n.-.de brillant, ' There was nothing striking about him

9. mal logé, 'ill-lodged,' that is, the house (Zero's body) was nol good enough for its owner (Zero's generous heart).

30. Buffon... Académie. The Académie Française is a body of 40 members chosen from araong the most illustrious men of letters in France. It is customary for each newly admitted member to pronounce a panegyric {éloge) on the predecessor to whose chair he succeeds. This panegyric is deHvered at a sitting of the Académie when the members wear the full Académie dress, knee-breeches, palm-embroidered coat, and lace ruffles. The Académie Française was founded by Cardinal Richelieu in the reign of Louis XIII. (1610 — 1643), and the dress was designed in the last years of the i8ih century by David the painter. Buffon, the famous French stylist and naturalist (1707 — 1788), was made a member in 1753, and the speech on style which he delivered on his réception is one of the most famous of his works.

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15. poète. The poet is La Fontaine (162 1 — 1695) who in his Fable of the Two Pigeons (Bk 9, no. 1) says, Mais un fripon cV enfant {ut âge est sans pitii)...' But an imp of a child — childhood knows no pity '— &c.