PROCEEDINGS FOR 1891. XXXV 



"Faites savoir à ces messieurs que je les aimerai comme ils m'aimeront." They yielded and produced 

 "Les Sentiments de l'Académie sur le Cid." Again, M. Albert says : " Outre les harangues officielles, 

 fléau dont Racine priait Dieu de préserver le roi, l'Académie qui venait do fonder le prix d'éloquence et 

 le prix de poésie, ne trouva pas de plus belle matière à offrir aux concurrents, pendant près de soixante 

 années, que les infinis mérites de Louis XIV. Un jour, elle proposait le sujet suivant, " Quelle est de 

 toutes les vertus de monarque celle que mérite la préférence ? " Le roi, averti, modifia le texte et se 

 contenta de cette rédaction modeste; le roi n'est pas moins distingué par les vertus qui font l'honnête 

 homme que par celles qui font les grands rois." " Veut on avoir un idée du ton de ces compositions 

 consacrées à la glorification de Louis XIV et couronnées par l'Académie? La Monnoye, un des 

 lauréats, disait, 



'"Sagesse, esprit, grandeur, courage, majesté, 

 Tout nous montre en Louis une divinité ! ' '' 



We must remember that the atmosphere of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was favour- 

 able to breeding lickspittles, and that English and Irish, as well as French specimens of the class, 

 abounded. Swift crucifies them in the passage which Thackeraj^ pronounces "the best stroke of 

 humour, if there be a best in that abounding book, where Gulliver in the unpronounceable country 

 describes his parting from his master, the horse." " I took," he says, " a second leave of my master, 

 but, as I was going to prostrate myself to kiss his hoof, he did me the honour to raise it gently to my 

 mouth. I am not ignorant how much I have been censured for mentioning this last particular. 

 .Detractors are pleased to think it improbable that so illustrious a person should descend to give so 

 great a mark of distinction to a creature so inferior as I. Neither have I forgotten how apt some 

 travellers are to boast of extraordinary favours they have i-eceived. But if these censurers were bet- 

 ter acquainted with the noble and courteous disposition of the Houyhnhnms they would soon change 

 their opinion." ^^o one will say that Swift's satire is too severe, who reads the adulations actually 

 offered by the academicians to Richelieu and Louis XIV, or the prostration of Swift himself before 

 Sir William Temple. Reading what was done in former days, I am amazed that we offered no scrap 

 of sweet taffy to Lord Loine or the Princess Louise. The academicians, however, did set to work to 

 draw up a dictionary that would forever preserve the French language in its purity The great 

 minister, Colbert, who wanted to know whether the State was getting money's worth for its money, 

 looked in on them one day to see how they were getting along with their work, and found that after 

 forty years' labour they had got as far as the word " ami." "We are told that the minister went away 

 penetrated with admiration " poui- la sage lenteur, la conscience, l'érudition profonde qu'apportaient 

 à leur tâche ces hommes éminents." M. Albert sums up the first section of his chaj)ter on the Academy 

 in a verdict that sounds like "guilty, but with a recommendation to mercy." " Aussi l'influence 

 de l'Académie sur la direction des esprits fut nulle ou funeste. Elle ne produisit que deux ouvrages, 

 les Sentiments sur le Cid et le Dictionnaire. Le jjremier est un faible morceau de critique littéraire 

 le second fut condamné dès sa naissance, et l'Académie elle-même le refondit entièrement cinquante 

 ans plus tard." Still, in spite of this adverse verdict, which we must remember is not unchallenged, 

 and in spite of admitted early mistakes and limitations, the French Academy has done excellent 

 work in many ways. It has been, and is, a power in France. The greatest Frenchmen cannot afford 

 to dispense with its recognitions, while to be enrolled as a member is regarded as the highest honour 

 even by a Victor Hugo. 



No society, however, in Loudon or anywhere else in English-speaking lands, will ever be allowed 

 an authoritative censorship of the English language. The practice of the best speakers and writers, 

 as well as general popular usage, will always be the supreme arbiters. New words and phrases will 

 be continually added, enriching the language and making it better fitted for world-wide use. Neither 

 will any society be allowed to impose its own standards, or the standards of one age, as absolute and 

 for all time. There has been proof enough to satisfy Englishmen that attempts at intellectual die- 



