CHAPTER III.
DIALOGUES OF THE DEAD.
Less original than the Olympian Dialogues,—for their idea must be allowed to he borrowed from Homer, while the inclination to moralise upon the vanity of earthly riches, and honours, and beauty, and the work of that great leveller Death, is common enough,—these have perhaps been even more popular. An imitation in great measure themselves, they have found imitators amongst the moderns, in their turn, who have shown considerable ability. The "Dialogues of the Dead" of Fontenelle and of Lord Lyttelton still find readers, and these imitations have charmed many to whom the original was unknown in any other way than by name.[1] The Dialogues of Fenelon, composed for the instruction of his pupil the Duke of Burgundy, were, again, an imitation of those of Fontenelle, but are somewhat more didactic, as we should expect, and less lively. But perhaps the most striking modern work for the
- ↑ "The dead," says Fontenelle in his preface, "ought to speak wisely, from their longer experience and greater leisure; it is to be hoped that they take rather more time to think than is usual with the living."
