," she answered. M. de Mezeray then read what related to
the word _Jeu; Game_. Amongst other proverbial expressions was this:
_Game of Princes, which only pleases the player_, to express a malicious
violence committed by one in power. At this the queen laughed heartily;
and they continued reading all that was fairly written. This lasted
about an hour, when the queen observing that nothing more remained,
arose, made a bow to the company, and returned in the manner she
entered.

Furetiere, who was himself an academician, has described the miserable
manner in which time was consumed at their assemblies. I confess he was
a satirist, and had quarrelled with the Academy; there must have been,
notwithstanding, sufficient resemblance for the following picture,
however it may be overcharged. He has been blamed for thus exposing the
Eleusinian mysteries of literature to the uninitiated.

"He who is most clamorous, is he whom they suppose has most reason. They
all have the art of making long orations upon a trifle. The second
repeats like an echo what the first said; but generally three or four
speak together. When there is a bench of five or six members, one reads,
another decides, two converse, one sleeps, and another amuses himself
with reading some dictionary which happens to lie before him. When a
second member is to deliver his opinion, they are obliged to read again
the article, which at the first perusal he had been too much engaged to
hear. This is a happy manner of finishing their work. They can hardly
get over two lines without long digressions; without some one telling a
pleasant story, or the news of the day; or talking of affairs of state,
and reforming the government."

That the French Academy were generally frivolously employed appears also
from an epistle to Balzac, by Boisrobert, the amusing companion of
Cardinal Richelieu. "Every one separately," says he, "promises great
things; when they meet they do nothing. They have been _six years_
employed on the letter F; and I should be happy if I were certain of
living till they got through G."

The following anecdote concerns the _forty arm-chairs_ of the
academicians.[115] Those cardinals who were academicians for a long time
had not attended the meetings of the Academy, because they thought that
_arm-chairs_ were indispensable to their dignity, and the Academy had
then only common chairs. These cardinals were desirous of being present
at the election of M. Monnoi