1

any

Byron could not have produced a poem like Faust, whereas Goethe could have improved on Manfred. This is owing mainly to the difference between the two heroes. There is true nobility in the character of Manfred; in that of Faust there is not even genuine dignity, not to mention greatness, or sublimity. But herein consists the chief triumph of the poet; he has proved that he was capable of constructing a classic edifice, with indifferent materials on a sandy foundation. If we extend the comparison, the warmest admirers of Goethe must admit that, however questionable is the moral purpose of Manfred, that of Faust is nothing better. There is not a thought or an idea in the latter, which, if taken in connection with the context, is consolatory or ennobling. Again and again we have read every passage in it, but we cannot say that we have learned * useful lesson from its teachings. We make this remark emphatically, in order that we may be the more fully understood when we say, that it is as a work of art Faust excels all other modern poems. This may seem to do injustice to the poet; but that he took a similar view of his works himself we have abundant evidence. "Above all organs," he says, "the eye was to me the one by which I understood the world. I had lived from my childhood upwards among painters, and had accustomed myself to regard, as they did, all things in relation to art." According to Menzel, he was guided by the rules of art, even in his interviews with those who came long journeys to visit him. The same critic gives him full credit for his artistic skill, but denies him originality and other essential qualifications of a true poet. The judgment of Menzel is to be accepted, however, only so far as it is corroborated by that of more impartial and dispassionate men; for he makes charges, impugning Goethe's moral char

*But if Goethe teaches us no new or useful lesson, he has taken care not to deprive us of any we have. In other words, if he is not a builder of new structures, he is not a destroyer of the old. "The great enigmas of life," he says, "are little more than matters of jest or fear to most men. Few trouble themselves with their solution, and, in my opinion, they are right; consequently, I take care not to mislead others.' Not but Goethe knew as much of ancient and modern systems of religion and morals as any man of his time-as much as Voltaire or Bayle, Spinoza or Des Cartes; but, feeling by no means certain that he could improve the best, or establish a new and faultless system of his own, he thought it better to let all alone. As Quinet justly and finely observes, "He was a man who comprised within him all the doubts of modern man, and allowed none of them to appear. He attacked nothing, he defended nothing; he treated all belief, and every enthusiasm, as the mummies which Aristotle received from Asia, and classed in his academy. He, too, in his church, so classed all forms of worship, and put the dead face to face with each

other."

† Dicht. u. Wahr., B. VI.

acter, in such a spirit as to leave no doubt that he was actuated by an unfriendly feeling. A brief extract will explain our meaning:

66

**

So far as the mere handling of his subject was concerned," says Menzel, "he was doubtless the greatest of our poets, but he had no enthusiasm for anything but himself, and his works are merely flattering portraitures of his own individuality. As, in his study at Wiemer, he was wont to dispose himself in reference to the light, that he might appear to strangers who came to visit him, under the most pictorial distribution of light and shade, so were all his works mere artificial means of throwing a favorable light upon himself. He had no sympathy with the world, but in so far as it served him for this end. * * *This man, however, to his contemporaries, appeared to be the greatest man living; and that, because he could not flatter himself without at the same time flattering a countless number of souls as base as his own, and because his talent threw a poetical beauty over the inclinations of an aristocracy that, boasting of a high degree of refinement, submitted willingly to the lowest grade of national degradation."-Die Deutsche Literatur, von Wolfgang Menzel.

The judgment of Menzel is too severe. The wonderful charms that everywhere pervade Goethe's works show that, no matter what his errors may have been-no matter how selfish, egotistic, or vain-he was a genuine poet. Let us call his Faust, Tasso, Iphigenia, Egmont, Hermann and Dorothea, and Wilhelm Meister by what names we may, they are exquisite creations. If they are not the best produced in modern times, there are but few better. They are, indeed, vastly inferior, in the most essential characteristics of poetry, to the dramas of Shakespeare, to whom the author is sometimes compared; they certainly do not equal the Divina Commedia of Dante in originality, elevation of thought and sublimity; nor does the best of them exhibit the sustained vigor, the richness of illus tration, and, above all, the truthfulness of delineation, which characterize the Gerusalemme Liberata. It may be questioned whether they contain more life-like transcripts of human character than the comedies of Molière. Be this as it may, there is not one of the other poets just mentioned whose writings have not exercised a more salutary influence on civilization than those of Goethe; but we think it may be added, with equal truth, that there is not one of them whose works display such wonderful versatility or show so near an approach to universal knowledge. We must remember that Goethe was not alone a poet. He was a philosopher, not merely a scientific man, but a discoverer-an accomplished linguist-one equally familiar with the ancient and modern languages, and an artist in painting

and sculpture, as well as in poetry. Add to this the facts. that intellectual indolence had no worse enemy than Goethe; that no one was more opposed to quackery of any kindespecially the quackery of affecting to be learned, while too lazy to study-and it must be admitted that he is one of those master-spirits whom it takes the nations most prolific in genius centuries to produce, but whose imperishable works are a treasure to mankind from generation to generation.

ART. III.-1. Histoire de Madame de Maintenon, et des Principaux Evénements du Regne de Louis XIV. Par M. LE DUC DE NOAILLES. Paris, 1859.

