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the author will or will not be successful in his efforts to abate the hereditary prejudices of the English against the French. We are certain that he has produced a book which contains much information that can be gleaned from no other single volume, and the tone of which is healthful and elevated.

nation was beginning to embrace a cynical philosophy, destined to shake the social edifice to its very foundation. The ancient religion of the country was at tacked with irreverence, and public opin ion became deeply tainted with destruc tive dogmas, unredeemed by the healing principle of reconstruction. An intoxicating passion for change, for subversion, seized society: it was the effect of the execrable vices and despotism of the re

one on the nineteenth. Voltaire had al

The work is divided into ten chap.gency and of Louis XV. Two men, esters, to which the American editor has appended some seventy pages of notes, and a list of contemporane ous French writers. The first chap. ter is introductory, in which the author gives at length his views of what literature is, and of the principles by which he proposes to conduct his critical review-with extended illustrations on both these points, presented in a pretty full sketch of French literature as it has been and as it now is. His views of what literature is, and of the influence which it exerts, may be seen in the following passage.

"Literature is indeed a most varied and unbounded universe; it is not only, according to the usual French definition, the expression of society, but also its very life and soul. With its numerous names, forms, and species, literature is not only a mirror reflecting society or national progress, but is also the breath that animates and vivifies a nation, arousing it to life and greatness, or impelling it to crime and anarchy. Literature may either be a powerful instrument for creation and regeneration, or a fatal one for destruction. Ages and nations may owe their formation to books, as much as books are engendered by ages and nations. The heroic grandeur of Greece inspired Homer; but it was from Homer that its civilization sprung."-p. 14.

After a brief account of the rise of the literature of France in the middle ages, and of the plastic influences which it received from Montaigne and Pascal, he follows it through the age of Louis XIV. to the eighteenth century. Of the literature of this century he thus speaks:

"The literary character of the eighteenth century is totally different: the

pecially, became the representatives of
the popular feeling, and therefore exer-
cised a great influence on the eighteenth
century, and indirectly a no less great
ready assailed the empire of the classics,
and Rousseau was preparing the basis
whereon a new and distinct literature
might be reared. Voltaire drew upon the
resources of a matchless, inexhaustible
wit; but Rousseau poured forth the effu-
sions of a glowing yet morbid and incon.
gruous sensibility: the former wrote pro-
fusely, merely to satisfy his thirst for glo-
ry, while the latter was stirred by the
overflowing emotions of the heart. Vol-
taire by his works fostered the bias to in-
fidelity, standing in the van of others,
icule; Rousseau seemed, on the contrary,
his compeers in impious sarcasm and rid-
to have consolations for even dismal skep-
ticism; he exhorted to feelings of com-
parative piety, and to the ever-fruitful
love of nature; the soul, in its attributes,
affections, pangs, was his exalted theme,
the subject that elicited the brightest en
anations of his genius. Thus was her-
alded the mighty convulsion: the revo-
lution burst forth in all its wildness, and
France was suddenly hurled into anarchy
and barbarism. Happily it was not of
long duration; the reign of terror, indeed,
covered the country with streams of
blood, and overturned the social edifice;
but soon after a new society, a youthful
generation, arose from the ruins-a soci.
ety of orphans, united by the common
tie of misfortune, still bearing traces of
tears in their smiles. Everything then
took a graver aspect-a character more
generous, certainly, but sombre in its hue;
for France was covered with tombs.".
pp. 16, 17.

The times of Napoleon, he sketches as follows:

"Under Bonaparte's sway, there was no time for literary progress; his incessant warfare was anything but favorable to the development of literary intellect, and a new literature, an imperial litera ture, could not rise suddenly at his fiat, as he actually desired, like a file of soldiers, the creatures of his will. Besides, the emperor's attention was more natu

rally drawn towards the sciences, and his reign became the era of scientific prosperity. The revolution had taken the lives of Lavoisier and Bailly on the scaf fold; but Napoleon delighted to draw

around him and to honor such men as

Monge, Laplace, Foureroy, Berthollet, and Lagrange. Yet his endeavors to form a literary court were all in vain; or, at best, it could but enumerate as its members, Arnault, author of Germanicus, Lemercier, author of Agamemnon, both classical dramatists, and a few others of the same order. The two great literary names of his time-the two who have left indelible traces on the nineteenth century -were, heart and soul, hostile to the usurpation and tyranny of the conqueror. I refer, of course, to M. de Chateaubriand

and Madame de Staël.

