des sujets
trop bas_, while he speaks of Boileau in the most enthusiastic terms.
The truth (and in the history of literature it is a very important
truth) is that Vauvenargues was too little versed in any language but
his own to have the requisite range of comparison necessary for literary
criticism, and that his real interest in literature was almost entirely
proportioned to its bearing upon conduct. His maxims, his _Connoissance
de l'Esprit_, his _Conseils a un Jeune Homme_, etc., are all occupied
almost entirely with questions of morality. Vauvenargues (and in this he
was remarkable) stood entirely aloof from the sceptical movement of his
age. There was, indeed, a certain scepticism in him, as in almost all
thinkers, but it was of the stamp of Pascal's, not in the least mocking
or polemical, and even, as compared with Pascal's own, much less
strictly theological. In most of his writings he shows himself an
earnest and upright man, profoundly convinced of the importance of right
conduct, gifted with an acute perception of its usual moving springs and
directions, not remarkable for humour or poetical feeling, but serious,
sober, and a little stoical. His literary characteristics reflect some
of these peculiarities, and also betray something of his neglected
education. He is never slovenly in thought, but he sometimes shocked the
exact verbal critics of the eighteenth century by such phrases as 'les
sens sont flattes d'agir, de galoper un cheval,' whereupon his censor
annotates 'neglige. Les sens ne galopent pas un cheval.' A more serious
fault is that, in his shorter maxims especially, he does not observe the
rule of absolute lucidity which La Rochefoucauld, who was as much his
model in point of style as he was his opposite in general views, never
breaks through. His sayings (it is a merit as well as a drawback) are
often rather suggestive than expressive; they remind the reader of his
own curious comparison of Corneille with Racine, 'les heros de Corneille
disent souvent de grandes choses sans les inspirer; ceux de Racine les
inspirent sans les dire.'

[Sidenote: D'Aguesseau.]

Contemporary with Fontenelle and La Motte was the Chancellor
D'Aguesseau, one of the most prominent figures of the earlier reign of
Louis XV., a steady defender of orthodoxy--yet, as was seen in the case
of the Encyclopaedia, willing to assist enlightenment--a man of
irreproachable character, and a writer of some merit. D'Aguesseau was
born i