ABSTRACT
Born under not very dissimilar circumstances from Boileau – running, without great variation, the same literary career –sometimes associated in the same labours, always making a part of the same society, and, throughout, his dearest friend, yet the texture of their minds caused Louis Racine to be a very different person from the subject of the foregoing sketch. The lives of both were unmarked by events; but while the one calmly and philosophically enjoyed the pleasures of life, unharmed by its pains, the more tender and sensitive nature of Racine laid him open to their impression. Racine was born of a respectable family of Ferte-Milon, a small town of Valois. His father and grandfather both enjoyed small financial situationsa in their native town. The two children, a boy and a girl, were brought up by their maternal grandfather. The daughter passed her life at Ferte-Milon, and died there at the advanced age of ninety-two.
