text:  Neufchateau as we have observed reiterates the assertion that the errors of Gil Blas are such as no Spaniard could commit leaving altogether unguarded against the goring horn of the dilemma which can only be parried by an answer to the question--how came it to pass that Le Sage could enumerate the names of upwards of twenty inconsiderable towns and villages upwards of twenty families not of the first class; and in every page of his work represent with the most punctilious fidelity the manners of a country he never saw? Nay how came it to pass that instead of avoiding minute details local circumstances and the mention of particular facts as he might easily have done he accumulates all these opportunities of mistake and contradiction descends to the most trifling facts and interweaves them with the web of his narrative (conscious of ignorance as according to M