ANA, a Latin plural termination, appropriated to various collections of the observations and criticisms of [7:2:674]eminent characters delivered in conversation and recorded by their friends, or discovered among their papers after their decease. Though the term Ana is but of modern origin, the species of composition to which it has been applied is not of such recent date as some persons have imagined. It appears, from D’Herbelot’s Bibliothèque Orientale, that, since the earliest periods, the eastern nations have been in the habit of preserving the maxims of their sages. From them this practice passed to the Greeks and Romans. Plato and Xenophon treasured up and recorded the sayings of their master Socrates. From their example Arrian, in the concluding books of his Enchiridion, which have not descended to posterity, collected the casual observations which had dropped from Epictetus. The numerous apophthegms seattered in Plutarch, Diogenes Laertius, and other writers, evince that it had been customary in Greece to preserve the ideas delivered by illustrious characters. It appears that Julius Caesar compiled a book of apophthegms, in which he related the bon-mots of Cicero; and Quintilian informs us, that a freedman of that celebrated wit and orator composed three books of a work entitled De Jocis Ciceronis. We are told by Suetonius, that Caius Melissus, originally the slave, but afterwards the freedman and librarian, of Maecenas, collected the sayings of his master; and Aulus Gellius has filled his Noctes Atticae with anecdotes which he heard from those distinguished characters whose society he frequented in Rome. Were the books compiled by the freedmen of Cicero and Maecenas now extant, they might be entitled Ana; and it is certainly to be regretted that we possess no authentic record of the conversational remarks or hints which dropped from the sages, orators, or statesmen of Greece and Rome. How interesting would be a Colloquia Mensalia of Atticus or Caesar!

But though vestiges of this species of composition may be traced in the classical ages, it is only in modern times that it has attained to full popularity and perfection. Literary anecdotes, critical reflections, and historical incidents, came to be mingled with the detail of bon-mots and ludicrous tales; so that instruction and entertainment were agreeably blended. The term Ana seems to have been applied to such collections as far back as the beginning of the fifteenth century. Thus, Francesco Barbaro, in a letter to Poggio, says, that the information and anecdotes which Poggio and Barthelemi Montepolitiano had picked up during a literary excursion through Germany, will be called Ana: “Quemadmodum mala ab Appio e Claudia gente Appiana, et pira a Mallio Malliana cognominata sunt, sic haec literarum quae vestra ope et opera Germania in Italiam deferetur, aliquando et Poggiana et Montepolitiana vocabuntur.”

Poggio Bracciolini, to whom this letter is addressed, and to whom the world is indebted for the preservation of so many classical remains, is the first eminent person of modern times whose jests and opinions have been transmitted to posterity. Poggio was secretary to five successive popes. During the pontificate of Martin V., who was chosen in 1417, Poggio and other members of the Roman chancery were in the habit of assembling in a common hall adjoining the Vatican, in order to converse freely on all subjects. Being more studious of wit than of truth, they termed this apartment Buggiale, a word signifying a place of recreation where tales are related, and which Poggio himself interprets Mendaciorum Officina. At these meetings Poggio and his friends discussed the news and scandal of the day, and communicated to each other entertaining anecdotes; they attacked what they did not approve, and they approved of little; they also indulged in the utmost latitude of satiric remark, dealing out their sarcasms with such impartiality, that they did not spare even the pope and cardinals. The pointed jests and humorous stories which occurred in these unrestrained conversations were collected by Poggio, and formed the chief materials of his Facetiae, first printed, according to De Bure, in 1470. This celebrated collection, which forms a principal part of the Poggiana, is chiefly valuable as recording interesting anecdotes of eminent men of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. It also contains a number of quibbles or jeux-de-mots, and a still greater number of idle and licentious stories. Many of these, however, are not original, some of them being taken from ancient authors, and a still greater number from the Fabliaux of the Trouveurs. Thus, the Fabliau La Culotte des Cordeliers is the Braccae Divi Francisci of Poggio; Le Meunier dΛleus is Poggio’s Quinque Ova ; Du Vilain et de sa Femme is his Mulier Demersa; and Du Pre Tondu is the Pertinacia Muliebris of the Facetiae. On the other hand, Poggio has suggested much to succeeding writers. Hans Carvel’s Bing is his Visio Francisci Filelfi ; and Fontaine’s fables, Le Charlatan, Le Coq et le Renard, and that of the ĩVolf and Fox pleading before the Ape, are from stories originally related by Poggio. The Facetiae forms, upon the whole, the most amusing and interesting part of the Poggiana printed at Amsterdam in 1720; but this collection also comprehends some further anecdotes of his life, and a few scattered maxims extracted from his graver compositions.

