Every page of it is stamped with the
character of the author--frankness, simplicity, and uprightness. It
abounds in sound morality, sage maxims, and proofs of excellent
principles in religion and politics; and, if the writer occasionally
carries his _naivete_ to excess, it is to be recollected that the book
was published when he was in his eighty-fifth year, a period of life
when indulgence may reasonably be claimed. He died four years
subsequently, in 1593.--In Huet's work, the materials are selected with
more skill, and are digested with more talent. The author brought to his
task a mind well stored with the learning requisite for the purpose, and
employed it with judgment. But he has confined himself, almost wholly,
to the description of the town; and the consequence is, that while the
bishop's is the work most commonly referred to, the magistrate's is that
which is most generally read. The dedication of the former to the town
of Caen, does honor to the feelings of the writer: the portrait of the
latter, prefixed to his volume, and encircled with his quaint motto,
_"L'heur de grace use l'oubli,"_ itself an anagram upon his name,
bespeaks and insures the good will of the reader.
The origin of Caen is uncertain.--Its foundation has been alternately
ascribed to Phoenicians, Romans, Gauls, Saxons, and Normans.
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