t
than the history and fables of antiquity. Boileau, in the third
_chant_ of his _Art Poetique_, replied--the mysteries of the
Christian faith are too solemn, too awful, to be tricked out to gratify
the fancy.

Desmarets dying, bequeathed his contention to CHARLES PERRAULT
(1628-1703), who had burlesqued the _AEneid_, written light and
fragile pieces of verse, and occupied himself as a dilettante in
patristic and historical studies. In 1687, after various skirmishes
between partisans on either side, the quarrel assumed a new importance.
The King had recovered after a painful operation; it was a moment
for gratulation. Perrault, at a sitting of the Academy, read his poem
_Le Siecle de Louis le Grand_, in which the revolt against the
classical tyranny was formulated, and contemporary authors were
glorified at the expense of the poets of antiquity. Boileau murmured,
indignant; Racine offered ironical commendations; other
Academicians patriotically applauded their own praises.
Light-feathered epigrams sped to and fro.

Fontenelle, in his _Discours sur l'Eglogue_ and a _Digression sur
les Anciens et les Modernes_, widened the field of debate. Were trees
in ancient days taller than those in our own fields? If not, why may
not modern men equal Homer, Plato, and Demosthenes? "Nothing checks
the progress of things, nothing confines the intelligence so much
as admiration of the ancients." Genius is bestowed by Nature on every
age, but knowledge grows from generation to generation. In his
dialogues entitled the _Parallele des Anciens et des Modernes_
(1688-97), Perrault maintained that in art, in science, in literature,
the law of the human mind is a law of progress; that we are the true
ancients of the earth, wise with inherited science, more exact in
reasoning, more refined in psychological distinctions, raised to a
higher plane by Christianity, by the invention of printing, and by
the favour of a great monarch. La Fontaine in his charming _Epitre_
to Huet, La Bruyere in his _Caracteres_, Boileau in his ill-tempered
_Reflexions sur Longin_, rallied the supporters of classicism.
Gradually the fires smouldered or were assuaged; Boileau and Perrault
were reconciled.

Perrault, if he did not honour antiquity in classical forms, paid
a homage to popular tradition in his delightful _Contes de ma Mere
l'Oie_ (if, indeed, the tales be his), which have been a joy to
generations of children. With inferior art, Madame d'Aulnoy added