Though Poggio was the first person whose remarks and bon-mots were collected under the name of Ana, the Sealigerana, which contains the opinions of Joseph Scaliger, was the first work published under that appellation; and, accordingly, may be regarded as having led the way to that class of publications.

There are two collections called Scaligerana—a ρrima and secunda Scaligerana. The first was compiled by a physician named Francis Vertunien, Sieur de Lavau, who attended the family of the Messieurs Chateigner, in whose house Joseph Scaliger resided. He, in consequence, had frequent opportunities of meeting that celebrated critic, and was in the custom of committing to paper the learned or ingenious observations which dropped from him in the course of conversation; to which he occasionally added remarks of his own. This collection, which was chiefly Latin, remained in manuscript many years after the death of the compiler. It was at length purchased by Μ. de Sigogne, who published it in 1669, under the title of Prima Scaligerana, nusquam antehac edita; bestowing upon it the title prima, in order to preserve its claim of priority over another Scaligerana which had been published three years before, but had been more recently compiled. This second work, known by the name of Secunda Scaligerana, was collected by two brothers of the name of Vassau, who went to complete their studies at the university of Ley den, of which Scaliger was at that time one of the professors. Being particularly recommended to Scaliger, they were received in his house, and daily enjoyed his conversation; in the course of which, he gave them much information concerning various topics of history and criticism. The Vassans immediately wrote down what they had heard, and soon made up a large manuscript volume, in which, however, there was neither connection nor arrangement of any description. In this state the manuscript was delivered by one of the Vassans, on his retirement to a monastery, to Μ. de Puy; and after passing through various hands, it came into the possession of Μ. Daillé, who for his own use arranged in alphabetical order the articles which it contained[7:2:675]. Isaac Vossius having come to Paris on a visit to Μ. 'DaiΠe, obtained the loan of the manuscript, which he transcribed, and afterwards published at the Hague, under the title of Scaligerana, sive Excerpta ex ore Josephi Scaligeri. This edition was full of inaccuracies and blunders; but a more correct impression was afterwards published by Μ. Daillé, with a preface complaining of the use that Vossius had made of the manuscript, which he declares was never intended for publication, and was not of a nature to be given to the world. Indeed most literary men in that age conceived that the Scaligerana, particularly the second, detracted considerably from the reputation of the great scholar whose sentiments they recorded. They are full of mistakes and contradictions; and Bayle has remarked, that the Vassans attribute to him observations which it is almost impossible he could have uttered. Joseph Scaliger, with more extensive erudition, but less genius than his father Julius Caesar Scaliger, had inherited his ridiculous vanity and dogmatical spirit. He wished it to be thought that he knew every thing, and that his opinions were infallible. Conversing with two young students of a university, of which he formed the principal ornament, he would probably be but little cautious in the opinions he expressed, as his literary errors could not be detected or exposed. Unfortunately the blind admiration of his pupils led them to regard even his most absurd opinions as the responses of an oracle, and his most unmerited censures as just condemnations. The Scaligerana, accordingly, contains many falsehoods, with much unworthy personal abuse, of the most distinguished characters of the age. Thus, he calls Cardinal Bellarmin a mere atheist {plane atheus), and compares the duke of Sully to Sejanus. Indeed Μ. Daillé, in his preface to the Secunda Scaligerana, confesses that it contains “multa futilia, scurrilia, obscoena; quaedam manifeste falsa. Ubique de se suisque magnifice, ne dicam thrasonice, loquitur; laudum parcus, conviciorum largus, in omnes contumeliosissime invehitur: denique, neminem sibi de manibus elabi patitur,, cujus non errata, vitia, naevos etiam levissimos, accrrime insectetur, et plusquam cynica licentia arrodat.”

