m really
surprising even in a foreign writer, with regard to names, dates, and
circumstances, oversetting every congruity which it was manifestly Le
Sage's object to establish. We shall show that the Spanish novels
inserted by him do not mix with the body of the work; and moreover we
shall show that in one instance, where Le Sage hazarded an allusion to
Parisian gossip, he betrayed the most profound ignorance of those very
customs which, in other parts of the work passing under his name, are
delineated with such truth of colouring, and Dutch minuteness of
observation.

If these two propositions be clearly established, we have a right to
infer from them the existence of a Spanish manuscript, as on any other
hypothesis the claims of an original writer would be clashing and
contradictory.

M. Neufchateau, as we have observed, reiterates the assertion that the
errors of Gil Blas are such as no Spaniard could commit, leaving
altogether unguarded against the goring horn of the dilemma which can
only be parried by an answer to the question--how came it to pass that
Le Sage could enumerate the names of upwards of twenty inconsiderable
towns and villages, upwards of twenty families not of the first class;
and in every page of his work represent, with the most punctilious
fidelity, the manners of a country he never saw? Nay, how came it to
pass that, instead of avoiding minute details, local circumstances, and
the mention of particular facts, as he might easily have done, he
accumulates all these opportunities of mistake and contradiction,
descends to the most trifling facts, and interweaves them with the web
of his narrative (conscious of ignorance, as, according to M.
Neufchateau, he must have been) without effort and without design.

Let us begin by laying before the readers the _pieces du proces_. First,
we insert the description of Le Sage given by two French writers.

"Voici ce que disoit Voltaire a l'article de Le Sage, dans la
premiere edition du Siecle de Louis XIV.:--

"'Son roman de Gil Blas est demeure, parcequ'il y a du naturel.'

"Dans les editions suivantes du Siecle de Louis XIV., Voltaire
ajoute un fait qu'il se contente d'enoncer simplement, comme une
chose hors de doute; c'est que Gil Blas est pris entierement d'un
livre ecrit en Espagnol, et dont il cite ainsi le titre--La vidad
de lo Escudero Dom Marco d'Obrego--sans indiquer aucunement la
date, l'auteur, ni