late. The word, in the sense of a narrative of personal recollections,
was borrowed at the Restoration. The thing itself, under other names,
is older. It is a branch of history that flourishes in stirring
and difficult times when men believe themselves to have special
information about hidden forces that directed the main current of
events, and we date it in this country from the period of the Civil
Wars. It is significant that when Shaftesbury in his old age composed
his short and fragmentary autobiography he began by saying, 'I in this
follow the French fashion, and write my own memoirs.' Even Swift, when
publishing Temple's _Memoirs_, said that ''tis to the French (if I
mistake not) we chiefly owe that manner of writing; and Sir William
Temple is not only the first, but I think the only Englishman (at
least of any consequence) who ever attempted it.' Few English memoirs
were then in print, whereas French memoirs were to be numbered by
dozens. But the French fashion is not to be regarded as an importation
into English literature, supplying what had hitherto been lacking. At
most it stimulated what already existed.

The _mémoire_ was not the only setting for French portraits at this
time. There were the French romances, and notably the _Artamène ou
le Grand Cyrus_ and the _Clélie_ of Madeleine de Scudéry. The full
significance of the _Grand Cyrus_ has been recovered for modern
readers by Victor Cousin, with great skill and charm, in his _Société
française au XVIIe siècle_, where he has shown it to be, 'properly
speaking, a history in portraits'. The characters were drawn from
familiar figures in French society. 'Ainsi s'explique', says Cousin,
'l'immense succès du _Cyrus_ dans le temps où il parut. C'était une
galerie des portraits vrais et frappants, mais un peu embellis,
où tout ce qu'il y avait de plus illustre en tout genre--princes,
courtisans, militaires, beaux-esprits, et surtout jolies