In imitation of the Scaligerana, a prodigious number of similar works appeared in France towards the end of the seventeenth and beginning of the eighteenth century. At first these collections were confined to what had fallen from eminent men in conversation; but they were afterwards made to embrace fragments found among their papers, and even passages extracted from their works and epistolary correspondence. Of those which merely record the conversations of eminent men, the best known, the fullest, and most valuable, is the Menagiana. Menage was a person of good sense, of various and extensive information, and of a most communicative disposition. He lived during the greater part of his life in the best society. An assembly of literary characters met, during a long period of time, at his house every Wednesday; and, during his latter years, he daily received persons of that description. Much of his time was thus spent in conversation; and those of his friends who habitually enjoyed it were at pains to record his opinions, which were generally founded on a correct taste and judgment, and were always delivered in a manner the most interesting and lively. A collection of his oral opinions was published in 1693, soon after his death; and this collection, which was entitled Menagiana, was afterwards corrected and enlarged by Μ. la Monnoye, in an edition published by him in 1715. Among the most curious articles in the Menagiana may be numbered the dissertation on Le Moyen de Parvenir, a work attributed to Beroalde de Verreville; that on Le Songe de Poliphile; as also a letter of La Monnoye on the existence of a book supposed to have been entitled De Tribus Impostoribus, concerning which there has been much discussion and controversy.

The Perroniana, which exhibits the opinions of Cardinal Perron, was composed from his familiar conversation by Μ. de Puy, and published by Vossius, by the same contrivance which put him in possession of the Scaligerana. Some parts of this collection are useful in illustrating the literary and ecclesiastical history of the age in which Perron lived; but it also contains many puerile, imprudent, and absurd remarks, which it is generally supposed he never uttered, and many of which were proved by Μ. Chevreau (Chevroeana) to have been the interpolations of his friends. Some of his assertions,—as that Luther denied the immortality of the soul, and that every English peasant drinks from a silver goblet,—are evidently false. Nor can much reliance be placed on the judgment or taste of an author who has elsewhere declared that a page of Quintus Curtius is worth thirty of Tacitus, and that, next to Quintus Curtius, Florus is the greatest Roman historian. The Thuana, or observations of the president De Thou, have usually been published along with the Perroniana. This collection is not extensive, and by no means of such value as might have been expected from a man so able and distinguished.

The Valesiana is a collection of the literary opinions of the historiographer Adrian Valois, published by his son. Μ. Valois was a great student of history, and the Valesi-ana, accordingly, comprehends many valuable historical observations, particularly on the works of Du Cange.

The Eureteriana contains the bon-mots of Μ. Furetiere, of the French academy, the stories which he was in the habit of telling, and a number of anecdotes and remarks found among his papers after his decease. This production, however, consists chiefly of short stories, and comprehends but few thoughts, opinions, or criticisms on books. Furctiere, it is well known, had a violent quarrel with the French Academy, of which he was a member, concerning his Dictionnaire Universel de la Langue Françoise. Having published a preliminary discourse, the further printing was interdicted by the French Academy, which accused him of purloining materials they had amassed for a similar work. This controversy subsisted during the rest of the life of Furctiere, who spent his concluding years in writing and publishing libels on his associates. The Eureteriana, accordingly, is replete with allusions to a subject with which his thoughts were so completely engrossed: in particular we find there the plan and outline of an allegorical and burlesque poem, entitled Les Couches de l’Academic ; in which he has satirized different members of the academy, especially Μ. Charpentier, one of his bitterest foes, whom he has designated by the name of Marmentier.

