APPENDIX. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 1.-JEAN CALVIN (1509-1564), born at Noyon, in Picardy, has been justly called one of the "fathers of French prose." His great work, L'Institution Chrétienne, is no less remarkable for the vigour and the precision of its style, than for the clearness and the force of its logic. While seeking a refuge from the persecution of the Sorbonne, on account of his advocacy of the doctrines of the Reformation, he was invited to Geneva, where he was appointed to a chair of Theology; and after long struggles and a three years' exile at Strasbourg, he eventually became the absolute master of the republic, and established at Geneva the most despotic form of theocratic government. It is to be regretted that this great Reformer should have tarnished his reputation by his inconsistent severity. 2.-FRANÇOIS RABELAIS (1483-1553), born at Chinon, in Touraine, successively a monk, a physician, and the curé of Meudon, has exhibited to an extraordinary degree, in his Pantagruel, the genius of mockery and satire, and the art of mixing up the serious with the ridiculous. But although abounding in learning, wit, and humour, his writings are revolting by their coarseness. 2 B 3.-CLÉMENT MAROT (1495-1544), born at Cahors, is the first name of importance in the history of French poetry. Although the protégé of Margaret of Valois, his adherence to the Reformation caused him to lead a stormy life. His poetry is remarkable for its naïve and graceful vivacity. 4.-MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE (1533-1592), born at the Castle of Montaigne, in the Périgord, is one of the most eminent among French moralists. His education was carefully attended to by his father, and his mind was early stored with the knowledge of the Greek and Roman literatures. The violence of the religious wars then raging in France had, no doubt, its effect upon his philosophical temperament, and may somewhat account for the scepticism with which he has been reproached. However, Cardinal du Perron proclaimed Montaigne's Essais "the breviary of honest men," and they certainly contain a treasure of erudition and wisdom. The style of that work de bonne foy, as the author himself calls it, is far from being pure and correct; but it is simple, lucid, and lively, often rising to eloquence. 5.-FRANÇOIS Malherbe (1555-1628), born at Caen, may be considered as the earliest lyric poet of France. After serving with distinction under Henri IV., he wrote many sonnets, odes, and epigrams, and also translated several of Seneca's treatises. To Malherbe is due the honour of first giving the French language its polish and grammatical regularity. Enfin Malherbe vint, et, le premier en France, BOILEAU. 6.-PIERRE CORNEILLE (1606-1684), born at Rouen, was the first dramatic author of eminence among the French, although he himself modestly ascribed that honour to ROTROU (1609-1650), the author of Venceslas. To many defects Corneille joins beauties of the highest order; and although he does not possess the pure and delicate taste of Racine, he has more fire and majesty. The flights of his imagination are sublime; his heroes are truly great, and his masterpiece, Le Cid, will ever remain on the French stage as a monument of his genius. 7.-RENÉ DESCARTES (1596-1650), born at La Haye, in Touraine, acquired an early reputation as a thinker, a mathematician, and a writer. The founder of the modern Idealist School of Philosophy, he dealt the death-blow at the verbose and obscure, when not actually dangerous, tenets of the Scholastics. Deeply devoted to the search of truth, he introduced the à priori method of reasoning, and applied his famous analysis with great success to all the problems of mathematical sciences and the phenomena of the moral world. His Discours sur la Méthode is among the standard works of the 17th century. 8.-PIERRE GASSENDI (1592-1655), a native of Provence, famous as a mathematician and a philosopher, was the rival of Descartes, whose metaphysics he combated. Gibbon calls him the most philosophic among the learned, and the most learned among the philosophic of his age. 9.-NICOLAS MALEBRANCHE (1638-1715), born at Paris, the author of that profound treatise, La Recherche de la Vérité, is one of the most eminent disciples of Des cartes, and was highly esteemed by his cotemporaries for his genius and his many virtues. 10.-ANTOINE ARNAULD (1612-1694), born at Paris, of a very distinguished family, deserved by his learning to be called in his lifetime, le Grand Arnauld. He took an active part in the Jansenist controversy, and displayed against the Jesuits great talents as a writer, a theologian, and a metaphysician. The most popular of his works is La Logique, ou l'Art de Penser, in which he was assisted by NICOLE (1625-1695), one of his colleagues at Port-Royal. 11.-FRANÇOIS VI., Duke dela ROCHEFOUCAULD (16131680), born at Paris, of an ancient and noble family, has made himself a lasting name as a moralist. After having taken an active part in the wars of the Fronde, he retired disappointed into private life, and wrote Memoirs, and a book of Maximes, which no doubt, as Voltaire remarks, contributed to form the taste of the nation. It is much admired for its shrewd sense, its smart precision, and elegant vigour; but it betrays too much of a morose and misanthropic disposition, which could ascribe no higher motive to human actions than vanity or selfishness. 12.-JEAN DE LA FONTAINE (1621-1695), born at Château-Thierry, is known everywhere as the greatest of fabulists, and the name of "the inimitable La Fontaine " has been given to him by common consent. His fables are perfectly natural, without the least affectation, and replete with Gallic wit. A genuine philosopher of Montaigne's school, and a poet of the same temperament as good Oliver Goldsmith, La Fontaine was a man of extreme simplicity of manners, candid and honest; but extremely absent in society, as if absorbed in his conversation with his friends of the forest. He remained a stranger to the Court of Louis XIV., but he had many kind friends, in whose houses he spent his life. Mme. de Sévigné used to say that his fables resembled a pottle of strawberries, of which we begin by picking out the best, and finish by eating them all. "No author," says La Harpe, "has written so many lines which have become proverbs." 13.-JEAN-BAPTISTE POQUELIN DE MOLIÈRE (16221673), born at Paris, was educated for the bar, but like Corneille, he soon left the courts of law for the theatre, and formed a company of actors, with whom he travelled about the country. From 1653, when his first comedy, L'Etourdi, was printed, he wrote more than thirty plays, both in prose and verse, which all display a wonderful genius, and have placed him at the head of the comic poets of all ages. Molière was at once author, manager, and actor, and was performing the principal character of his last comedy, Le Malade Imaginaire, when he was seized with an illness, of which he died the next day. 14.-BLAISE PASCAL (1623-1662), born at ClermontFerrand, displayed at an early age extraordinary powers for mathematical sciences. Unfortunately his health was extremely delicate. He soon retired to the solitude of Port-Royal, where he spent the remainder of too short a life, in prayer and in the practices of the most austere piety. There it was he wrote his immortal Lettres Provinciales, the noblest work of the age, in which he ridi 2B S |