de sa grâce = sans nécessité

- 28. avec force traits, 'with many clever instances'. 33. bête, 'créature'.

LXXIV. LE STATUAIRE ET LA STATUE DU JUPITER. Derived from the followiug lines in Horace. Set. I 1 liues 1—3. Olim eram truncus ficulnus, inutile lignum, Quuin faber, incertus scamnum faceretne Priapum Maluit esse deum ; deus inde ego.

'Formerly I was a fig-tree trunk , a useless log, when the artisan, iincertain whether he should make a form, or a Priapus, preferred it should be a god; hence I am a god'. Line 5 — 6. même je veux qu'il ait, 'I even will hâve him hâve'. 7. faites des vœux, 'make vows' as the aucieut were, and many modems are in the habit of doiug in the hour of danger.

9. Artisan, formerly denoted a skilled workman, an artist. 13. Même l'ov, dit, 'it is even said'.

- 17 — 18. A la faiblesse du sculpteur, le poète autrefois n'en

dut guère, 'In past âges the poet was not much behind the sculptor in weakness'.

- 19 — 20. line 19 to be taken before line -19.

- 31. Pygmalion, a celebrated sculptor of antiquity, who had

been so disgusted with the women of Cyprus that he resolved never to marry. However he became enamoured of his own works of art, and particularly of a marble statue representing a woman, and which, at his prayers, was changed into a liviug woman, whom he married.

- 36 — 36. l'homme est de glace aux vérités, il est de feu pour

les mensonges, signifies that man receives truth coldly, or without enthusiasm, whilst he accepts falsehoods with eagerness (with fire). Thèse lines are frequently quoted.

LXXV. L'HUITRE ET LES PLAIDEURS. Imitated from Boileau's Epître II. v. 41, but immeasurably superior to the original which we reproduce for comparison:

Un jour, dit un auteur, n'importe en quel chapitre, Deux voyageurs à jeun rencontrèrent une huître. Tous deux la contestaient, lorsque dans leur chemin La Justice passa, la balance à la main.

118 Notes.

Devant elle à grand bruit ils expliquent la chose.

Tous deux avec dépens veulent gagner leur cause.

La Justice, pesant ce droit litigieux,

Demande l'huître, l'ouvre, et l'avale à leurs yeux ;

Et par ce bel arrêt terminant la bataille:

,, Tenez; voilà, dit-elle, à chacun une écaille.

Des sottises d'autrui, nous vivons au Palais.

Messieurs, l'huître était bonne. Adieu. Vivez eu paix." Line 3. ils l'avalent des ye^tx, literally they 'swallow it with their eyes' that is 'they look at it intently' compare the other idiom ^dévorer or manger des yeux' 'to gaze intently upon somebody or something'.

4. à V égard de la dent, literally 'with regard to the tooth' that is 'concerning the eating of it'.