2. Siècle de Louis XIV. Par VOLTAIRE. Paris, 1843.

THE historian and novelist find the reign of Louis XIV. rich in materials for their respective labors. The former can but rearrange or abridge the works of preceding writers, or, sifting facts from the mass of memoirs, letters and other incidental testimony, bring these together under a new aspect. The novelist, amidst so much of love and romance, finds l'embarras de la richesse, and is perplexed with such a profusion of materials. Miss Pardoe, in her interesting volumes, entitled Louis XIV. and the Court of France, has given the cream of the gossip of that period. She found romance enough in real life, and had only to arrange her tableaux vivans in the most artistic manner. "By hook or by crook" she has found out (or, at least, she tells us she has) what the royal family said and did in their most private moments. We are let into the secrets of the courtship of Louis XIV. and Madame de Maintenon, which so many of that day could never find out-are told just what circumstances induced the king to propose, at a certain time, that the marriage ceremony should be immediately performed. By the wand of the romancer she is enabled to be present at the most private interviews between the king and Madame de Maintenon, and to hear him answer the complaints of the lady, that her reputation is assailed in consequence of his affection for her, by saying firmly, "It shall be so no longer," at a moment when he needed all his firmness to perform a deed unwonted in royal calendars. As an essential, histor

ical fact, we have it from various reliable sources, that Père la Chaise celebrated the mass; and that the Archbishop of Paris presented the marriage ring and pronounced the benediction. After the ceremony, the nuptial party are said to have repaired to the home of the bride, the Chateau de Maintenon, which was situated near Versailles. This property had been the gift of the king, who first called her by the name by which she is best known in history. Madame de Maintenon was soon installed in a magnificent suite of apartments prepared for her at the Palace of Versailles. In public, she appeared henceforth in the carriage of the king, occupying the seat which had formerly been that of the queen. We shall hereafter remark upon the false position which Madame de Maintenon, as the known but unacknowledged wife of Louis XIV., occupied before the public for a long course of years.

In the Life of Louis XIV., by the English novelist, James, we find evidences of research into historical records, with a curbing of the imagination, which we might not have expected from this prolific writer of fiction; yet, in his two volumes, there is an entire want of arrangement, a jumbling together of actions and events, which confuse the mind of the reader. Very different in these respects is La siècle de Louis XIV., by Voltaire. Like the history of Charles XII. of Sweden, and other histories by the same author, it must ever hold its place in the library as a standard work. Living in an age immediately following that of Louis XIV., yet not so near as to be unable to see objects in their comparative dimensions, nor so distant as to lose sight of important relations, Voltaire presents us with simple and reliable descriptions and statements of the prominent characters and leading events of that period. We find, however, his infidel tendencies not unfrequently betrayed by his severity in judging the conduct and motives of religious men. Thus, he delights in representing the pure and conscientious Fénélon under unfavorable lights, by insinuations and inuendoes, rather than direct accusations. Madame de Maintenon he sometimes names with respect, as a woman of undoubted purity of character and noble qualities, and anon he calls her an awful prude and a canting hypocrite. But we

In his liste raisonée of authors, he says, of Madame de Maintenon, "Elle est auteur, comme Madame de Sévigné, parcequ'on a imprimé ses lettres après sa mort. Les unes et les autres sont écrites avec beaucoup d'esprit, mais avec un esprit différent. Le cœur et l'imagination ont dicté celles de Madame de Sévigné; elles ont plus de gaieté, plus de liberté: celles de Madame de Maintenon sont plus contraintes; il semble qu'elle ait toujours prévu qu'elles seraient un jour pu bliques."

have his authority for her private marriage to the king; the time, January, 1686; the names of the priests who assisted at the ceremony, and of the witnesses present.

The age of which we speak was prolific in memoirs and letters, sources from which history must chiefly be derived. We shall occasionally notice some of these records which bring before us photograph pictures of that period. The diluted histories and biographies to which we have alluded may amuse children and those of larger growth who read for amusement, indifferent to the amount of real information communicated. We should not be surprised that history appears confused and contradictory, when we perceive how difficult it is to learn the truth in respect to passing events. The wishes, the prejudices, the prepossessions and the sympathies of men, seem to affect their perceptions of truth. We do not like to confess the humiliating truth, that we cannot find in past history, any more than in real life in our own time, perfect heroes and heroines. Still there are degrees of virtue, as of vice, of wisdom, as of folly, and in searching into the annals of the past, in order to give their proper places to distinguished characters, we must carefully weigh testimony, and it is doubtless more easy to do justice to those who have lived in past ages than to the living, acting men around us, who are praised or blamed, according to the momentary aspect of things. But time often reveals motives and accessories of actions, which stamp their merit or demerit.

The age of Louis XIV. stands out in bold relief upon the page of history. It was the dawn of a higher state of literature and civilization. It is marked by many important events, which, in their results, have produced great changes in the condition of mankind. Every age can boast of some distinguished individuals, but this period is illustrated by a galaxy of great writers, heroes and politicians, influencing the destiny of nations, and giving their impress to social life. Voltaire says that there are but four happy ages in the history of the world-they are those in which the arts were carried to perfection, and which, by serving as the era of the greatness of the human mind, are examples for posterity. The first of these ages he considers to be that of Philip and Alexander, which boasted of "a Pericles, a Demosthenes, an Aristotle, a Plato, an Apelles, a Phidias, and a Praxiteles."