"The noble and chivalrous character

of M. de Chateaubriand deserves to be respected by all; and it is undeniable, that by his great work, Le Génie du Christianisme, France received a sacred stamp-a moral baptism, if I may be allowed so to speak, which the lower class of her literary population has vainly struggled to belie and to discard, by plunging into excesses most odious and revolting."-pp. 22, 23.

"Madame de Staël was endowed with a force and vigor of understanding, a power of psychological analysis, which gleam brightly even in her novel of Corinne, amidst a mass of unnatural, affected scenes, almost inconsistent with common sense. She stretched her faculties to seize and depict the secret and intimate emotions of the soul, pondering deeply on the religious impulse conveyed by Chateaubri: and's devout and oriental imagery, and gave to the movement which he had already imparted to thought and feeling a powerful and happy stimulus. In short, she exercised an extraordinary influence over the literary revolution of the nineteenth century; nay, she, so eminently French in the chief characteristics of her mind and imagination, became the instrument whereby the sway of German genius has been partially rivetted in France. De l'Allemagne is the work by which Madame de Staël attained a literary supremacy in her own country; it, beyond all others, overpowered the baneful influence of that mocking spirit and depreciating illiberality, which in France had long tended to check and fetter genius, rather than to invigorate morals or good taste."-p. 25.

He then refers to the influence of English writers upon France, particularly of Shakespeare, Ossian, Young and Lord Byron, and brings us down to the present state of

France, in its intellectual, moral and political condition.

He then gives to us the division of the field, under the following heads." Intellectual Philosophy, Political Tendencies, History, Criti cism, Romance, Drama, and Poetry."

These are the topics on which he dwells at sufficient length, in the succeeding chapters. It will be seen from these heads, that the author's view of literature is in no sense nar. row or limited, but that he makes it to include all that is written on any subject which interests the thoughts and feelings of men, except the mathematical and physical sciences.

The chapter on Intellectual Philosophy comes first in order, and is comprehensive and just. First we have a brief sketch of the Physiological or Sensualist School, next a more extended and what to most Americans, will be a novel view of the theologic or catholic school, as exhibited in the works of de Maistre, de Lammenais, de Bonald, de Bal. lanche and d'Eckstein, and last of all the rise and formation of the eclectic school. We do not acquiesce in all the author's conclusions, but his criticisms of the several schools are spirited and clear, and in the main are correct, while in them all the very intimate connection between the speculative opinions of the several schools of philosophy, and the principles of the people, is clearly indicated.

Chapters three and four, on Political Tendencies, will be read with great interest, for the light which they cast on the present condition of things. These chapters and the entire work were written before the revolution of February and the Republic; but the sketches which they give of the writers, who for forty years past have contended for abso lutism on the one side, and for liberal principles on the other, are most instructive. They show us that the causes of the republic have been long

in preparation; that they lie deeper than the accidental division of the chambers, or the unpopularity of a ministry, or the revolutionary fervor of the mob. In this chapter, M. de Bonald, Chateaubriand, Guizot, Paul Courier, Béranger, M. de Lamenais, St. Simon, Fourier, and above all, M. de Tocqueville, are the writers, to whom the highest importance is attached, as having, by successive strokes, or by a steady and continued influence, contributed to raise the thinking and sober portion of the French people, to a strong attachment for free institutions.

After noticing these distinguished writers at length, the author sketches more briefly, the struggles in the chambers after the restoration, and the leading men who though few but strong, upheld the cause of freedom against the crown. The most distinguished of these were Royer Collard, Manuel, General Foy, and Benjamin Constant. He gives sim ilar sketches of the leading statesmen since the revolution of 1830, particularly of M. Odillon Barrot, Casimir Perrier, Dupin, Guizot, Thiers, Arago and Berryer. The following passage is prophetic.

