descry the flatness and insipidity which indicate the approach of age, and the decay of the finer powers of observation and expression, we are nevertheless ever and anon reminded of that genius which in its vigour produced Gil Blas and the Diable Boiteux. The Bachelor of Salamanca is, in comparison, a failure, but such as Le Sage alone could have committed; and many passages have all that raciness which distinguishes his happier productions. The scene, for example, in which Carambola is employed in reading to slumber the Member of the Council of the Indies, who unpitiably awakens at every instant when his reader stops to take a mouthful of refreshment, might have been told by Asmodeus himself. It must be owned that the scenes laid in Mexico have little merit of any kind. Le Sage had not the same accurate knowledge of the manners of New Spain, which he possessed respecting those of the mother country, and the account with which he presents us is in proportion flat and uninteresting. If it be true that Le Sage, jealous, like other old authors, of the earlier productions of his genius, preferred this work—the child of his old age, to his Diable Boiteux and Gil Blas, we can only say, that the same decay which is visible in his talents, must have also affected his taste, and that he certainly had not invoked the assistance of the acute Asmodeus when he formed his opinion.

After the Bachelor of Salamanca, Le Sage produced, in 1740, his last original work, La Valise Trouvée, which appeared anonymously in that year. His last labours thus approached the cha

racter of those with which he opened his career; for the Valise Trouvée consists of a miscellaneous collection of letters upon various subjects, resembling those of Aristenetus, translated by our author in 1695.1

A lively Collection of Anecdotes and Witticisms, published in 1743, closed the long labours of this excellent author. They are told with all the animation of his own particular humour, and we may suppose them to have been amassed in his portfolio, with the purpose of being one day amalgamated into a regular work, but given to the public in their present unconnected form, when age induced Le Sage, now in his seventy-fifth year, to lay aside his pen.

Having thus reviewed hastily the various literary labours of Le Sage, we have, in fact, nearly accomplished the history of his life, which appears to have been spent in the bosom of his family, and to have been diversified by no incident of peculiarity unconnected with his theatrical and literary engagements. His taste for retirement was, perhaps, increased by the infirmity of deafness, which attacked him so early as 1709, for he alludes to it in the critical interlude on the subject of Turcaret. Latterly, it increased so much, that he was under the necessity of constantly using a hearing-trumpet. His conversation was nevertheless so delightful, that when he went to his favourite coffee-house,

[The Valise Trouvée has been closely imitated in Mr Moore's Twopenny Postbag: it contains a description of the tricks of booksellers in puffing romances into notice, which shows how little some things have altered since Le Sage wrote. 1834.]

in the Rue Saint Jacques, the guests formed a circle round him, nay, even mounted upon the seats and upon the tables, in order to catch the remarks and anecdotes which this celebrated observer of human nature could tell in society, with the same grace and effect with which he recorded them in his works.

Le Sage's circumstances, though very moderate, seem always to have been easy, and his domestic life was quiet and happy. Its tenor was somewhat interrupted by the taste which carried upon the stage his eldest and youngest sons. Nothing could be more natural than that the theatrical art should have invincible charms for the sons of a dramatic author; but Le Sage, who had expressed the greatest contempt and dislike of that profession, which he had painted in the most ridiculous and odious colours, felt great pain from his sons making choice of it, which probably was not lessened when the eldest obtained an honourable station among those very Romans of the Théâtre François, with whom his father had waged for so many years a satirical This eldest son of Le Sage was a youth of great hopes, and a most amiable disposition. He had been educated for the bar. Upon embracing the profession of a comedian, he assumed the name of Montmenil, under which he became distinguished for his excellence in the parts of valets, peasants, and other characters in low comedy. He was not less remarked for the worth of his private character, and his talents for society; and having early attained a situation in the Théâtre François, he mixed with the best company in Paris. Yet his

war.

father could not for a long time hear of Montmenil's professional merit, or even of his private virtues, and the general respect in which he was held, without showing evident symptoms of great and painful emotion. At length a reconciliation was effected betwixt them, and, passing from displeasure to the most affectionate excess of parental fondness, it is said Le Sage could scarce bear to be separated from the son whose name he had hardly permitted to be mentioned before him. The death of Montmenil, which happened 8th September, 1743, in consequence of a cold caught at a hunting party, was such a blow to his father, then far advanced in life, that it determined his total retirement from Paris, and from the world.

The youngest son of our author also became a player, under the name of Pittenec; and it seems he was also a dramatic author, but made no distinguished figure in either capacity.

On the other hand Le Sage's second son showed a more staid character than either of his brothers, became a student of theology, and took orders. By the patronage of the Queen, (wife of Louis XV.) he became a canon of the Cathedral of Boulogne, and had the benefit of a pension. The moderate independence which he enjoyed, enabled him, after his father had been entirely broken down in spirits, by the death of Montmenil, to receive both him, his sister, and his mother, under his roof, and to provide for them during the residue of their lives. The sister was eminent for her filial tenderness, and dedicated her life to the comfort of her parents.

It was after his retreat to Boulogne, and while

residing under the roof of his son the canon, that we obtain an interesting account of Le Sage, then extremely aged, from the pen of the Comte de Tressan, to whom the ancient romances of France owe the same favour which has been rendered to those of England by the late ingenious and excellent George Ellis. The reader will feel interested in receiving the communication in the words of the Count himself.

"Paris, 20th January, 1783. "You have requested from me some account of the concluding period of the celebrated author of Gil Blas. Here follow the few anecdotes which

I am able to furnish.

"In the end of the year 1745, after the battle of Fontenoy, the late King having named me to serve under the Maréchal de Richelieu, I received counter orders at Boulogne, and remained there, commandant of the Boulenois, Poitou, and Picardy.

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Having learned that Mons. Le Sage, aged upwards of eighty years, with his wife nearly as old, resided at Boulogne, I was early desirous of visiting them, and of acquainting myself with their situation. I found that they lived in family with their son, a canon of the Cathedral of Boulogne ; and never was filial piety more tenderly occupied than his, in cheering and supporting the latter days of parents, who had scarce any other resource than the moderate revenue of their son.

"The Abbé Le Sage enjoyed the highest respect at Boulogne. His talents, his virtues, his social affections, rendered him dear to Monseigneur de