MARMONTEL, Jean François (1723-1799), one of the most distinguished men of letters in Paris during the latter half of the 18th century, was born of poor parents in Limousin, on the 11th July 1723. After studying with the Jesuits at Mauriac, he taught in their colleges at Clermont and Toulouse; and in 1745, acting on the advice of Voltaire, he set out for Paris to try for literary honours. From 1748 to 1753 he wrote a succession of tragedies which, though for the most part considered prolix and artificial by modern readers, had great success on the stage, and secured to Voltaire’s new disciple a good position in literary and fashionable circles. Being now associated with Diderot and D’Alembert, he wrote for the great Encyclopédie a series of articles evincing considerable critical power and insight, which in their collected form, under the title Éléments de Littérature, still rank among the higher French classics. He also wrote several comic operas, the two best of which probably are Sylvain and Zémire et Azore. In 1758 he gained the patronage of Madame Pompadour, and was soon after appointed manager of thθ official journal Le Mercure, in which he had already commenced a series of elegant and attractive tales. These were the Contes Moraux, on which, according to some critics, Marmontel’s literary reputation mainly rests. Their merit lies partly in the literary style, which in delicate finish frequently rivals that of his master Voltaire, but mainly in their graphic and charming pictures of...