much erroneous reasoning, mystic jargon, and even nonsense, may be found, admits of no dispute; but they also contain many fine sentiments strikingly expressed. That she was endowed with a prevailing eloquence appears to be undeniable. There is an anecdote recorded of her which proves, likewise, that in the common business of life, she was possessed of a large share of penetration and sound sense. She was chosen as sole umpire in a cause in which she and twenty-two of her relations were interested. After thirty days’ close investigation of the documents and claims, she drew up an award, which received the prompt and full approbation of all the contending parties. It may be doubted, whether there have been many arbitrators who have given such universal satisfaction as Madame Guyon. About the time that Madame Guyon was released from the Bastile, that prison became the abode of Gatien de Courtils de Sandraz, a fertile writer, but whose productions are, for the most part, of a class which merits censure rather than praise. This author, a Parisian, born in 1644, must be reckoned among those who poison the sources of history. “He was,” says Voltaire, “one of the most culpable writers of this kind. He inundated Europe with fictions under the name of histories.” Many of those fictions profess to be written by persons who, during the reigns of Louis XIII. and Louis XIV., had borne a part in affairs of state and court intrigues. More than forty volumes of memoirs of this sort, biographies, romances, and political tracts, were produced by his indefatigable pen. He was originally a captain in the regiment of Champagne, but went to Holland in 1683, and staid in that country for five years. It was while he was there that he gave some of his earliest works to the press. In 1689, the partiality which he manifested on the side of France occasioned him to be sent out of the Dutch territory, and he went to Paris, where he continued till 1694. He then returned to Holland, where he continued for eight years. In 1702, he went back to his native land, but his reception was calculated to make him regret having done so. He was immediately sent to the Bastile, where he languished for nine years, during the first three of which he was very harshly treated. His offence is not known; but his Annals of Paris and the court, in which he attacked the character of some powerful personages, are conjectured to