La fontaine Sentence Examples
What is universally admitted is that Chenier was a very great artist, who like Ronsard opened up sources of poetry in France which had long seemed dried up. In England it is easier to feel his attraction than that of some far greater reputations in French poetry, for, rhetorical though he nearly always is, he yet reveals something of that quality which to the Northern mind has always been of the very essence of poetry, that quality which made SainteBeuve say of him that he was the first great poet "personnel et reveur" in France since La Fontaine.
His latest works of literary importance were La Fontaine et les Fabulistes (1867) and an Etude sur J.-J.
It should be illuminated with those qualities which La Fontaine applauded in the dialogue of Plato, namely vivacity, fidelity of tone, and accuracy in the opposition of opinions.
All the more remarkable spirits of the time, like prophets in Israel, denounced a tyranny which put Chamillart at the head of the finances because he played billiards well, and Villeroy in command of the armies although he was utterly untrustworthy; which sent the patriot Vauban into disgrace, banished from the court Catinat, the Pre Ia Pense, exiled to Cambrai the too clear sighted Fnelon, and suspected Racine of Jansenism and La Fontaine of independence.
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