The Chevraeana, so called from Μ. Chevreau, exhibits more research than most works of a similar description, and is probably more accurate, as it was published during the life of the author, and revised by himself. Among other interesting articles, it contains a learned and ingenious commentary on the works of Malherbe, to whom the French language and poetry were highly indebted for the perfection to which they attained.

Parrhasiana is the work of Jean le Clerc, a professor of Amsterdam, who bestowed this appellation on his miscellaneous productions with the view of discussing various topics of philosophy and politics with more freedom than he could have employed under his own name. This work is not of the light and unconnected description of [7:2:676]most of the Ana which have been above enumerated, as it contains much learned philological disquisition, and a long dissertation on poetry and eloquence. In the first volume there is a list of his published works, and a bitter reply to all those who had censured them.

The Huetiana, which has always held a distinguished place among the Ana, contains the detached thoughts and criticisms of Huet, bishop of Avranches, which he himself committed to writing during his life. This author was well fitted to produce a valuable work in this department of literature. He enjoyed the friendship of a number of distinguished characters, and his reading was various and extensive. This collection, however, was not begun by him till he was far advanced in life. Huet was born in 1630, and in 1712 he was attacked by a malady which impaired his memory, and rendered him incapable of the sustained attention necessary for the completion of a long or laborious work. In this situation he employed himself during the concluding years of his life in throwing his detached observations on paper. These were published by the Abbé d’Olivet the year after his death, under the name of Huetiana, — a work which is not, like some other Ana, a succession of bon-mots or anecdotes, but forms a series of thoughts and criticisms on various topies of morals, philosophy, and literature, and also comprehends pretty long dissertations on the origin of rhyme, the comparative merit of the ancients and moderns, with similar topics. One of the most instructive discussions to a scholar, in this collection, is that on the Latinization of names and surnames; in which he points out and criticises the different modes of this process. His critical judgments on Montaigne, Rochefoucauld, and Taeitus, seem also well founded; and if some of his opinions in matters of taste betray singular or defective feelings, there are others which appear equally just and refined. But were there no other literary memorials of the bishop of Avranches, he certainly would not derive high reputation from the Huetiana. D’Alembert has treated this collection with contempt; and has selected some articles to show the bishop’s incompetent judgment and frivolous taste. It may be suspected, indeed, from the circumstances in which the articles contained in the Huetiana were composed, that they do not always display that correct judgment which distinguishes many of the other works of this learned writer.

The Casauboniana presents us with the miscellaneous observations, chiefly philological, of the celebrated Isaac Casaubon. During the course of a long life, that eminent commentator was in the daily practice of committing to paper any thing remarkable which he heard in conversation with his friends, especially if it bore on the studies in which he was engaged. He also made diurnal annotations on the works he was employed in reading, with which he connected his judgments concerning the author and his writings. This compilation, which was styled Ephemerides, together with his Adversaria, and materials amassed for a refutation of the Ecclesiastical Annals of Earonius, came, at his death, into the possession of his son Merie Casaubon, who bequeathed the whole to the Bodleian library at Oxford. These were shown to Christopher Wolfius during a visit which he paid to that university; and having been transcribed by him, were published under the title of Casauboniana. This collection consists of opinions concerning various eminent writers, illustrations of passages in Scripture, and philological observations and animadversions on the first thirty-four years of the Annals of Baronius. The materials and information which it contains are probably more accurate than is usually the case in works of the same description, as they were not communicated in Casual conversation, and reported by others, but were daily committed to writing by Casaubon himself, while the works from which they were derived remained fresh in his recollection.

Besides the above, a great many works, under the title of Ana, appeared in France about the same period. Thus, the opinions and conversation of Charpentier, Colomesius, and St Evremond, were recorded in the Carpenteriana, Colomesiana, and St Evremoniana ; and those of Segrais in the Segraisiana, — a collection formed by a person stationed behind the tapestry in a house where Segrais was accustomed to visit, and of which Voltaire has declared, “que de tous les Ana e’est eelui qui merite le plus d’être mis au rang des mensonges imprimés, et surtout des mensonges insipides.” The Ana, indeed, from the popularity which they now enjoyed, were compiled in such numbers, and with so little care, that they became almost proverbial for inaccuracy. About the middle of the eighteenth century they were sometimes made the vehicles of political squibs, as in the Maupeouana, and of heretical opinions, as in the Longueruana. Thus the evil naturally began to cure itself, and by a re-action, which is very general in regard to all productions of literature, the French Ana sunk in public esteem as much below their intrinsic value as they had formerly been exalted above it.

