_Abbé Casti._[201] I will not do to him what an injudicious panegyrist has done to Ariosto, whose epitaph is laden with an enumeration of his works. Suffice it to say that his last work is inferior to all his others--_Gli animali parlanti_, a poem as dull and as ill-conceived as Dryden’s _Hind and Panther_. _Those_ discuss polemical questions, and Casti’s reason upon the abstract principles of Governt. He is very old, and worn out by every species of debauchery and excess; his eyes twinkle at times, and show a trace of his former life, but they are but rare scintillations. _Rumford_, ye Yankee philanthropist. I have often named him elsewhere. [Sidenote: M. LE CHEVALIER] _Le Chevalier_,[202] a most cordial, warm-hearted, zealous man. He travelled to the plain of Troy with Sir Francis Burdett, and has written upon it, which has given rise to a fresh controversy. He is employed _au Bureau des relations extérieures_, merely from Talleyrand’s friendship for him. His language is not calculated to obtain him promotion in his career, nor is he trusted with anything, his place being a sinecure and more a pension than an employment. _Monteron_,[203] [_sic_] one of the unfortunate Duke of Orléans’ set, a complete _mauvais sujet_, but an agreeable _vaurien_. He was one of the Dsse. de Fleury’s husbands, but has regained his liberty. _Markoff_,[204] the Russian Ambassador, a _rusé_ diplomat, scurvily treated by Bonaparte, who seems to make a point of saying offensive things before him. _M. de Grave_,[205] an obliging driveller. _Abbé Dillon_, brother of the Beau Dillon,[206] &c. Knew him in Paris in 1790, afterwards in Italy and England. A conceited _bel esprit_, with too much pretensions. _Calonne._ One may say of him as Johnson did of Garrick, that his loss has removed a stock of harmless amusement from society. He was delightful; with all the freshness and vivacity of youth, he had the taste and refinement of riper years. Tho’ he allowed himself to range in the regions of fancy, when he ought to have been restrained by the strictness of veracity, yet he did it with such liveliness and wit that one compounded for the lost fact in hearing the facetious story. He was _murdered_ by an unskilful physician a very short time after we quitted Paris. _Talma_,[207] the celebrated tragedian. His voice is bad, nor is his conception of his part always correct. He is the person who has introduced the severity and perfection of costume in the theatre. He is not clever and not well informed. _Abbé Sicard_,[208] the successor of Abbé de L’Épée. He brought with him his most intelligent pupil _Massieu_. The pains he bestows upon the unhappy objects confided to his care entitle him to much praise; the lectures are worth seeing once, but to those who stand not in need of this assistance are soon tedious.