anners, or else
to mathematics and physics. The Benedictines confined themselves for the
most part to Christian antiquity. Yet there were names of weight in this
department, such as the President Henault, a writer something after the
fashion of Fontenelle, but on classical subjects; and the President de
Brosses, also an archaeologist of merit, but chiefly noteworthy as having
been among the founders of the science which busies itself with the
manners and customs of primitive and prehistoric man[291].

FOOTNOTES:

[291] I owe to M. Scherer the indication of a misprint of '_des_
Brosses' for 'de' in former editions. M. Scherer says that I 'have never
heard' of the President's pleasant _Lettres sur l'Italie_, because I do
not mention them. He also says that what I do say of De Brosses is
'egalement surprenante pour ce qu'elle avance et par ce qu'elle omet.' I
am, therefore, justified in supposing that M. Scherer 'has never heard'
of the _Lettres sur Herculanum_, the _Navigations aux Terres Australes_,
or the _Culte des Dieux Fetiches_.

INTERCHAPTER IV.

SUMMARY OF EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY LITERATURE.

The eighteenth century was pre-eminently the century of academic
literature in France: far more so than the seventeenth, which had seen
the foundation of the Academie Francaise. The word 'academy' in this
sense was an invention of the Italian humanists, prompted by their
Platonic, or perhaps by their Ciceronian, studies. Academies, or
coteries of men of letters who united love of society with the
cultivation of literature, became common in Italy during the sixteenth
century, and from Italy were translated to France. The famous society,
which now shares with the original school of Plato the honour of being
designated in European language as 'The Academy' without distinguishing
epithet, was originally nothing but one of these coteries or clubs,
which met at the house of the judicious and amiable, but not
particularly learned, Conrart. Conrart's influence with Richelieu, the
desire of the latter to secure a favourable tribunal of critics for his
own literary attempts, or (to be generous) his foresight and his
appreciation of the genius of the French language, determined the
Cardinal to establish this society. It was modestly endowed, and was
charged with the duty of composing an authoritative Dictionary of the
French literary language; a task the slow performance of which has been
a stock subject of ridicule for two cen