SésostriSy reputed king of ancient Egypt
12. Artazerze, Artaxerxes /, King of Persia (465-425 B.C.), defeated by the Greeks under Cimon (449 B.C.). Malebranche, in his Recherche de la Vérité (1674), had made the same comment on antiquarians ; see Book IV, c. 7.
13. et Cydias bel esprit, this is a portrait of Fontenelle (see page 3, lines 18-24). He wrote at command and for the benefit of others (mainly in the line of dramas, poems and stories). He published tragédies, librettos, pastoral poems, essays, popular compilations of science and the like.
Page 88* — i. Lucien, Lucian (?i2o-?2oo), Greek author and writer of dialogues, which may hâve suggested Fontenelle's Dialogues des morts (1683).
2. Sénèque, Seneca^ in his character as a dramatist probably, to correspond with Fontenelle*s tragédies. Or it may hâve been his essays to which La Bruyère calls attention.
3. Platon might be cited in connection with Fontenelle's Entretiens sur la pluralité des mondes (1686).
4. Virgile . . . Théocrite (flourished about 270 B.C.), a Greek pastoral poet, would be surpassed by Fontenelle's Pastorales ; see page 3, note 2.
5. les contempteurs d'Homère, a référence to the quarrel of the aacients and modems; see page 3, lines 12-28.
Des Biens de Fortune Page 89» — i. à l'épée, etc.; the army, the magistracy and the church, respectable positions for men of good birth.
Page 40. — i. Suisse, the ushers in private houses of wealth were originally Swiss. Afterwards the name was applied to any usher.
2. Sosie, etc. ; La Bruyère says that Sosie was the name of a valet or slave with the Greeks (note to his translation of Théophrastus). The paragraph refers to the wealth rapidly acquired by the tax-collectors. They bid in the taxes, which were fixed at a certain amount, and proceeded to extort from the people as much more as they could. More than one lackey ('* de la livrée ") had
134 NOTES [P. 40-43 i^
attained wealth and position in this way. La Bruyère has many j paragraphs on thèse "farmers," or ''partisans," as they were ^^ called.
