despicable exercise of rhetoric. According to him, the only true
history was the natural history of man. Michelet was in the right
path when he came in contact with the fistula of Louis XIV., but he
fell back into the old rut almost immediately afterwards.

After this judicious expression of opinion, the young physiologist
went to join a party of passing friends. The two archivists, less
well acquainted in the neighbourhood of a garden so far from the
Rue Paradis-au-Marais, remained together, and began to chat about
their studies. Gelis, who had completed his third class-year, was
preparing a thesis on the subject of which he expatiated with
youthful enthusiasm. Indeed, I thought the subject a very good one,
particularly because I had recently thought myself called upon to
treat a notable part of it. It was the Monasticon Gallicanum.
The young erudite (I give him the name as a presage) wanted to
describe all the engravings made about 1690 for the work which Dom
Michel Germain would have had printed but for the one irremediable
hindrance which is rarely foreseen and never avoided. Dom Michel
Germain would have had printed but for the one irremediable hindrance
which is rarely foreseen and never avoided. Dom Michel Germain left
his manuscript complete, however, and in good order when he died.
Shall I be able to do as much with mine?--but that is not the present
question. So far as I am able to understand, Monsieur Gelis intends
to devote a brief archaeological notice to each of the abbeys
pictured by the humble engravers of Dom Michel Germain.

His friend asked him whether he was acquainted with all the
manuscripts and printed documents relating to the subject. It was
then that I pricked up my ears. They spoke at first of original
sources; and I must confess they did so in a satisfactory manner,