CHARLES, a distinguished French litterateur, was born at Besançon, April 29, 1780. From his father, who was mayor of his native town during the first years of the Revolution, he received an excellent classical training. While still a mere lad, he gave earnest of his future literary eminence by composing dramas and lyrics on classical themes, which were much admired by competent judges in the circle of his friends. Encouraged by their praises, he began to point his thoughts and studies to a definite aim, and in 1798 published his Dictionnaire des Onomatopées. This work, which displayed research and critical power remarkable in so young a man, was, by the advice of Fourcroy, adopted as a text-book in all the government lycées and public schools throughout France. At this period of his life Nodier devoted much of his time to the study of natural history. He only published two works bearing directly on that science; one, an Essay on the Organs of Hearing in Insects; the other, his Bibliothèque Entomologique; but nearly all his more mature works give evidence of great taste and knowledge in these branches of inquiry. His next work of importance was his Napoléone, published in 1800. It was written in defence of freedom, at that time rapidly dying out in France under the military despotism of Bonaparte. Many of the views and expressions were extremely distasteful to the First Consul, who, after keeping the poet in confinement for some months, banished him to his native town, and there put him under police surveillance. Nodier's studies now took a philological turn, and his Examen Critique des Dictionnaires de la Langue Française was a valuable contribution to a science at that time much neglected in France. For several years after this date, he led an unsettled and wandering life, till he found a resting-place at Dôle. He there began a course of lectures on literary subjects; gained great popularity as a lecturer and critic; and married Mademoiselle Charvès, a young lady of great beauty and accomplishments. For some years after his marriage Nodier continued to reside at Quintigny, near the Jura, till the necessities of his family, and the prospects of abundant literary employment, drove him to settle in Paris. For some years he contributed regularly to the Journal des Débats, and after the restoration of the Bourbons, became editor of the Quotidienne. In 1818 he published Jean Slogar; in the following year his beautiful romance of Thérèse Hubert; in 1820 Adèle; in 1821 Smarra; and in 1822 Trilly. These works served to establish Nodier's fame, and soon after the appearance of the last mentioned of them he was appointed to the honourable position of librarian to the Arsenal. The duties of this office were severe, and the heavy exactions on his time by society left him comparatively little time for writing. Some of his best works, however, such as his Dernier Banquet des Girondins, his Fantaisies du Docteur Néophobus, and his Franciscus Columna, date after his appointment to the librarianship. He died on the 27th of January 1844, almost exactly ten years after his election as a member of the French Academy. Nodier was one of the most amiable, pure, and interesting among the French litterateurs of his day. It may be doubted if even his best works are of a texture to resist the tear and wear of all time. He wrote too much, and too variously, to insure himself a place in the front ranks of French genius; but it is hardly possible to deny that, had he concentrated instead of diffusing his powers, and written for the future rather than for the passing hour, his chances of immortality might have become certainties. An interesting Life of Nodier, by his friend François Wey, was published at Paris in 1845.