Contes du
Temps Passe" and the "Contes en Vers." Toward the end of his life he
busied himself with the "Eloges des Hommes Illustres du Siecle de Louis
XIV." The first of these two stately volumes came out in 1696 and the
second in 1700. They were illustrated by a hundred and two excellent
engravings, including one, by Edelinck, of Perrault himself and another
of his brother Claude. These biographies are written with kindly
justice, and form a valuable contribution to the history of the reign of
the Roi Soleil. I have not exhausted the list of Perrault's writings,
but, to speak frankly, the rest are not worth mentioning._

_He died, aged seventy-five, in 1703, deservedly admired and regretted
by all who knew him. This was not strange. For he was clever, honest,
courteous, and witty. He did his duty to his family, his employer, his
friends, and to the public at large. In an age of great men, but also
of great prejudices, he fought his own way to fame and fortune. He
served all the arts, and practised most of them. Painters, writers,
sculptors, musicians, and men of science all gladly made him free of
their company. As a good Civil Servant he was no politician, and he
showed no leaning whatever toward what was regarded in his time as the
greatest of all professions--that of arms. These two deficiencies, if
deficiencies they be, only endear him the more to us. Every one likes
a man who deserves to enjoy life and does, in fact, enjoy it. Perrault
was such a man. He was more. He was the cause of enjoyment to
countless of his fellows, and his stories still promise enjoyment to
countless others to come._

_It is amazing to remember that Perrault was rather ashamed of his
"Histoires ou Contes du Temps Passe"--perhaps better known as "Les
Contes de ma Mere l'Oye," or "Mother Goose's Tales," from the rough
print which was inserted as a frontispiece to the first collected
edition in 1697. He would not even publish them in his own name. They
were declared to be by P. Darmancour, Perrault's young son. In order
that the secret might be well kept, Perrault abandoned his usual
publisher, Coignard, and went to Barbin. The stories had previously
appeared from time to time, anonymously, in Moetjens' little magazine
the "Recueil," which was published from The Hague. "La Belle au Bois
Dormant" ("Sleeping Beauty") was the first: and in rapid succession
followed "Le Petit Chaperon Rouge" ("Red Riding-Hood"), "Le Maistre
Chat, ou le Chat Bott