ting a bit of scandal would ever have been allowed to pass
unnoticed by the eighteenth century, "si friand d'indiscretions de ce
genre."[73]

As can be seen by a _Compliment_ in prose and verse, addressed to Mlle.
Silvia the same year that the first _Surprise de l'Amour_ appeared.
Marivaux joined also in the well-nigh universal chorus of praise which
rose on all sides in celebration of the graceful actress. If the author
contributed much to the perfection of her talent, she, too, lent no small
part to the popularity which many of Marivaux's plays attained.

In the year of the presentation of the first _Surprise de l'Amour_, and
the more speedily and surely to relieve his financial embarrassment,
Marivaux turned his mind to journalism, and began the publication of what
he termed _le Spectateur francais_, modelled after Addison's _Spectator_.
He adopted a literary fiction to introduce his observations and moral
reflections similar to that which gave life to Sir Roger de Coverly, but
the whole was carried out with less simplicity, logical development, and
power in the creation of types, though, perhaps, with greater subtlety.
Strange to say, the _Spectateur_ has never been as much appreciated in
France as in England, where Marivaux has been compared not unfavorably
with La Bruyere.[74]

Germany was a scarcely less enthusiastic admirer, and even so severe a
critic of French literature, as was Lessing, could find words of
commendation for Marivaux; but the latter was less prodigal in his
admiration of the works of foreign literatures. "and preferred
unhesitatingly our writers to those of any nation, ancient or modern,"
says d'Alembert.[75]

The journal is composed of a series of _feuilles_ or leaflets, more or
less closely connected, familiar and conversational in character. Most of
the sketches are characterized by that intuitive and feminine delicacy of
perception and that subtlety sometimes lacking in Addison, and, while
perhaps too often they appear over quintessenced or subtilized, at times
they attain an eloquent and virile tone. Aside from their literary value,
they are of great interest in the study of the author's character.

The humanity of the man and his sensitiveness to the wrongs of others are
manifest in the description of a young girl forced to beg for a mother,
sick and in want, or to accept dishonor with the assistance of a rich man,
whose aid is offered at so dear a price. The concluding words of th