426                   MODERN   CIVILIZATION

lieu founded the French Academy; to edit a dictionary
of the French language is its especial charge.

"This small band called good society is the flower
of the human race/' said Voltaire. "It is for them
that the greatest men have labored.1' "It is the taste
of the court that should be studied,1' said Moliere.
"There is no place where decisions can be more just."
This taste which was imposed on all writers, is called
the classic taste. It consists in expressing only ideas
that can be easily understood, and expressing* them in
terms clear, precise, and elegant, setting them forth
in perfect order, taking care to employ no popular
expression, neither a term of science, trade, or of the
household; in one word, sparing the reader every-
thing which may demand an effort of the mind, or
which may shock the proprieties. Literature became
the art of making fine discourses; it was oratorical
rather than poetic. Its dominant quality was per-
fection.

The most glorious period in this classic literature
was at the close of the seventeenth century. All
forms of literature are represented: tragedy, comedy,
fables, criticism, oratory, fiction, moral philosophy.
We owe to Voltaire our custom of calling this period
the century of Louis XIV., and even of attributing
part of its merit to the king. In fact, many of the
great writers were developed in the reign of Louis
XIII. or during the minority of Louis XIV. (Des-
cartes, Pascal, Corneille). Those still had some of
the qualities which are characteristic of the Renais-
sance* The classic taste was dominant during the
second half of the seventeenth and (luring all of