advantages over antiquity comparable to those of old age over
childhood.

2.

How seriously the question between the Moderns and the Ancients--on
whose behalf Boileau had come forward and crossed swords with Saint
Sorlin--was taken is shown by the fact that Saint Sorlin, before his
death, solemnly bequeathed the championship of the Moderns to a
younger man, Charles Perrault. We shall see how he fulfilled the
trust. It is illustrated too by a book which appeared in the
seventies, Les Entretiens d'Ariste et Eugene, by Bouhours, a mundane
and popular Jesuit Father. In one of these dialogues the question is
raised, but with a curious caution and evasiveness, which suggests
that the author was afraid to commit himself; he did not wish to
make enemies. [Footnote: Rigault notes that he makes one
contribution to the subject, the idea that the torch of civilisation
has passed from country to country, in different ages, e.g. from
Greece to Rome, and recently from Italy to France. In the last
century the Italians were first in doctrine and politesse. The
present century is for France what the last was for Italy: "We have
all the esprit and all the science, all other countries are
barbarous in comparison" (p. 239, ed. 1782, Amsterdam). But, as we
shall see, he had been anticipated by Hakewill, whose work was
unknown to Rigault.]

The general atmosphere in France, in the reign of Louis XIV., was
propitious to the cause of the Moderns. Men felt that it was a great
age, comparable to the age of Augustus, and few would have preferred
to have lived at any other time. Their literary artists, Corneille,