ron plays his part. It was here that
many of us met Scarron for the first time, and if we have got to know
him better since, we still remember with a thrill of pleasure that first
encounter when in the society of the matchless Count de la Fere and the
marvellous Aramis we made our bow in company with the young Raoul to the
crippled wit and his illustrious companions. The Whartons write brightly
about Scarron, but their best merit to my mind is that they at once
prompt a desire to go to that corner of the bookshelf where the eleven
volumes of the adventures of the immortal musketeers repose, and taking
down the first volume of "Vingt Ans Apres" seek for the twenty-third
chapter, where Scarron receives society in his residence in the Rue des
Tournelles. There Scudery twirls his moustaches and trails his enormous
rapier and the Coadjutor exhibits his silken "Fronde". There the velvet
eyes of Mademoiselle d'Aubigne smile and the beauty of Madame de
Chevreuse delights, and all the company make fun of Mazarin and recite
the verses of Voiture.

There are others of these wits and beaux with whom we might like to
linger; but our space is running short; it is time to say good-bye.
Congreve the dramatist and gentleman, Rochefoucault the wit, Saint-Simon
the king of memoir-writers, Rochester and St. Evremond and de Grammont,
Selwyn and Sydney Smith and Sheridan each in turn appeals to us to tarry
a little longer. But it is time to say good-bye to these shadows of the
past with whom we have spent some pleasant hours. It is their duty now
to offer some pleasant hours to others.

JUSTIN HUNTLY M'CARTHY.

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.

In revising this Publication, it has scarcely been found necessary to
recall a single opinion relative to the subject of the Work. The general
impressions of characters adopted by the Authors have received little
modification from any remarks elicited by the appearance of 'The Wits
and Beaux of Society.'

It is scarcely to be expected that even _our_ descendants will know much
more of the Wits and Beaux of former days than we now do. The chests at
Strawberry Hill are cleared of their contents; Horace Walpole's latest
letters are before us; Pepys and Evelyn have thoroughly dramatized the
days of Charles II.; Lord Hervey's Memoirs have laid bare the darkest
secrets of the Court in which he figures; voluminous memoirs of the less
historic characters among the Wits and Beaux have been publi