"We have spoken of the present opposition party in the Chamber of Deputies (the Chamber of Peers is a complete nullity). This party is the most popular in the nation; it often counterbalances and vanquishes the conservative party, and the ineasures it has in view are of vital importance to France-the most vital of all, as we have said, the reform of the electoral system. The opposition in the French Chamber of Deputies is the expression of the democratic tendencies of France; and it can not be doubted that, despite the resistance of M. Guizot, Count Molé, Marshal Soult, and others, it will in time triumphantly obtain all it contends for, and France will then be a complete democratic monarchy, unless any imprudence on the part of the crown or other enemies of democracy, provoke a new conflagration, which will probably be followed by a republic, by a European war, and by an immediate definitive struggle between the two principles, aristoc racy and democracy."-p. 169.

The fifth chapter on criticism,
VOL. VI.

75

opens with some just observations of the new office which criticism has assurned in modern times, and gives an extended notice of the most eminent philosophical critics which France has furnished, particularly of Villemain. Sketches of the most eminent writers for the periodical press, and a summary account of the French journals and newspapers conclude the chapter.

The sixth and seventh chapters are devoted to history. First are noticed the most eminent historians of the new or philosophical school of historians, together with an interesting narrative of the causes which led to the formation of this school. The most celebrated writers of this school, are Augustin Thierry, Guizot, Sismondi, and Dulaure. The literary career of each of these writers is described at some length, their several works are criticised, and their merits and defects are canvassed. The historians of the Fatalist school are then reviewed, of whom the most eminent are Thiers and Mignet. The peculiar principles of this school are characterised as they ought to be, by a Christian critic, in the following passage.

"The historians imbued with this principle, view all causes and effects as possessed of one character through a long course of years; to them these seem, from their steady progression, to be independent of human action or control. An impulse appears to be given, which beats down resistance and sweeps away all means of opposition; centuries succeed to centuries, and the philosopher sees the same influence still potent, still undeviating and regular; to him, considering those ages at one view, following with rapid thought the slow pace of time, a century appears to dwindle to a point; the individual obstructions and accelerations which within that period had occur red to impede or advance the march of events, as they say, are eliminated and forgotten. The mind dwells upon the necessity or fatality of the advance, and neglects what is all-important for practical purposes, namely, the consideration of how much, by human forethought, this certain improvement might have been aided. Thus the execrable excesses of the revolution are almost justified; they

seem the result of a fatal necessity, without which French society could not have been regenerated. It will be readily understood that such a doctrine must lead the mind into a frightful abyss. At every moment the fatalist historian speaks of the entrainement irresistible of revolution ary times-of those sanguinary vapors that intoxicate and paralyze the volition of man. Such tenets, such excessive fatalism, we hold to be equally immoral and false. The mission of the historian, as well as of the philosopher, is to inspire the human heart with the sacred idea of duty as bound up with liberty, and to endeavor at all times to exalt the dignity of man, by inculcating detestation of crime and admiration of virtue."-pp. 236-7.

The descriptive historians or the narrators are then described and named, and the innumerable writers of memoirs, &c. &c., are rapidly noticed and dismissed.

Chapter eighth is devoted to romance. In this chapter a very great number of writers are named and noticed; the few writers who have honored their genius by elevated principles and pure emotion are deservedly praised. The large number whose works are of a mixed character, and which are open to more or fewer exceptions, are criticised with just discrimination; and the very great number who have nothing to redeem their corruption, are spoken of as they deserve to be. Chapters ninth and tenth treat of etry and the drama, and are equally thorough and faithful with the others. The notes appended by the American editor are many of them valuable, though their value is of a less permanent character than the text. Much of the information is not read ily accessible. A single passage which indicates the religious sects with which the editor sympathizes, might have been spared with better

taste.

