NOTES. EXAMEN GÉNÉRAL. P. vii. 1. 4. l'esprit, wit; le sentiment, feeling. 1.7. qui l'emporte, which prevails; le stands here for l'avantage, le prix, etc. 1. 10. here. les lumières, reason; the expression de la raison is understood 1. 19. ce qu'il y avait de mieux, the best (elements); de mieux is governed by ce que. 1. 24. vers un but commun, towards an end common (to all his faculties). P. viii. 1. 10. en fini précieux, as far as finish is concerned, in rare perfection. L. II. du premier mouvement, of impulse. 1.12. toute vive; toute is an adverb, but takes the feminine here for the sake of euphony. 1. 21. à titre de femme, as a woman; à = par le, sous le...; en qualité de femme. "Les Considérations sont un livre d'homme écrit par une femme; un livre qui est à la fois homme par les pensées, féminin par les sentiments." (Vinet.) 1. 27. de sa supériorité avec or par sa supériorité. = 1. 34. à un beau soleil, in a beautiful sunshine. un peu plus clair, adjective used adverbially, instead of clairement. 1. 35. elle vient à le mener, she happens to lead him. P. ix. 1. i. elle se met en scène, she attitudinizes. 1. 7. de nos répugnances.... de is here a Latinism, an ablatival construction, meaning about or concerning. 1. 10. finesse, here is almost untranslateable. It means a combination of refined wit and accuracy. 1. 28. du premier. Rousseau" (1788). "Lettres sur les écrits et le caractère de J. J. 1. 29. il n'y a pas à disputer, no dispute is possible; lit. he has not on that subject even one step to contend for. 1. 35. ne l'a-t-il égalée. il here is redundant. 1. 37. il est à parier, we may bet; il est [ pour quelqu'un] à parier. P. x. 1. 5. du remplissage pour le raisonnement, superfluous so far as argument is concerned. 1.6. font-elles, idiomatic for font, elles redundant, as il in 1. 35 above. 1. 14. il se peut, it is possible. à (force de) recueillir, by dint of gathering. 1. 29. Il s'est toujours présenté......une foule d'aperçus=une foule d'aperçus se sont toujours présentés. 1. 34. de rompre net, adjective used adverbially for nettement; see p. x. 1. 34. P. xi. 1. 5. en artiste, as an artist. 1. 10. Buffon (Georges Louis Leclerc, Comte de) [1707—1788], the distinguished writer on natural history. 1. 11. Madame de Luxembourg [1707—1787], known in the first instance as Marquise de Boufflers, celebrated for her beauty and her wit. The Nouvelle Héloïse was published in 1759. 1. 20. motivé, accounted for. 1. 23. 1. 26. avec recherche, with design. "Ces considérations ressemblent quelquefois un peu trop à des conversations." (Vinet.) P. xii. 1. 5. literature. hors des lettres sacrées, out of the domains of sacred 1. 35. qu'on n'avait pas encore...que nous croyions.... For the sake of parallelism, it would have been better to put qu'on croyait. P. xiii. 1. 10. pour la...so far as...is concerned. The author of the above critique is Madame Necker de Saussure [1765-1841], cousin of Madame de Staël, and to whom we are indebted for an excellent work on education (L'éducation progressive, étude du cours de la vie, 1836-38, 3 vols. 8vo.) CONSIDÉRATIONS SUR LA RÉVOLUTION CHAPITRE I. (XVI. in the original work. Part III.) P. 1, 1. 6. la proscription de la Gironde. The 29 deputies, usually designated by the name of Girondists, because the most celebrated amongst them were members for the department of La Gironde, had protested against the reign of Terror; they were condemned to death at the instigation of Robespierre. Il semble qu'on descende. Note the use of the subjunctive. The Académie Française and the best grammarians have decided that il semble unaccompanied by another pronoun requires the subjunctive because the meaning is that of doubt, uncertainty.—Dante Alighieri (1265—1321). The nine circles of hell are severally appropriated to the punishment of crimes of a particular kind. 1. 11. ce qui pouvait rester de grand; in expressions of this kind, de corresponds to the Latin preposition de. See Chevallet's Origine et Formation de la langue Française, vol. III. p. 472. 1. 14. sans que l'imagination en conserve. Sans que always requires the subjunctive, not on account of the conjunction que, but because the verb belonging to the principal proposition implies doubt. 1. 19. on l'a mis en mesure, they have placed them in a position, they have given them the means. = 1. 20. forfait is derived from forfaire (L. foris facere) to do things contrary to what is right. Forfait, a crime, must not be confounded with forfait, a contract, a thing done at a settled price (L. forum factum). P. 2, 1. 2. La classe soulevée en 1789, etc. See de Tocqueville's l'Ancien régime et la Révolution; Edgar Quinet, la Révolution, vol. I.; and Taine, les Origines de la France contemporaine, vol. I. 1. 8. se fussent montrées de même, would have done the same, lit. would have shown themselves in the same manner. The verb of the subordinate clause is always put in the subjunctive, if the verb of the principal sentence is negative or interrogative.