author of the “Fatpuni,” and the “Complaisant,” and of those pretty novels, the “Comte de Cominge,” the “Siege of Calais,” and “Les Malheurs de l’Amour.”  Would you not expect this old man to be very agreeable?  He can be so, but seldom is:  yet he has another very different and very amusing talent, the art of parody, and is unique in his kind.  He composes tales to the tunes of long dances:  for instance, he has adapted the Regent’s “Daphnis and Chloe” to one, and made it ten times more indecent; but is so old, and sings it so well, that it is permitted in all companies.  He has succeeded still better in les caracteres de la danse, to which he has adapted words that express all the characters of love.  With all this he has not the least idea of cheerfulness in conversation; seldom speaks but on grave subjects, and not often on them; is a humourist, very supercilious, and wrapt up in admiration of his own country, as the only judge of his merit.  His air and look are cold and forbidding; but ask him to sing, or praise his works, his eyes and smiles open and brighten up.  In short, I can show him to you:  the self-applauding poet in Hogarth’s Rake’s Progress, the second print, is so like his very features and very wig, that you would know him by it, if you came hither—­for he certainly will not go to you.

[Footnote 1:  "The famous Mme. Tencin.” “Infamous” would be more appropriate.  She had been the mistress of Dubois, and was the mother of D’Alembert.]

[Footnote 2:  His description of her on first making her acquaintance was not altogether complimentary.  In a letter of the preceding October he calls her “an old blind debauchee of wit.”  In fact, she had been one of the mistresses of the Regent, Duc d’Orleans, and at first his chief inducement to court her society was to hear anecdotes of the Regent.  But gradually he became so enamoured of her society that he kept up an intimacy with her till her death in 1783.  There must be allowed to be much delicate perception and delineation of character in this description of the French fine ladies of the time.]

[Footnote 3:  To the above portrait of Madame du Deffand it may be useful to subjoin the able development of her character which appeared in the Quarterly Review for May, 1811, in its critique on her Letters to Walpole:—­“This lady seems to have united the lightness of the French character with the solidity of the English.  She was easy and volatile, yet judicious and acute; sometimes profound and sometimes superficial.  She had a wit playful, abundant, and well-toned; an admirable conception of the ridiculous, and great skill in exposing it; a turn for satire, which she indulged, not always in the best-natured manner, yet with irresistible effect; powers of expression varied, appropriate, flowing from the source, and curious without research; a refined taste for letters, and a judgment both of men and books in a high degree enlightened and accurate.”]