po

One department of literature we fail to see, which the comprehensiveness of the author's plan would have required him to notice, if any such literature were to be found in France. We mean the department of theology. The theological wri

ters of England and Germany, have furnished some of the noblest speci mens of writing, which the language of either of these countries can show. Their commanding influence of their sharp discussions, of their eloquent sermons, of their meditative essays, and of their devotional poetry on particular generations, as well as upon the formation of the national character, can never be overlooked, by a truly thorough and liberal student of the history of either of these nations. Luther, Melanchthon, Hooker, Barrow, Taylor, Howe, Bates and Edwards of other generations-Herder, Schleierma cher, Hall, Chalmers and Dwight, of modern times, need only be named, to confirm the truth of this assertion. In these two countries, theology is regarded as "the haven and sabbath of man's contemplations," and the grandest theme of all his scientific inquiries. In France, it has never had existence as an independent science. The acuteness of Pascal and the eloquence of Bossuet and Massilon, are hardly exceptions to this remark, and besides, there are no Pascals and no Bossuets in modern France.

We hardly need advert to the cause. There can be no theology in a country such as France has been and yet continues to be. The double despotism that has settled down upon that country, since the sharp and fiery conflicts that follow ed the reformation, could not endure the presence of such an invisible yet powerful foe. It stood as ready at any moment, to repress and blight the first beginning of its life, as the guilty Herod was to strangle the infant Jesus. In doing so it not only cursed the nation, with the loss of civil liberty and of religious hopes, but it dwarfed its literature. For we hold it true, that without an in vigorating theology, the higher kinds of literature dwindle and wither, and the lower, though they may reach an unmatched perfection in refine

ment and grace, will yet lose their heartiness, their humor and their good sense.

It is with much cordiality that we greet this unpretending but valuable volume, and that we introduce it to our readers. We shall be greatly mistaken if many of those who read it will not think the better of French writers and of the French nation than they have done heretofore. We have been persuaded for many years, that the tone of thought and of principle has been steadily rising among the French people; and the evidence furnished by the great number of writers criticised in this volume, that there are myriads of read ers among the middle and higher classes who are thoughtful in their views of men and of books, and who are made the wiser and better by what they read, is gratifying and hopeful. It is altogether impossible that a people who have demanded such a literature as is the modern literature of France, and who have been trained by this literature, should not have many of substantial men among its citizens, men who can be relied upon in the present crisis.

France is not all that it might be. We have no confident faith in the continuance of its republic-nor is it of much consequence to the lover of social and political freedom, whether in its present condition it shall be governed by a military and despotic president, or by one who is truly a citizen-king. But if France can have great and good writers and

educators, she will be fit to be free, and when she is fit to be free, she will be free indeed.

France needs most of all a reli

gion.

We do not believe her so atheistic and godless, as she is sometimes represented. The best of people are sometimes the most quiet, and there are doubtless many Frenchmen, of whom little is heard or said, both in the Catholic and Protestant churches, who seek after the Lord, if haply they may find him. Still, France is giddy, worldly, and thoughtless, and in the mass as we fear, far enough from God. But we have hope for her, not merely from the actual progress and success which attends efforts that are appropriately evangelical, but also in the increasing thoughtfulness and sobri. ety of the national mind, as shown in the more elevated character of its literature. We hope, in short, that as France thinks more earnestly, and is encouraged to think more earnestly by her writers, that both readers and writers will not only grope after the truth, but will be led back to the truth and to God. The change in this respect since the restoration, is surprising, and hopeful, and it prepares us to expect a revolution in France that will by and by occur, which shall be worth more than a thousand days like those of the twenty-third and twenty-fourth of of February, and which shall demonstrate both to England and America, that France is worthy to be free.

LITERARY NOTICES.

Phil

Peter Schlemihl in America. adelphia: Carey & Hart. 1848. 12mo, pp. 494.

THIS book bears a borrowed title. Indeed the whole volume professes to be in some sort, a continuation of

the German tale by the same name. We do not greatly admire the man. agement of the story, and should have been much better pleased, had the author set off in an entirely independent way, and contrived for himself new machinery, rather than

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