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Who will swear that largely and humanly understood, the positive philosophy, to call it by its name, the philosophy of Taine, that which is held to be responsible for the brutalities and aridities of naturalistic literature, does not represent a more advanced moment in human development than Protestant and septentrional religiosity? Do not books like those of J. H. Rosny, to cite no others, presage the reconciliation of two sorts of intelligence which among us have been too often separated? And do we not recognize in them both the enthusiasm for science and the enthusiasm for moral beauty, and see already how these two religions accord and become fruitful? Who lives shall see! Meantime, make haste to enjoy these writers from regions of snows and fogs; enjoy them while they are in favor, while they are believed in, and while they can still influence you, as it is best to avail one's self of the methods. in vogue, so long as they can cure.

For it may be that a reaction of the Latin spirit is at hand.

VOL. XIII. - - 21

ALAIN RENÉ LE SAGE.

ALAIN RENÉ LE SAGE, a noted French novelist and dramatist, born at Sarzeau, Brittany, May 8, 1668; died at Boulogne, Nov. 17, 1747. He was educated at the Jesuits' College at Vannes, went to Paris in 1692, married in 1694, and adopted literature as his profession in preference to law. In 1707 he won his first successes by a play, "Crispin Rival de son Maître," and a romance, "Le Diable Boiteux," known in English translations as "The Devil on Two Sticks," and "Asmodeus." In another play, "Turcaret," he attacked the farmers of the revenue. Vols. I. and II. of the famous "Gil Blas de Santillane " appeared in 1715, Vol. III. in 1724, Vol. IV. not till 1735. The later works of Le Sage (besides over 100 comic operas) are: "Roland l'Amoureux " (1717-1721), an imitation of Boiardo; an abridged translation of Aleman's "Guzman de Alfarache ; "Aventures de Robert, dit le Chevalier de Beauchesne " (1732); "Histoire d'Estévanille Gonzales" (1734), from the Spanish; "Une Journée des Parques" (1735); "Le Bachelier Salamanque " (1736), and "Mélange amusant " (1743).

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GIL BLAS ENTERS THE SERVICE OF DR. SANGRADO.

(From "Gil Blas.")

I DETERMINED to throw myself in the way of Signor Arias de Londona, and to look out for a new berth in his register; but as I was on my way to No Thoroughfare, who should come across me but Dr. Sangrado, whom I had not seen since the day of my master's death. I took the liberty of touching my hat. He kenned me in a twinkling, though I had changed my dress; and with as much warmth as his temperament would allow him, "Heyday!" said he, "the very lad I wanted to see; you have never been out of my thought. I have occasion for a clever fellow about me, and pitched upon you as the very thing, if you can read and write." "Sir," replied I, "if that is all you require, I am your man." "In that case," rejoined he, "we need look no further. Come home with me: it will be all com

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You will have no You shall eat and

fort; I shall behave to you like a brother. wages, but everything will be found you. drink according to the true faith, and be taught to cure all diseases. In a word, you shall rather be my young Sangrado, than my footman."

I closed in with the doctor's proposal, in the hope of becoming an Esculapius under so inspired a master. He carried me home on the spur of the occasion, to install me in my honorable employment; which honorable employment consisted in writing down the name and residence of the patients who sent for him in his absence. There had indeed been a register for this purpose, kept by an old domestic; but she had not the gift of spelling accurately, and wrote a most perplexing hand. This account I was to keep. It might truly be called a bill of mortality; for my members all went from bad to worse during the short time they continued in this system. I was a sort of bookkeeper for the other world, to take places in the stage, and to see that the first come were the first served. My pen was always in my hand, for Doctor Sangrado had more practice than any physician of his time in Valladolid. He had got into reputation with the public by a certain professional slang, humored by a medical. face, and some extraordinary cases more honored by implicit faith than scrupulous investigation.

He was in no want of patients, nor consequently of property. He did not keep the best house in the world: we lived with some little attention to economy. The usual bill of fare consisted of peas, beans, boiled apples or cheese. He considered this food as best suited to the human stomach; that is to say, as most amenable to the grinders, whence it was to encounter the process of digestion. Nevertheless, easy as was their passage, he was not for stopping the way with too much of them; and to be sure, he was in the right. But though he cautioned the maid and me against repletion in respect of solids, it was made up by free permission to drink as much water as we liked. Far from prescribing us any limits in that direction, he would tell us sometimes: "Drink, my children: health consists in the pliability and moisture of the parts. Drink water by pailfuls: it is a universal dissolvent; water liquefies all the salts. Is the course of the blood a little sluggish? this grand principle sets it forward: too rapid? its career is checked." Our doctor was so orthodox on this head that though advanced in years, he drank nothing himself but water. He defined old age to be a natural

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