Whether we consult the voluminous dictionaries of the French language, or those treatises that profess to point out the method of studying and teaching the belles lettres, we find not, in the one or the other, either a clear definition, or a succinct explication of the words belles lettres, nor any summary of those sciences which are comprehended under that general and collective denomination. It appears to be a vague term, under which every one may include whatever he thinks proper. Sometimes we are told, that by the belles lettres is meant, the knowledge of the arts of poetry and oratory; sometimes that the true belles lettres are natural philosophy, geometry, and other essential parts of learning; and sometimes, that they comprehend the art of war, by land and sea: in short, they are made to include all that we know, and whatever we please; so that, in treating on the belles lettres, they talk of the use of the sacraments, &c.* Some comprehend under the term, all those instructive and pleasing sciences which occupy the memory and the judgment, and do not make part either of the superior sciences, of the polite arts †, or of mechanic professions; hence they make history, chronology, geography, genealogy, blazonry, philology, &c. the belles lettres. In a word, it were an endless task to attempt to enumerate all the parts of literature which different learned men have comprehended under this title. Nor would it be of any use to the reader for us to pretend to fix the true import of the term. Whatever arts or sciences it may be supposed to include, they are severally explained in the course of this work.