THE JESUIT CRESSET. 579 



que fait naitre la verite des qu'elle se montre." Nor does poetry 

 escape the general anathema it is designated as " cet art si dan- 

 gereux, dont 1'histoire est beaucoup plus la liste des fautes celebres et 

 des regrets tardifs. Que celle des succes sans honte et de la gloire 

 sans remords ***** One se laisse entrainer a etablir des 

 principes qu'on n'a point; un vers brillant decide d'une maxime 

 bardie, scandaleuse, extravagante ; 1'idee est temeraire, le trait est 

 impie, n'importe: le vers est heureux, sonore, eblouissant: on lie pent 

 le sacrifier, on ne vent que briller, on parle contre ce qu'on croit, et 

 la vanite des mots 1'emporte sur la verite des choses." 



After the publication of this letter, Gresset retired to Amiens, 

 where he still continued to cultivate the Muses, and occasionally in- 

 serted some light production of his pen in the journals of the period. 

 But no circumstance of importance occurred in his life until the year 

 1774, when he had the honour of pronouncing, in the name and at 

 the head of the Academy, a discourse before Louis XVI. on his acces- 

 sion to the throne. Shortly afterwards he received a patent of nobi- 

 lity, which was publicly read, by order of the court, in an assembly 

 of the Academy of Amiens, the preamble being highly nattering to 

 our author. In 1777 he was appointed by the king to the post of 

 ecuyer, and was subsequently created a knight of the Order of St. 

 Michael, and historiographe of the Order of St. Lazarus. His health, 

 which had been gradually declining for some years, left him not long 

 in the enjoyment of his titles : on the 16th of June, 1777* he sank, 

 aged sixty-eight years, under the combined attacks of a violent fever 

 and of an abcess in his breast. He left no children ; the mention of 

 which, by the way, reminds us of a circumstance in our author's life 

 which we had well nigh passed over in silence, an act of biographical 

 remissness, for which we might perhaps hereafter be justly called to 

 account, at least by the fair portion of our readers ; namely, that in 

 1751, Gresset obtained the hand of Charlotte Gallaud, a young lady 

 of great wit, and withal of a sweet and amiable disposition. She was 

 the daughter of a merchant of Amiens, and a relation of Antoine Gal- 

 laud, celebrated by his translation or imitation of the Arabian Nights' 

 Entertainments. 



Several anecdotes of Gresset's wit and bonhommie are related, and 

 he appears to have been a favourite companion of the wits of the age. 

 He was member of a society or club, consisting, amongst others, of 

 1' Abbe de Chauvelin, a counsellor in parliament ; a little deformed 

 man, but extremely witty, and famous for his denunciation of the 

 Jesuits de Vallier, president of the parliament, captain of the regi- 

 ment de Champagne, and celebrated for his strange and romantic 

 adventures La Place, the translator of Tom Jones De Lafantiere, 

 counsellor in parliament and the Marquis of Chauvelin, brother to 

 the Abbe, formerly ambassador at the court of Savoy. Their meet- 

 ings were held at the hotel de Chaulnes. Amongst other humourous 

 anecdotes of this coterie, Gresset was fond of relating the following : 



After one of their suppers at the hotel de Chaulnes, these gentle- 

 men were walking home in company at about two o'clock in the 

 morning ; passing down the rue Dauphine, Vallier perceived on the 

 door of a house of very respectable appearance, a notice stating, 



