“ Perrault justified his election in several ways. One was the orderly arrangement of the business affairs of the Academy, another was the suggestion of the custom of holding public séances for the reception of candidates. Colbert’s death in 1683 put an end to Perrault’s official career, and he then gave himself up to literature, beginning with Saint Paulin évêque de Nole, avec une épître chrétienne sur la pénitence, et une ode aux nouveaux convertis. ”

“ In 1876 Paul Lacroix attributed the stories to the authorship of Perrault’s son, P. Darmancour, who signed the dedication, and was then, according to Lacroix, nineteen years old. Andrew Lang has suggested that the son was a child, not a young man of nineteen, that he really wrote down the stories as he heard them, and that they were then edited by his father. ”

“ He took his degree of licencié en droit at Orleans in 1651, and was almost immediately called to the Paris bar, where, however, he practised for a very short time. In 1654 his brother became receiver-general of Paris, and made Charles his clerk. ”