PERRAULT, Charles, the brother of Claude, was born at Paris in 1626, with as great a genius for arts, and a greater for letters, than his brother. Colbert chose him first clerk of the buildings, of which he was superintendent, and afterward made him comptroller general of the finances under him. He was one of the first members of the academy of the belles lettres and inscriptions, and was received into the French academy in 1671. His poem, La Peinture, printed in 1688, was universally admired: that entitled La siecle de Louis le Grand, in which he exalted the modern authors above the ancient, was a prelude to a war with all the learned. After he had disengaged himself from this contest, he applied himself to draw up eulogies of several great men of the 17th century, with their portraits, of which he has collected 102. There are other esteemed works of Perrault.—Besides these there were two other brothers, Peter and Nicholas, who made themselves known in the literary world.