Although these conections have been chiefly formed from the oral opinions of eminent men on the Continent, particularly in France, England has also produced one or two examples of this species of composition, which are not altogether undeserving of attention. Of these, perhaps the most curious is the Walpoliana, which is a transcript of the literary conversation of Horace Walpole. That multifarious author was distinguished for his resources of anecdote, wit, and judicious remark, as well as for his epistolary qualifications. From his father, Sir Robert Walpole, he had learned many anecdotes concerning the political characters who figured during the period of his administration. He was himself personally acquainted with all the eminent literary characters of his own day in England; and his repeated visits to Paris, and constant correspondence with friends in that capital, supplied him with the most interesting information with regard to France. A great part of his life was devoted to conversation. While residing at Strawberry-hill, he generally rose from table about five o’clock, and taking his place on his drawing-room sofa, to which his gout in a great measure confined him, he passed the time, till two o’clock in the morning, in miscellaneous chit-chat, full of singular anecdotes, strokes of wit, and acute observations. As he possessed, and was daily communicating, such stores of instruction and amusement, it was suggested to him that he ought to form a collection of these anecdotes and observations. This he declined, but he furnished the editor of the Walpoliana with many anecdotes in his own hand-writing. After his death, several specimens of this miscellany were published in the Monthly Magazine, and being afterwards enlarged by anecdotes retained in the memory of the editor, or communicated by others, were published in two volumes, under the title of Walpoliana, Most other works which, in this country, have been published under the name of Ana, as Baconiana, Atterburyana, are rather extracts from the writings and correspondence of eminent men, than memorials of their conversation.

There are some works which, though they do not bear the title, belong more strictly to the class of Ana than many of those collections which are known under that appellation. Such are the Mélange d’ Histoire et de Litterar [7:2:677]ture, published under the name of Vigneul Marυille ; and the Locorum Communium Collectanea, ex Lectionibus Philippi Melanchthonis, — a work which was published as far back as the sixteenth century, and has. obtained considerable reputation on account of its theological learning, and the information it communicates concerning the early state of the reformed church. But of those productions which belong to the class, though they do not bear the name, of Ana, the most celebrated are the Colloquia Mensalia of Luther, and Selden’s Table-Talk, both of which merit particular notice. The first, which comprehends the conversation of Luther with his friends and coadjutors in the great work of the Reformation, was first published in 1566. Captain Henry Bell, who translated it into English in the time of the Commonwealth, informs us that, at the instigation of the pope, the emperor of Germany had promulgated an edict commanding the works of Luther to be destroyed. It was for some time supposed that all the copies of the Colloquia Mensalia had been burned in consequence of this order; but at length, in 1626, a German called Van Sparr, having occasion to build on the old foundation of a house in which his grandfather dwelt when the imperial edict was issued, he found lying in a deep hole, and wrapped up in a linen cloth, a printed copy of the Colloquia Mensalia. Captain Bell having formerly become acquainted with Van Sparr during a long residence in Germany, his friend transmitted the work to him in England, where he executed a translation of it; an undertaking to which he pretends that he was urged by the vision of an old man with a long white beard, arrayed in white, who spoke these words: “Sirrah, will you not take time to translate that book ?” The -extraordinary book translated by Bell, at the instance of this vision, is said to have been originally collected by Dr Anthony Lauterbach, “out of the holy mouth of Luther ;” and was afterwards digested into common-places by Dr John Aurifaber. It chiefly contains observations and discussions on idolatry, auricular confession, mass, excommunication, clerical jurisdiction, general councils, and all the points agitated by the reformed church in those early periods. With such topics there is intermixed many diatribes against Antichrist and the Cardinals, and much sarcasm on popish miracles and relics. Occasionally, however, it must be confessed that our great reformer expresses a belief in superstitions fully as wild and monstrous as those which he derides, and which he was called to overthrow. Thus, he asserted that he was repeatedly kept from sleep by the devil cracking nuts in his chamber; and he affirmed that there was a child at Dessau, which had been substituted by the arch-fiend instead of one he had stolen away, and which child Luther earnestly advised the prince of Anhalt to throw into the river Moldaw.

