Si possible. — If possible. An unusual construction

7. Un reste éteint de vie décolorée. — The dying remnant of a blighted life.

8. De mourir comme Millevoye. — An allusion to the early death of Millevoye. See XXXV., 14.

9. Mais voici qu'a ce propos. — But behold at this point. A few lines below, je tiendrai ce propos, means I shall speak thus, or use such language. Tôpffer entitled one of his works Menus -Propos d'un Peintre Genevois, Gossip of a Genevese Painter.

10. Venant a surgir . . . sur les fronts honnêtes. — Happening to start from or spring out of their hiding-places make a blush pass over honest brows.

11. Fit une battue dans son propre cerveau. — Explored his own brain. Battue is a hunting term, and means the action of beating the woods or copses to drive out the game. Figuratively, it means to explore a tract of land ; hence, by extension, its use in our example. The man hère referred to is le duc de la Rochefoucauld, of whose book M. de Sacy says : Je tiens les maximes pour un mauvais livre ; j'éprouve en les lisant un malaise, une souffrance indéfinissable', je sens qu'elles me flétrissent l'âme et me rabaissent le cœur.

12. Prend l'idée de tirer parti des mauvaises herbes.— Takes it into his head to turn the weeds to account; iiterally, to draw some profit from the weeds.

13. Bien fou Gall, qui prétend. — Very foolish is Gall, who claims. Fou means mad, insane, and never stupid, idiotie ; hence it can but seldom be translated by foolish. For this use of prétendre, see L, 11. Joseph Francis Gall, the great phrenologist, was born in 1758, and died in 1828.

14. Je tiens ceci d'un visiteur des morts, lequel. — I hâve this information from an inspector of corpses, who. No burial can take place in France or Switzerland unless a permit be granted by an officer, appointed by government, generally a physician, whose duty it is to see that life is really extinct. Tenir de quelqu'un means to receive from any one ; as, je tiens ceci de bonne part, de bonne source, I hâve this from good authority. For this use of lequel instead of qui, see Grammar, p. 126, § 6. In this same sentence, il s'en tenait a ce signe may be translated he confined hiin-

self to this sign, he dépends upon this sign alone. S'en tenir h, thus used, means to attach importance to, to hold or adhère to.

15. Qu'il n'y eût plus envie aucune de paraître. — That there was no longer tlie least désire of presenting a good appearance.

16. Eucliaris, Galatée, Estelle. — For Eucharis see note 22 of this pièce. Galatée and Estelle are the heroines of two pastoral romances by Florian.

17. Précieuses. — AfFected. Précieux primitively convey ed no disparaging idea when applied to persons or manners. It was about synonymous with élégant About the middle of the 17th century the name précieuses was assumed by a set of literary and cultivated ladies who sought to introduce reforms in the manners and language of the period and to become the rulers of taste. It was the over-elegance of thèse, and principally of their imitators, that Molière ridiculed in 1659 in his comedy of Les Précieuses ridicules, since which time the word précieux has acquired its sensé of affected, unnatural.

18. Et ma novice imagination se chargeait de le leur garder fidèle. — And my nnsophisticated imagination took it upon itself to préserve it faithful to them.

19. Télëmaque, Mentor, Calypso, Eucharis. — Thèse are ail allusions to Fénelon's romance entitled Télémaque. Telemachus was the only son of Ulysses and Pénélope. After the fall of Troy, he went in search of his father, accompanied by Minerva in the form of an old man called Mentor. They stopped for a while at the island of Calypso, one of the Oceanides, or océan nymphs, where Telemachus fell in love with Eucharis, a nymph attendant upon Calypso.

20. Fut bien heureux d'en être quitte pour avoir bu l'onde amère. — Was very lucky to get off with drinking the briny wave.

21. A part moi. — Within myself, in my own mind. Anciently written a par moi, by myself. The form s par moi, par soi, also occur in old French. The latter correspond exactly to the Latin per se, the German bel sich, and the English by himself.

22. Qui donne de mon côté. — Which overlooks me. Donner sur, applied to a door or window, means to look out into, to open upon. De mon côté simply indicates direction, signifying toward me.

23. Tiennent des propos cruels. — Utter cruel sentiments. See note 9.

24. C'était . . . que mon maître. — My master was, now I think of it, an odd man. For this use of que, see Grammar, p. 307, § 5.

25. Nous n'avions garde de les lire. — We were careful not to read them. Encore enjambions-nous, in the next line, means and even then we skipped. Enjamber is, literally, to stride over. For the position of nous, see Grammar, p. 256, § 5.

26. Le fou rire. — Immoderate, uncontrollable laughter, especially when indulged in without sufficient cause.

27. J'étais . . . sur ma distraction. — I was, on such occasions, roughly called to order, and soundly rated for my inattention. Distraction means inattention to présent things, absent-mindedness, abstraction, never being used in the sensé of the corresponding English word. The same is true of distrait, absent-minded, not distracted.

28. Cet âge est sans pitié. — A quotation from Les Deux Pigeons. La Fontaine's Fables, 1. IX., 2.

29. De loupe ni de bourgeon. — Loupe, a magnifying glass, is also a med-

ical terra meaning wen. In the same way bourgeon has the double signification of bud and pimple. With regard to the two proper names which follow, Cicero is said to hâve derived his surname from the fact that one of his ancestors had on the end of his nose a little excrescence in the shape of a pea {cicer), while Nasica was a surname in the Scipio family, meaning having a large or pointed nose. The concluding phrase of this paragraph, vous auriez une affaire, may be translàted you will get into trouble, affaire being hère used in the sensé of something diûîcult, embarrassing, disagreeable ; a quarrel. About a page further on, we find je le tirais d'affaire, I helped him out of the diûîculty.

30. Berquin (1749-1791). — The author of several excellent books for the young, who was surnamed L'Ami des Enfants, from the title of his most popular work.

31. A quoi tiennent pourtant les choses ! . . . je ne l'entrevoyais même pas.. — Upon what trifles things do dépend ! If he had decided upon the former course, my discovery would never hâve been made, I should not even hâve caught a glimpse of it. C'est fait de or c'en est fait de is apphed to a person or thing whose case is desperate, and may often be translàted by the familiar phrase, It's ail up with or over with. The imperfect entrevoyais is used instead of the conditional, as explained in note 17 of

32. La plus belle conquête, etc. — See the opening clause of Le Cheval, p. 20, of this Eeader.

33. Il se tut a l'ouïe d'une personne qui passait. — He stopped or left off speaking on hearing a person passihg.

34. Elzévir. — The Elzevirs were celebrated publishers in Holland in the 16 th. and 17th centuries. The Elzevir éditions are highly prized.

35. Serait entré, etc. — A transposition will make smoother English; thus, I was to say that during my absence that infamous neighbor's cat had entered the room and upset, &c. Other examples of the same construction follow, and may be translàted thus : j'aurais motivé mon absence sur, I should expîain my absence by ; j'aurais avoué avoir perdu, I should confess to having lost; j'aurais supposé y avoir été, I was to suppose that I had been there ; and ce qui aurait jeté, which would cast. This use of the conditional, which explains itself from the many examples hère found together, is very common in French. A ma portée, which occurs in this paragraph, means within my reach, accessible to me.