Mappe-monde_, _Miroir du Monde_. Of these
encyclopaedias, the only one which has a literary interest is the
_Tresor_ (1265), by Dante's master, Brunetto Latini, who wrote in
French in preference to his native Italian. In it science escapes
not wholly from fantasy and myth, but at least from the allegorising
spirit; his ethics and rhetoric are derived from Latin originals;
his politics are his own. The _Somme des Vices et des Vertus_, compiled
in 1279 by Friar Lorens, is a well-composed _tresor_ of religion and
morals. Part of its contents has become familiar to us through the
Canterbury discourse of Chaucer's parson. The moral experience of
a man of the world is summed up in the prose treatise on "The Four
Ages of Man," by Philippe de Novare, chancellor of Cyprus. With this
edifying work may be grouped the so-called _Chastiements_, counsels
on education and conduct, designed for readers in general or for some
special class--women, children, persons of knightly or of humble
rank; studies of the virtues of chivalry, the rules of courtesy and
of manners.[1] Other writings, the _Etats du Monde_, present a view
of the various classes of society from a standpoint ethical, religious,
or satirical, with warnings and exhortations, which commonly
conclude with a vision of the last judgment and the pains of hell.
With such a scene of terror closes the interesting _Poeme Moral_ of
Etienne de Fougeres, in which the life of St. Moses, the converted
robber, serves as an example to monks, and that of the converted Thais
to ladies who are proud of their beauty. Its temper of moderation
contrasts with the bitter satire in the _Bible_ by Guiot de Provins,
and with many shorter satirical pieces directed against clerical
vices or the infirmities of woman. The _Besant de Dieu_, by Guillaume
le Clerc, a Norman poet (1227), preaches in verse, with eloquence
and imaginative power, the love of God and contempt of the world from
the texts of two Scripture parables--that of the Talents and that
of the Bridegroom; Guillaume anticipates the approaching end of the
world, foreshown by wars, pestilence, and famine, condemns in the
spirit of Christian charity the persecution of the Albigenses, and
mourns over the shame that has befallen the Holy Sepulchre.

[Footnote 1: Two works of the fourteenth century, interesting in the
history of manners and ideas, may here be mentioned--the _Livre du
Chevalier de la Tour-Landry_ (1372), composed for the instructi