these refinements, these superfluities, and incoherences,
the brevity, directness, and simplicity of _Histoires et Contes du Tems
passe_. They have the touch of an intelligent child, writing down what
he has heard told in plain language by plain people. They exactly
correspond, in this respect, to the Hindoo folk tales collected from the
lips of Ayahs by Miss Maive Stokes, who was a child when her collection
was published.

But, if the little boy thus furnished the sketch, it is indubitable that
the elderly Academician and _beau esprit_ touched it up, here toning
down an incident too amazing for French sobriety and logic, there adding
a detail of contemporary court manners, or a hit at some foible or
vanity of men. 'Livre unique entre tous les livres,' cries M. Paul de
St. Victor, 'mele de la sagesse du vieillard et de la candeur de
l'enfant!' This delightful blending of age and youth (which here _can_
'live together') is probably due to the collaboration we describe.

Were it a pious thing to dissect Perrault's _Contes_, as Professors of
all nations mangle the sacred body of Homer, we might actually publish a
text in which the work of the original Darmancour and of the paternal
_Diaskeuast_ should be printed in different characters. Without carrying
mere guess-work to this absurd extent, cannot one detect the older hand
in places like this,--the Ogre's wife finds that her husband has killed
his own children by misadventure: 'Elle commenca par s'evanouir (car
c'est le premier expedient que trouvent presque toutes les femmes en
pareilles rencontres)'? One can almost see the Academician writing in
that sentence on the margin of the boy's copy. Again, at the end of _Le
Petit Poucet_, we read that he made a fortune by carrying letters from
ladies to their lovers, 'ce fut la son plus large gain. Il se trouvoit
quelques femmes qui le chargeoient de lettres pour leurs maris, mais
elles le payoient si mal, et cela alloit a si peu de chose, qu'il ne
daignoit mettre en ligne de conte ce qu'il gagnoit de ce cote-la.' That
is the Academician's jibe, and it is he who makes Petit Poucet buy
Offices 'de la nouvelle creation pour sa famille.' 'You never did that
of your own wit,' as the Giant says to the Laddie in the Scotch story,
_Nicht_, _Nought_, _Nothing_. But 'Anne, ma soeur Anne, ne vois-tu rien
venir?' 'Je ne vois rien que le Soleil qui poudroye et l'herbe qui
verdoye!' or 'Tire la chevillette, le bobinette cherra,' or 'Elle al