—de même (manière). Même here is a real adjective (L. metipsissimus, the very same). 1. 13. il n'est point de période, there is no period. I corresponds here to illud. Note that the use of the personal pronoun as a nomi native, and especially as a second nominative (période is here the real one) is of comparatively modern origin. 1. 16. les nègres à Saint-Domingue. The insurrection of the negro population of Haïti, caused by the decree of the National Assembly of March 18, 1790, lasted several years. Toussaint Louverture was the most celebrated leader of the rebels. See notes on Dix Années d'exil, p. 95. 1. 17. bien plus d'atrocités=beaucoup plus..., many more. Bien has constantly been used as a superlative adverb, and we find it thus employed as far back as the eleventh century. 1. 19. Il ne s'ensuit...pas, it does not follow. S'ensuivre is here derived from the Latin indè sequi; the student must not suppose that il ne s'ensuit pas de ces réflexions is pleonastic. S'ensuivre is formed exactly as s'enfuir, and just as we say: si vous ouvrez la cage, l'oiseau s'en enfuira, so the above expression of Madame de Staël is strictly correct. 1. 20. après plus de vingt années. Plus and moins always take the preposition de before numerals. 1. 23. qui doit servir de guide, which must serve as a guide. Here de comme un. 1. 30. le règne des Jacobins. The triumph of the Jacobin faction, strengthened by the death of the Dantonists and the Girondists, lasted for a little more than a year (October 1793-November 1794). The Jacobins derived their name from the fact that their club used to meet in a convent of Jacobin friars situated in Paris, rue Saint-Honoré. P. 3, 1. 2. ce n'est pas au gouvernement...qu'il faut s'en prendre, it is not the government...which we should call to account; en is pleonastic. Se prendre à...literally, to fasten one's self upon. 1. 10. en 1793. Louis XVI. beheaded (Jan. 21)—Holland invaded (Feb. 1)-Marie-Antoinette beheaded (October 16)-Battle of Hondschoote (Sept. 6—9)—Battle of Wattignies (October 15-16)—Toulon taken (October 19). 1. 14. le danger est passé=the danger is quite over; le danger a passé would mean the danger is not over, but has gone somewhere else. 1. 20. des lois quelconques, laws of any kind. Quelconque is always placed after the substantive. 1. 22. les repoussait toutes, rejected them all (i.e. all the laws). Hérault de Séchelles (Marie-Jean) [1760-1794] was arrested and sent to the guillotine with the Dantonists; had been the principal author of the constitution scrupuleusement démocratique here alluded to, which was voted on the 24th of June, 1793. 1. 26. à tort, by mistake. Tort here is the same as faute, and c'est bien à tort=c'est bien par faute. Comp. Que si il meurt à vostre tort, if he dies by your fault. (Ducange, Glossary.) 1. 33. Marat (Jean-Paul) [1744-1793]..."sa figure était si basse, ses sentiments si forcenés, ses opinions si sanguinaires..." By way of comment on this appreciation, we may quote the following passage from M. Ponsard's tragedy Charlotte Corday; Danton is supposed to address Marat: "La fièvre est dans tes yeux, et brise ton accent; Note that forcené (=mad) should be, and was originally, spelt forsene (Ital. forsennato), because it is derived from the adverb fors (L. foris) and the adjective sené coming itself from the Old French sen which meant sense, reason.' P. 4, 1. 3. plus avant que, lower down than. 1. 5. atteindre...d. When atteindre takes the preposition à, it implies that the object is difficult to attain. 1. 6. soient and not sont, because there is a kind of doubt. 1. 19. dont (L. de unde) is here an ablative and corresponds to par lesquels. 1. 20. 1. 21. faire valoir, give their full force or value; faire governs tous les talents. ne leur ôtaient en rien, in no wise took from them. 1. 23. Condorcet (M. J. Ant. Nic. Caritat, marquis de) [1743—1794]. His Esquisse d'un tableau historique des progrès de l'esprit humain, published in 1795, contained all the illusions of the French philosophers of the eighteenth century, all their noble aspirations, without their violence and their prejudice. 1. 32. Valazé (Charles Dufriche de) [1751-1793] was a member for the department of Orne. His colleague here alluded to was Riouffe (Honoré) [1764—1813]; he managed, in spite of his Girondist opinions, to outlive the reign of Terror, and was made a prefect by Napoleon I. P. 5, 1. 4. d'une main...=avec une main. The preposition de used to express the idea of instrument, occurs repeatedly in the authors of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, even in sentences where we should hardly venture to employ it now; thus: "Résistez virilement et de courage contre les desseings des ligueurs." (Henry IV., Letters.) |