er nondescript preferment (as secretary to
Colbert for all matters dependent on literature and arts), which, among
other things, enabled him to further his brother's architectural career.
In 1671 he was, under the patronage of Colbert, elected of the Academy,
into the affairs and proceedings of which he imported order almost for
the first time. He had done and for some time did little in literature,
being occupied by the duties which, under Colbert, he had as controller
of public works. But after a few essays in poetry, partly burlesque and
partly serious, notably a _Siecle de Louis XIV._, he embarked on the
rather unlucky work which gave him his chief reputation among his own
contemporaries, the _Parallele des Anciens et des Modernes_, in which he
took the part of the moderns. The dispute which followed, due
principally to the overbearing rudeness of Boileau, has had something
more than its proper place in literary history, and there is no need to
give an account of it. It is enough to say that while Boileau as far as
his knowledge went (and that was not far, for he knew nothing of
English, not very much of Greek, and it would seem little of Italian or
Spanish) had the better case, Perrault, assisted by his brother, made a
good deal the best use of his weapons, Boileau's unlucky 'Ode on Namur'
giving his enemies a great hold on him. After six years' fighting,
however, the enemies made peace, and, indeed, it does not seem that
Perrault at any time bore malice. He produced, besides some memoirs and
the charming trifles to be presently spoken of[252], a good many
miscellanies in prose and verse of no particular value, and died in
1703.

His first tale, _Griselidis_ (in verse, and by no means his best),
appeared in 1691, _Peau d'Ane_ and _Les Souhaits Ridicules_ in 1694, _La
Belle au Bois Dormant_ in 1696, and the rest in 1697. These are _Le
Petit Chaperon Rouge_, _La Barbe Bleue_, _Le Maitre Chat ou le Chat
Botte_, _Les Fees_, _Cendrillon_, _Riquet a la Houppe_, and _Le Petit
Poucet_. It is needless to say that Perrault did not invent the subjects
of them. What he contributed was an admirable and peculiar narrative
style, due, as seems very probable, in great part to the example of La
Fontaine, but distinguished therefrom by all the difference of verse and
prose. The characteristics of this style are an extreme simplicity
which does not degenerate into puerility, great directness, and at the
same time vividness in telling