the extravagance of the Gascon, we are so consantly recalled to right and severe reason by the other characters, that it almost produces the full effect of genuine history on our minds. We discover, in every page, the caustic moralist, the uncorrupted and indignant courtier, unable to conceal the foibles of a monarch, whom he loved and served but too faithfully, and impatient of those who acquired the favour of Henry, by shewing more indulgence to his weaknesses. This book may be considered, in some measure, as a supplement to his general history, for it contains much secret anecdote, as well as the most curious particulars respecting manners. Perhaps the story of Pautrot, and the lady de Noaillé, in this book, suggested to Sterne the scene with the Piedmontese lady, in his Sentimental Journey. There is stronger reason to believe that Sterne took the hint of beginning some of his sermons, in a startling and unusual manner, from this source. D'Aubigné, who seems to have been a man of deep religious impressions, has exposed, with equal keenness, the extravagancies of the monks, and of the ministers. He mentions .one of the latter, who began a sermon thus: Par la vertu de Dieu, par la mort de Dieu, par la chair de Dieu, par le sang de Dieu; and added after a long pause, nous sommes sauvez et delivrez de l'enfer. Several instances in the same taste, but not so well authenticated, may be found in the Passe Temps agréable. I must here vindicate Sterne from a charge of plagiarism, which has been made. from inattention to dates. It has been said, that he borrowed much from the history of Friar Gerund; and many parallel passages have been cited (as they well might) to prove the assertion. The truth is, that the history of Friar Gerund, composed by Father Isla, to ridicule the absurdities of the itinerant Spanish preachers, was published in Spain, the very same year in which the two first volumes of Tristram Shandy appeared. It was translated into English, several years afterwards, by Baretti, who thought proper to imitate, in his translation, the style of Tristram Shandy, then extremely popular. If any plagiarisms exist, therefore, they are chargeable on Baretti. The original of Friar Gerund appeared in 1758; the translation in 1772. As a specimen of D'Aubigné's style, which unites the severe and the ludicrous, I shall quote the following strokes on a controversial point. "Your devotions," says the Baron, speaking of the reformed, " are invisible, and your church is invisible."-" Why do you not finish," retorts his oponent, by reproaching us, like savages, that our God is invisible?"" But we would have every thing visible," cries the Baron. C'est pourquoi, replies the other, entre les reliques de S. Front on trouva dans une petite phiole un esternument du S. Esprit. D'Aubigné was so fond of writing epigrams, that he could not abstain from them, even in his history. He had no great genius for poetry, but his epigrams are general ly acute, though better turned in the thought than the expression, One of them, which is introduced in the Baron de Fonesté, is written for a man of distinction, whose wife finding his mistress very ill drest, thought fit to clothe her anew. Lors, says the Baron in his jargon, lou monsur boiant cette vraberie, en dit ce petit mout. Oui, ma femme, il est tout certain I own, my life, beyond all doubt, 'T would empty half the shops in town, This, and many other passages in the writers of those times, shew that the dissolute conduct of the gay circles in France is not of modern date. The turn of the lines I have just quoted, is in the taste of Voltaire or Bernis. In fact, the great corruption of manners took place in the time of Francis 1. who sacrificed to the ostentation, and the future elegance of the court, every principle leading to true happiness. Another epigram of D'Aubigné's was founded on a repartee of Henry IV. in his youth. Sylvia her gambling nephew chides, The same thought has been turned by some of the modern French epigrammatists. The question respecting the sincerity of |