If the collection of Selden’s apophthegms and sayings, entitled Table-Talk, be regarded of good authority, we shall find in it a more genuine and undisguised expression of the sentiments of that eminent man, than in his more studied productions. This work was published, after the death of Selden, by Richard Milward, his amanuensis, who, in his dedication to Selden’s executors, affirms that, for twenty years, he enjoyed the opportunity of daily hearing his discourse, during which long period he made it his practice, from time to time, faithfully to commit to writing “the excellent things that usually fell from him.” Dr Wilkins, in his introductory discourse to the Works of Selden, has attempted to throw discredit on the genuineness of this compilation, asserting that it contains many things derogatory from Selden’s erudition, and foreign from his manners and principles. It is not improbable, indeed, that the memory of the amanuensis may have occasionally failed him, and that he may have recorded sayings which inadvertently escaped his master in the heat of conversation, and such as he probably would not have deliberately maintained. But, on the whole, the work has completely an air of genuineness; and although the familiarity of his illustrations and parallels may appear to clash with the idea formed of so great a scholar, they are characteristic of a man who had been conversant with scenes of common life, no less than the speculations of the closet. That such was the usual manner of Selden’s conversation, the editor of the Table-Talk recalls to the recollection of those friends of his patron to whom the work is dedicated; and this appeal forms a presumption of his veracity. The Table-Talk contains many curious facts and opinions concerning the political and ecclesiastical history of the interesting period during which Selden lived, and in the important events of which he bore a considerable share. To judge from this work, Selden had great contempt for the theologians of his day; and seems to have been of opinion that the state should invariably keep a rein on the church. He was partial to the Episcopal form of worship; but was evidently not very strict in doctrinal points, as appears from what he is reported to have said on the subject of heresy. In his political opinions he seems to have entertained a high respect for the sacredness of the social contract; and he justified the resistance to the Stewarts, on the ground that they had infringed and violated this compact between prince and people. Besides religious and political opinions, the Table-Talk contains much of a lighter description; in consequence of which, Selden has been accused of showing more laxness, in point of moral principle, than might have been expected from so grave and respectable a character. Many of those sentiments, however, which have been considered objectionable, may have been merely advanced as plausible deductions from principles assumed for the sake of argument. But whatever difference of opinion may exist with regard to the matter of the Table-Talk, the manner in which the sentiments are there expressed must be universally admitted to be perspicuous and agreeable. The style of Selden, in most of the works published under his own care, is harsh and obscure; but Clarendon, who differed from him so widely in political opinions, acknowledges that he was “a clear discourser, and that he possessed the faculty of making difficult things easy, and presenting them clearly to the understanding.” Accordingly, this talent for elucidation shines chiefly in his Table-Talk, which is filled with the stores of his extensive reading, delivered without any pretensions to that order and method, the want of which has been attributed to his other productions.

It thus appears that, although the compilations designated by the name of Ana belong more particularly to France, they have not been wholly unknown in this country. In their Motti e Burle, and sometimes in their novels, the Italians also have recorded the witticisms of their distinguished poets and artists. The novels of Sacchetti are full of repartees attributed to Dante and the painters Giotto and Buffalmacco. Almost every Italian biographical work of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, like Boswell’s Life of Johnson, records at great length the conversational remarks of the individual whose life is detailed. Thus, Manso has dedicated one of the books of his life of Torquato Tasso to an account of the wise and witty sayings of that illustrious poet, who, towards the close of his days, had become the intimate friend of his biographer. The conversation of the poet, however, was neither gay nor brilliant. One of the characters in Goldoni[7:2:678]’s drama of Torquato Tasso thus contrasts his writings and conversation:
Ammiro il suo talento, gradisco i carmi suoi;
Ma piacer non trovo a conversar con lui.

