ys as to the general character of
his time. He cannot be said to have been early disenchanted, for he
never seems to have had any illusions; he grew up with a single passion,
"the hatred of stupid books." He was educated at the College de
Beauvais, and was then sent to study theology at the Sorbonne. He
exchanged theology for law, however, and was called to the bar on the
4th of December 1656. From the profession of law, after a short trial,
he recoiled in disgust, complaining bitterly of the amount of chicanery
which passed under the name of law and justice. His father died in 1657,
leaving him a small fortune, and thenceforward he devoted himself to
letters.

Such of his early poems as have been preserved hardly contain the
promise of what he ultimately became. The first piece in which his
peculiar powers were displayed was the first satire (1660), in imitation
of the third satire of Juvenal; it embodied the farewell of a poet to
the city of Paris. This was quickly followed by eight others, and the
number was at a later period increased to twelve. A twofold interest
attaches to the satires. In the first place the author skilfully
parodies and attacks writers who at the time were placed in the very
first rank, such as Jean Chapelain, the abbe Charles Cotin, Philippe
Quinault and Georges de Scudery; he openly raised the standard of revolt
against the older poets. But in the second place he showed both by
precept and practice what were the poetical capabilities of the French
language. Prose in the hands of such writers as Descartes and Pascal had
proved itself a flexible and powerful instrument of expression, with a
distinct mechanism and form. But except with Malherbe, there had been no
attempt to fashion French versification according to rule or method. In
Boileau for the first time appeared terseness and vigour of expression,
with perfect regularity of verse structure. His admiration for Moliere
found expression in the stanzas addressed to him (1663), and in the
second satire (1664). In 1664 he composed his prose _Dialogue des heros
de roman_, a satire on the elaborate romances of the time, which may be
said to have once for all abolished the lucubrations of La Calprenede,
Mlle de Scudery and their fellows. Though fairly widely read in
manuscript, the book was not published till 1713, out of regard, it is
said, for Mlle de Scudery. To these early days belong the reunions at
the _Moulon Blanc_ and the _Pomme du Pin_, w