d all sorts of places and personages, mythological,
classical, historic, and modern, compose a miraculous _macedoine_,
Brasidas jostling Gracchus, and Chabrias living in the Faubourg
Saint-Martin. This _is_ a sort of story, but the greatest part of the
volume as it lies before me is composed of _Lettres Espagnoles_,
_Epitres Francaises_, _Libres Discours_, etc.

We can apparently return to the stricter romance, such as it is, with
the _Histoire Asiatique_ of the Sieur de Gerzan (Paris, 1633), but it is
noteworthy that the title-page of this ballasts itself by an "Avec un
Traite du Tresor de la Vie Humaine et La Philosophie des Dames." I
confess that, as in the case of most of the books here mentioned, I have
not read it with the care I bestowed on the _Cyrus_. But I perceive in
it ladies who love corsairs, universal medicines, poodles who are
sacrificed to save their owners, and other things which may tempt some.
And I can, by at least sampling, rather recommend _Les Travaux du Prince
Inconnu_ (Paris, 1633) by the Sieur de Logeas. It calls itself, and its
700 pages, the completion of two earlier performances, the _Roman
Historique_ and the _Histoire des Trois Freres Princes de
Constantinople_, which have not come in my way. There is, however,
probably no cause to regret this, for the author assures us that his new
work is "as far above the two former in beauty as the sun is above the
stars." If any light-minded person be disposed to scoff at him for this,
let it be added that he has the grace to abstract the whole in the _Avis
au Lecteur_ which contains the boast, and to give full chapter-headings,
things too often wanting in the group. The hero is named Rosidor, the
heroine Floralinde; and they are married with "la rejouissance generale
de toute la Chretiente." What can mortals ask for more?

_Polemire ou l'Illustre Polonais_ (Paris, 1647), is dedicated to no less
a person than Madame de Montbazon, and contains much piety, a good deal
of fighting, and some verse. _L'Amour Aventureux_ (Paris, 1623), by the
not unknown Du Verdier, is a book with _Histoires_, and I am not sure
that the volume I have seen contains the whole of it. _L'Empire de
l'Inconstance_ (Paris, 1635), by the Sieur de Ville, and published "at
the entry of the little gallery of Prisoners under the sign of the
Vermilion Roses," has a most admirable title to start with, and a table
of over thirty _Histoires_, a dozen letters, and two "amorous judgments"