It also unfortunately happens that the greater part of the sayings recorded by Manso may be found in the Apophthegms of Erasmus, which were published before the birth of Tasso. Indeed Manso seems to have been aware of the want of originality in the bon-mots of his friend; for, after mentioning one, he says, “questo motto fu da alcuni ad Epiteto attribuito.” It was usual, indeed, among the biographers of those times to pillage Xenophon or Plutarch for good things to put into the mouths of their heroes; a practice from which Machiavel could not abstain in his short account of the illiterate soldier Cas-truccio Castracani. In those ages of pedantry, however, it is not improbable that many sayings of the old philosophers might have been repeated as their own by the learned men of the times; and that the Italian literati might occasionally attempt to make their hearers merry with the jests of Socrates or Diogenes. The genius and character of the people rendered any collection of this nature less agreeable than the Ana of the neighbouring nation. In Italy, gravity was numbered among the virtues, and, in the eulogy of an illustrious man, is always mentioned as one of his most commendable qualities. There seems, in that country, to have been no medium between the most fantastic buffoonery and a certain tragic solemnity. The Italians wanted that “mobility of imagination,” that facility, rapidity, abandonment, and gaiety, which seems almost peculiar to the French, and forms the chief charm of social intercourse, as well as of those works in which it is represented; though, no doubt, when reduced into writing, much of its grace and spirit must evaporate and disappear.

The existence of similar causes, and perhaps in a stronger degree, prevented the popularity of Ana among the Spaniards; though they too have related the jests and opinions of the duke d’Ossuna, and of some others. Indeed, whatever may be the genius or disposition of a people, traces of this mode of composition may in some shape or other be discovered among them.

When presented in their most perfect form, which is that of the French Ana, these collections are certainly entertaining from their variety, and curious, as presenting a lively image of the distinguished 'characters whose sentiments they record. If men reason more correctly on paper, they usually display their feelings and convictions with more truth in unpremeditated conversation. Few are so cautious or hypocritical that they do not sometimes drop the mask in the society of their friends, and express what they think or feel, when they no longer entertain apprehensions that their sentiments will be communicated to the vulgar. In general, however, the Ana should rather be regarded as affording a notion of the spirit and turn of thinking of those whose conversation they detail, than as authorities for particular opinions. A spirit of contradiction, a wish to display ingenuity, to astonish by paradoxes, or even to support conversation, may often lead men to maintain opinions in colloquial intercourse which they perhaps never seriously held, or at least would be ready to disclaim on mature consideration. It also unfortunately happens that, in many of the Ana, those who collected the conversations which they presented to the world interpolated their own opinions; which, of course, greatly diminishes their authority as characteristical records. It has also been objected to this species of composition, that every subject is treated superficially; but it should be recollected that the Ana do not profess to contain profound dissertations; and in fact no one consults them with the view of being deeply informed on any topic. A better founded objection is, that many subjects are treated, not merely superficially, but inaccurately. Such compositions are liable to a double risk of error; first, of the person who delivers opinions in the heat of discourse, or relates anecdotes from vague recollection; and, secondly, of the person who records them, who must be liable to mistake what he has only heard in the course of conversation. From these causes, and from their wide and general circulation, many of the most current literary errors may be traced to the Ana. When read, however, with discrimination, they may prove highly useful in illustrating various points of literary history, as they certainly contain a great deal which is not to be found in the formal compositions of the learned.

Wolfius has given a history of the Ana in a preliminary discourse to his edition of the Casauboniana, published in 1710. In the Repertoire de Bibliographies Speciales, Curieuses, et Instructives, by Peignot, there is a Notice Bibliographique of these collections; but many of the books there enumerated consist of mere extracts from the writings of popular authors, and do not, therefore, belong to that class of literary works described in the preceding article. (q.)