The increased interest in the past was shown by the publication nearly contemporary of the great historic collections of Rymer (A.D.

1704), Leibnitz (1707), and Muratori (1723).

Before the middle of the century the historic muse had abundant oil to feed her lamp.

Still the lamp would probably not have been lighted but for the singular pass to which French thought had come.
FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 11: Mezeray's great history of France is next to valueless till he reaches the sixteenth century, that was a period bordering on his own.

Thuanus deals with contemporary events.] From the latter years of Louis XIV.