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HE sixteenth century had scarcely died," says Sainte-Beuve, "when Naudé came into the world. It is difficult to imagine what this strong, prolific epoch must have appeared to those who sprang from it, to those who inherited its wealth, and to whom it must have seemed, in very truth, the greatest and the last Such a wealth of discoveries coming in such rapid succession: cannon, printing, clocks, a new continent, the starry heaven yielding up the secrets of its wonderful system to the observation of a