the moderns, La Rochefoucauld, Saint-Evremond, and La Bruyere are
admired by all judicious readers. From these French writers Boyer has
selected materials for the groundwork of his collection. He has added
passages from Antoninus, Pascal, and Gratian; from the English authors
Bacon, Cowley, L'Estrange, Raleigh, Temple, Dryden, Wycherley, Brown
and others; and from his own pen. They range from a single line to a
passage of several pages. Those of English origin are distinguished by
"_an_ Asterism," his own remarks by inverted commas. Other matter is
unmarked.

Although Boyer has used as his title _The English Theophrastus_,
examination of the sections here reprinted will show that he has
departed from the way of the Greek master. Instead of sharply defined
portraits, Boyer offers maxims, reflections, and manners, after the
French pattern. Gathered from a variety of sources, these observations
are sometimes related to one another only by their common subject
matter, but often they have been altered and rearranged by Boyer for
sharper focus and unity. A few examples will make his method clear.

Of the paragraphs that begin on page eight of the first selection, the
second and fourth are taken from _An Essay in Defence of the Female Sex_
(1696), perhaps the work of Mrs. Judith Drake. The first of these is the
last half of a paragraph from Drake, but minus her concluding figure,
"as Fleas are said to molest those most, who have the tenderest _Skins_,
and the sweetest _Blood_" (p. 78). Into the first line of the second
paragraph from Drake, "Of these the most voluminous Fool is the Fop
Poet," Boyer inserts a reference to Will's. Thereafter, he follows Drake
rather closely, but replaces the final portion of the paragraph with two
or three sentences from other parts of her essay. The Drake material
ends at the paragraph break on page nine. Between these two paragraphs
Boyer places the single statement, "There's somewhat that borders upon
_Madness_ in every exalted _Wit_," which may be his own version of
Dryden's line, "Great Wits are sure to Madness near allied" (_Absalom
and Achitophel_, l. 248). By means of these alterations in his sources,
Boyer has compiled a passage that has focus and direction, and gives
little evidence of its patchwork origin.

In other instances Boyer adheres more closely to the original form of
the material he borrows. The long passage from the middle of page twenty
to the middle of twenty-five is t