"UNLIKE the Germans," M. Dueros remarks with a certain sub-acidity,
"the French are not a nation of supermen." And therefore, in consonance with his professions, he gives us a very human, anti-heroic picture of the state of France under the eighteenth-century Courts. His chief merit (apart from a quick eye and a ready wit) is that he does not confine himself to " Society," but shows us also the life of middle- class tradesmen, provincials, villagers, and the poor. Still his liveliest anecdotes are of the Court, the Army, the Church and the nobility. We gain. more understanding, perhaps, from a short incident in the irresponsible life of Louis XV than we could from many ponderous sociological discussions
Seeing the Grand Provost de Sourehes in the Garden of Diana, he exclaimed, '1 will give the Grand Provost a good fright,' where- upon he loosed his arrow and hit the Grand Provost in the stomach, but was upset at having been so skilful. The Grand Provost is in a bad way."
The volume is competently translated by Mr. W. de Geijer.
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