The year 1773, which saw the publication by De Bret of the works of Molière, may perhaps be considered as that in which the French Book of the eighteenth century reached its culminating point. M. de Laborde, first valet de chambre of the King and governor of the Louvre, published with De Lormel, printer to the Academy of Music, his celebrated collection of _Chansons_, dedicated to the young Dauphiness Marie Antoinette, and partly illustrated by the younger Moreau. The work is exquisite, of powerful yet simple grace. The sentimental note of the century was struck in it, the insipid love of shepherdesses there tenderly sighed, and the designer has delightfully rendered this arch side of the pastoral song. Our task does not permit us to linger over the works of this prodigious and charming artist, but we must mention his inimitable plates to J. J. Rousseau, the finest and most agreeable of his compositions and vignettes, also his _chef-d'oeuvre_, the _Histoire du Costume_. [Illustration: Fig. 88.--Vignette of the "Pardon Obtenu," designed by Moreau le Jeune, for Laborde's _Chansons_, in 1773.] As evidencing the activity of French artists of the Book in the eighteenth century, we cite the number of works illustrated by the respective artists enumerated in the last edition of M. H. Cohen's valuable _Guide de l'Amateur de Livres à Gravures du XVIII^e Siècle_:-- Aliamet, 34. Audran, 16. Aveline, 33. Baquoy, 87. Basan, 9. Binet, 48. Borel, 29. Boucher, 47. Bovinet, 34. Cars, 13. Chedel, 21. Chenu, 18. Choffard, 50. Cochin, 143. Coypel, 24. Dambrun, 77. Delaunay, N., 95. Delignon, 50. Delvaux, 66. Duclos, 49. Duflos, 56. Dunker, 15. Duplessis-Bertaux, 22. Eisen, 135. Elluin, 14. Fessard, E., 69. Ficquet, 14. Flipart, 24. Fokke, 14. Folkema, 17. Fragonard, 10. Freudeberg, 7. Gaucher, 55. Ghendt, 78. Godefroy, 29. Gravelot, 86. Grignion, 13. Gutenberg, 20. Halbou, 58. Helman, 22. Ingouf, 18. Langlois, 18. Le Barbier, 54. Le Bas, 39. Lebran, 21. Leclerc, 11. Legrand, 45. Lemire, 77. Lempereur, 68. Leveau, 31. Longueil, 97. Marillier, 116. Martinet, 27. Masquelier, 42. Massard, 40. Monnet, 67. Monsiau, 22. Moreau, 138. Née, 48. Pasquier, 18. Patas, 65. Pauquet, 23. Petit, 23. Picart, 62. Ponce, 65. Prévost, 40. Prud'hon, 14. Queverdo, 54. Rigaud, 18. Roger, 17. Romanet, 26. Rousseau, 24. St. Aubin, 70. Scotin, 27. Sève, 29. Simonet, 83. Tardieu, 64. Tilliard, 15. Trière, 39. Doubtless some of these ascriptions are for frontispieces only, but as a list of the principal book illustrators of the time, and as showing the measure of their popularity, this table is of much interest.