of the French language. We have already seen how he was regarded by some
of the greatest minds of his age. Voltaire, who never did more than
justice to merit other than his own, said of the Fables, "I hardly know a
book which more abounds with charms adapted to the people, and at the
same time to persons of refined taste. I believe that, of all authors, La
Fontaine is the most universally read. He is for all minds and all
ages." La Bruyere, when admitted to the Academy, in 1693, was warmly
applauded for his _eloge_ upon La Fontaine, which contained the
following words:--"More equal than Marot, and more poetical than Voiture,
La Fontaine has the playfulness, felicity, and artlessness of both. He
instructs while he sports, persuades men to virtue by means of beasts,
and exalts trifling subjects to the sublime; a man unique in his species
of composition, always original, whether he invents or translates,--who
has gone beyond his models, himself a model hard to imitate."

La Fontaine, as we have said, devoted his latter days to religion. In
this he was sustained and cheered by his old friends Racine and De
Maucroix. Death overtook him while applying his poetical powers to the
hymns of the church. To De Maucroix he wrote, a little before his
death,--"I assure you that the best of your friends cannot count upon
more than fifteen days of life. For these two months I have not gone
abroad, except occasionally to attend the Academy, for a little
amusement. Yesterday, as I was returning from it, in the middle of the
Rue du Chantre, I was taken with such a faintness that I really thought
myself dying. O, my friend, to die is nothing: but think you how I am
going to appear before God! You know how I have lived. Before you receive
this billet, the gates of eternity will perhaps have been opened upon
me!" To this, a few days after, his friend replied,--"If God, in his
kindness, restores you to health, I hope you will come and spend the rest
of your life with me, and we shall often talk together of the mercies of