At the same time, there occur touches both of wit, nature, and humour; as how could it be otherwise in the slightest works of Le Sage? The French critics, who are indisputably the best judges, incline to think, judg ing from Turcaret, that he would have risen to eminence, had he continued to cultivate the regular comedy, instead of sinking into an occupation which he held in contempt, and which he probably thought could not be too slightly executed. Don Cleofas, in the Critque de Turcaret, says to Asmodeus, as they survey the audience at the Theatre Francais, "La belle assemblee; que de dames!" Asmodee. Il y en aurait encore davantage sans les spectacles de la foire. Le plupart des femmes y courent avec fureur. Je suis ravi de les voir dans le gout de leurs laquais et de leurs cochers."--Thus thought Le Sage originally of the dignity of those labours in which he was to spend his life, and the indifference with which he was contented to exercise his vocation, shows that his opinion of its importance was never enhanced. Goldoni, in circumstances nearly similiar, created a national drama, and a taste for its beauties; but Le Sage was to derive an undying name from works of a different description.

We willingly leave consideration of these ephemeral and forgotten effusions of the moment, composed for the small theatres of the foire, to speak of the productions which must afford delight and interest, so long as human nature retains its present constitution. The first of these was Le Diable Boiteux, which Le Sage

published in 1707; the title and plan of the work was derived from the Spanish of Lueze Velez de Guevara, called El Diable Cojuelo, and such satires on manners as had been long before written, in Spain, by Cervantes and others. But the fancy, the lightness, the spirit, the wit, and the vivacity of the Diable Boiteux, were entirely communicated by the enchanting pen of the lively Frenchman. The plan of the work was in the highest degree interesting, and having in its original concoction, at once a cast of the romantic and of the mystical, is calculated to interest and to attract, by its own merit, as well as by the pleasing anecdotes and shrewd remarks upon human life, of which it forms, as it were, the frame-work, and enchasing. The Mys teries of the Cabalists afforded a foundation for the story, which, grotesque as it is, was not in those times held to exceed the bounds of probable fiction; and the interlocutors of the scene are so happily adapted to the subjects of their conversation, that all they say and do has its own portion of natural appropriation.

It is impossible to conceive a being more fitted to comment upon the vices, and to ridicule the follies of humanity, than an esprit follet like Asmodeus, who is as much a decided creation of genius, in his way, as Ariel or Caliban. Without possessing the darker powers and propensities of a fallen angle, he presides over the vices and the follies, rather than the crimes of mankind, is malicious rather than malignant; and his delight is to gibe, and to scoff, and to teaze, rather

than to torture: one of Satan's light infantry, in short, whose business it is to goad, perplex, and disturb the ordinary train of society, rather than to break in upon and overthrow it. This character is maintained in all Asmodeus says and does, with so much spirit, wit, acuteness, and playful malice, that we never forget the fiend, even in those moments when he is very near becoming amiable as well as entertaining.

Don Cleofas, to whom he makes all his diverting communications, is a fiery young Spaniard, proud, high-spirited, and revengeful, and just so much of a libertine as to fit him for the company of Asmodeus. He interests us personally by his gallantry and generous sentiments; and we are pleased with the mode in which the grateful fiend provides for the future happiness of his liberator. Of these two characters neither is absolutely original. But the devil of Guevara is, as the title of the book expresses, a mere bottle conjurer, who amuses the student by tricks of legerdemain, intermixed with strokes of satire, some of them very acute, but devoid of the poignancy of Le Sage. Don Cleofas is a mere literal copy from the Spanish author. There is no book in existence in which so much of the human character, under all its various shades and phases, is described in so few words as in the Diable Boiteux. Every page, every line, bears marks of that sure tact, and accurate development of human weakness and folly, which tempt us to think we are actually listening to a superior intelligence, who sees into our

minds and motives, and, in malicious sport, tears away the veil which we endeavour to interpose betwixt these and our actions. The satire of Le Sage is as quick and sudden as it is poignant; his jest never is blunted by anticipation; ere we are aware that the bow is drawn, the shaft is quivering in the very centre of the mark, To quote examples would be to quote the work through almost every page; and, accordingly, no author has afforded a greater stock of passages, which have been generally employed as apothegms, or illustrations of human nature and actions; and no wonder, since the force of whole pages is often compressed in fewer words than another author would have employed sentences. To take the first example that comes: the fiends of Profligacy and of Chicane contend for possession and direction of a young Parisian. Pillardoc would have made him a commis, Asmodeus a debauchee. To unite both their views, the infernal conclave made the youth a monk, and effected a reconciliation between their contending brethren. "We embraced," says Asmodeus," and have been mortal enemies ever since." It is well observed by a late editor of Le Sage's works, that the traits of this kind, with which the Diable Boiteux abounds, entitle it, much more than the Italian scenes of Gherardi, to the title of the Grenier à sel, conferred on the latter work by the sanction of Boileau. That great poet, nevertheless, is said to have been of a different opinion. He threatened to dismiss a valet whom he found in the act of reading the Diable Boiteux.

Whether this proceeded from the peevishness of indisposition, under which Boileau laboured in 1707; whether he supposed the knowledge of human life, and all its chicanery, to be learned from Le Sage's satire, was no safe accomplishment for a domestic; or whether, finally, he had private or personal causes for condemning the work and the author, is not now known. But the anecdote forms one example, amongst the many, of the unjust estimation in which men of genius are too apt to hold their contemporaries.

Besides the power of wit and satire displayed in the Diable Boiteux, with so much brilliancy, there are passages in which the author assumes a more serious and moral tone; he sometimes touches upon the pathetic, and sometimes even approaches the sublime. The personification of Death is of the latter character, until we come to the point where the author's humour breaks forth, and where, having described one of the terrific phantom's wings as painted with war, pestilence, famine, and shipwreck, he adorns the other with the representation of young physicians taking their degree.

To relieve the reader from the uniformity which might otherwise have attached to the hasty and brief sketches of what is only subjected to the eye, Le Sage has introduced several narratives in the Spanish taste,. such as the History of the Count de Belflor, and the novel called the Force of Friendship. Cervantes had set the example of varying a long narrative by the introduction of such novels, or historiettes. Scarron and