[Illustration: RACINE.]
"When Corneille, the great Corneille, as the popular dramatist came to be called, read his masterpiece, _Polyeucte_, to a party of fashionable literary people in Paris, it was coolly received on account of the fine Christian sentiments it contained. The criticism was that the religion of the stage should be that, not of God, but of the gods. Even a bishop present took this view.
"Bernardin de St. Pierre was as sharply criticised when he first read in public his beautiful romance of 'Paul and Virginia.' It was at a party given by Madame Necker. 'At first,' says a writer, 'every one listened in silence; then the company began to whisper, then to yawn.
Monsieur de Buffon ordered his carriage, and slipped out of the nearest door. The ladies who listened were ridiculed when tears at last gathered in their eyes.'
[Illustration: RACINE READING TO LOUIS XIV.]
"_Polyeucte_ still lives in French literature, and the wits who condemned it are forgotten; 'Paul and Virginia' charmed France; fifty imitations of it were published in a single year, and it was rapidly translated into all European tongues. It remains a classic, but the critics in Madame Necker's parlors are recollected only for their mistake."
"We must read the works of these French authors on our return," said Wyllys, "or at least the best selections from them. I shall wish to read 'Pascal's Provincial Letters' and the Letters of Madame de Sevigne, after what you have said of them."
"You should also read some of the best selections from the works of Boileau, Moliere, and Racine. I have only time to allude to them briefly here.
"These authors were friends. They all lived in the time of the Grand Monarch, as Louis XIV. was called. La Fontaine, some of whose fables you have read, belongs to the same period, which is the greatest in French literature.
"Louis XIV. appreciated nearly all the great writers of the time; he seems to have felt that great authors, like great palaces, would add lustre to his reign."
"I think that we might better change our society on our return into a reading-club," said Tommy Toby.
"It seems to me your proposal is a very good one," said Master Lewis.
"We may be able to travel again. If we should visit Germany or the Latin lands together another year, a reading-club would be an excellent preparation for the journey."
"Very much better than a Secret Society," said Frank. "Suppose you give the Class the secret you devised for our first meetings, Tommy."
"Oh," said Tommy, soberly, "that, like most of my other plans, was just _nothing, after all_."
Away from busy Havre the next morning, under the French and American flags, moved a little ocean world; and on the decks, looking back to the fading shores of old Normandy, and cherishing delightful memories of their zigzag journeys in historic lands, were the teacher and the lads whose winding ways we have followed.
University Press: John Wilson & Son, Cambridge.