his young face as perfectly drawn in the roof as his present one in the
side. The painter has represented His Most Christian Majesty under the
figure of Jupiter throwing thunderbolts all about the ceiling, and
striking terror into the Danube and Rhine, that _lie astonished and
blasted with lightning a little above the cornice_."

This is Addison all over; and quite as good is his picture of the general
character of the French: "'Tis not in the power of want or slavery to
make them miserable. There is nothing to be met with in the country
but mirth and poverty. Every one sings, laughs, and starves. Their
conversation is generally agreeable, for if they have any wit or sense,
they are sure to shew it. Their women are perfect mistresses in the art
of shewing themselves to the best advantage. They are always gay and
sprightly, and set off the worst faces in Europe with the best airs.
Every one knows how to give herself as charming a look and posture as Sir
Godfrey Kneller could draw her in."

From Blois he returned to Paris, and was now better qualified, from his
knowledge of the language, to mingle with its philosophers, savants, and
poets. He had some interesting talk with Malebranche and Boileau, the
former of whom "very much praised Mr Newton's mathematics; shook his head
at the name of Hobbes, and told me he thought him a _pauvre esprit_."
Here follows a genuine Addisonianism: "His book is now reprinted with
many additions, among which he shewed me a very pretty hypothesis of
colours, which is different from that of Cartesius or Newton, _though
they may all three be true_." Boileau, now sixty-four, deaf as a post,
and full of the "sweltered venom" of ill-natured criticism, nevertheless
received Addison kindly; and when presented by him with his "Musæ
Anglicanæ," is said from that time to have conceived an opinion of the
English genius for poetry. Addison says that Boileau "hated an ill