The priest of his parish brought him the sacraments, and, "Sir," said he, "you know how great God is!" "Yes," replied the dying man, "and how little men are!" He expired almost immediately on the 10th of February, 1755, at the age of sixty-six.

He died at the beginning of the reign of the philosophers, whose way he had prepared before them without having ever belonged to their number.

Diderot alone followed his bier.

Fontenelle, nearly a hundred years old, was soon to follow him to the tomb.
[Illustration: Fontenelle----274] Born at Rouen in February, 1657, and nephew of Corneille on the mother's side, Fontenelle had not received from nature any of the unequal and sublime endowments which have fixed the dramatic crown forever upon the forehead of Corneille; but he had inherited the wit, and indeed the brilliant wit (_bel esprit_), which the great tragedian hid beneath the splendors of his genius.

He began with those writings, superfine (_precieux_), dainty, tricked out in the fashion of the court and the drawing-room, which suggested La Bruyere's piquant portrait.
"Ascanius is a statuary, Hegio a metal-founder, AEschines a fuller, and Cydias a brilliant wit.