e_ is still present, it has obviously lost its hold
both on the characters represented and their creator. Deliberate
analysis appears almost as much as in the work of Beyle himself. It is
in every respect a remarkable book, and many parts of it might have been
written at the present day. What distinguishes it from almost all its
forerunners is that there is hardly any attempt at incident, far less at
adventure. The play of thought and feeling is the sole source of
interest. It is true that the situation is one that could not support a
long book, and that it is thus rather an essay at the modern analytic
novel than a finished example of it. But it is such an essay, and very
far from an unsuccessful one.

FOOTNOTES:

[288] The works of fiction written by the great authors of the century
are easily obtainable. _Manon Lescaut_ has been frequently and
satisfactorily reproduced of late years--the two editions of Glady, with
and without illustrations, being especially noteworthy. Restif de la
Bretonne is a literary curiosity whose voluminous works hardly any
collector possesses in their entirety; but the three volumes of the
_Contemporaines_, selected and edited for the _Nouvelle Collection
Jannet_ by M. Assezat, will give a very fair idea of his peculiarities.
Of most of the other authors mentioned convenient, handsome, and not too
expensive editions will be found in the _Bibliotheque Amusante_ of MM.
Garnier Freres. This includes Mesdames de Tencin, de Fontaines,
Riccoboni, de Beaumont, de Genlis, de Duras, de Souza, as well as
Marivaux and Fievee. Lesage's more remarkable fictions are obtainable at
every library. Xavier de Maistre forms a single cheap volume. A handsome
little edition of Constant's _Adolphe_ has been edited by M. de Lescure
for the Librairie des Bibliophiles. Cazotte's _Diable Amoureux_ is in
the _Nouvelle Collection Jannet_. M. Uzanne's reproductions of the prose
tale-tellers are excellent.

CHAPTER IV.

HISTORIANS, MEMOIR-WRITERS, LETTER-WRITERS.

[Sidenote: Characteristics and Divisions of Eighteenth-century History.]

In the three branches of literature included in this chapter the
interest of the eighteenth century is great, but unequally divided. In
history proper, that is to say, the connected survey from documents of a
greater or lesser period of the past, the age saw, if not the beginning,
certainly the maturing of a philosophical conception of the science.
Putting Bossuet out of the