Mangea le fonds avec le revenu,
Tint les tresors chose peu necessaire.
Quant a son temps, bien sut le dispenser:
Deux parts en fit, don't il souloit passer
L'urie a dormir, et l'autre a ne rien faire.

This confession, the immortality of which was so little foreseen by its
author, liberally rendered, amounts to the following:--

John went as he came--ate his farm with its fruits,
Held treasure to be but the cause of disputes;
And, as to his time, be it frankly confessed,
Divided it daily as suited him best,--
Gave a part to his sleep, and to nothing the rest.

It is clear that a man who provided so little for himself needed good
friends to do it; and Heaven kindly furnished them. When his affairs
began to be straitened, he was invited by the celebrated Madame de la
Sabliere to make her house his home; and there, in fact, he was
thoroughly domiciliated for twenty years. "I have sent away all my
domestics," said that lady, one day; "I have kept only my dog, my cat,
and La Fontaine." She was, perhaps, the best-educated woman in France,
was the mistress of several languages, knew Horace and Virgil by heart,
and had been thoroughly indoctrinated in all the sciences by the ablest
masters. Her husband, M. Rambouillet de la Sabliere, was secretary to the
king, and register of domains, and to immense wealth united considerable
poetical talents, with a thorough knowledge of the world. It was the will
of Madame de la Sabliere, that her favourite poet should have no further
care for his external wants; and never was a mortal more perfectly
resigned. He did all honour to the sincerity of his amiable hostess; and,