we have yet seen of the systematizing spirit of the author, as well as of the moral enthusiasm by which she seems to be possessed.

The professed object of this work is to show that all the peculiarities in the literature of different ages and countries, may be explained by a reference to the condition of society, and the political and religious institutions of each;-and at the same time to point out in what way the progress of letters has in its turn modified and affected the government and religion of those nations among whom they have flourished. All this, however, is bottomed upon the more fundamental and favourable proposition, that there is a progress, to produce these effects-that letters and intelligence are in a state of constant, universal, and irresistible advancement→→→ in other words, that human nature is tending, by a slow and interminable progression, to a state of perfection. This fascinating idea seems to have been kept constantly in view by Mad. de Staël, from the beginning to the end of the work before us;-and though we conceive it to have been pursued with far too sanguine and assured a spirit, and to have led in this way to most of what is rash and questionable in her conclusions, it is impossible to doubt that it has also helped her to many explanations that are equally solid and ingenious, and thrown a light upon many phenomena that would otherwise have appeared very dark and unaccountable.

In the range which she here takes, indeed, she has need of all the lights and all the aids that can present themselves;-for her work contains a critique and a theory of all the literature and philosophy in the world, from the days of Homer to the tenth year of the French Revolution. She begins with the early learning and philosophy of Greece; and after characterizing the national taste and genius of that illustrious people, in all its departments, and in the different stages of their progress, she proceeds to a similar investigation of the literature and science of the Romans; and then, after a hasty sketch of the decline of arts and letters in the later days of the empire, and of the actual progress of the human mind during the dark ages, when it is supposed to have slumbered in complete inactivity, she enters upon a more detailed examination of peculiarities, and the causes of the peculiarities of all the different aspects of national taste and genius that characterize the literature of Italy, Spain, England, Germany and France-entering, as to each, into a pretty minute exposition of its general merits and defects and not only of the circumstances in the situation of the country that have produced those characteristics, but even of the authors and productions in which they are chiefly exemplified. To go through all this with any tolerable success, and without committing any very gross and ridiculous blunders, evidently required, in the first place, a greater allowance of learning than has

often fallen to the lot of persons of the learned gender, who lay a pretty bold claim to distinction, upon the ground of their learning alone; and, in the next place, an extent of general knowledge, and a power and comprehensiveness of thinking, that has still more rarely been the ornament of great scholars. Mad. de Staël may be surpassed, perhaps, in scholarship (so far as relates to accuracy at least, if not extent) by some-and in sound philosophy by others. But there are few indeed who can boast of having so much of both; and no one, so far as we know, who has applied the one to the elucidation of the other with so much judgment, boldness, and success. But it is time to give a little more particu lar account of her lucubrations.

There is a very eloquent and high-toned introduction, illustrating, in a general way, the influence of literature on the morals, the glory, the freedom, and the enjoyments of the people among whom it flourishes. It is full of brilliant thoughts and profound observations;-but we are most struck with those sentiments of mingled triumph and mortification by which she connects these magnificent speculations with the tumultuous aspect of the times in which they were nourished.

"Que ne puis-je rappeler tous les esprits éclairés à la jouissance des meditations philosophiques! Les contemporains d'une révolution perdent souvent tout intérêt à la recherche de la vérité. Tant d'évenemens décidés par la force, tant de crimes absous par le succès, tant de vertus filetries par le blâme, tant d'infortunes insultées par le pouvoir, tant de sentimens génereux devenus l'objet de la moquerie, tant de vils calculs philosophiquement commentés; tout lasse de l'espérance les hommes les plus fidèles au culte de la raison. Néanmoins ils doivent se ranimer en observant, dans l'histoire de l'esprit humain, qu'il n'a existé ni une pensée utile, ni une vérité profonde qui n'ait trouvé son siècle et ses admirateurs. C'est sans doute un triste effort que de transporter son intérêt, de reposer son attente, à travers l'avenir, sur nos successeurs, sur les étrangers bien loin de nous, sur les inconnus, sur tous les hommes enfin dont le souvenir et l'image ne peuvent se retracer à notre esprit. Mais, hélas! si l'on en excepte quelques amis inaltérables, la plupart de ceux qu'on se rappelle après dix années de revolution, contristent votre cœur, étouffent vos mouvemens, en imposant à votre talent même, non par leur supériorité, mais par cette malveillance qui ne cause de la douleur qu'aux ames douces, et ne fait souffrir que ceux qui ne la méritent pas." Tom. 1. p. 27, 28.

And a little after

"L'homme a besoin de s'appuyer sur l'opinion de l'homme; il fraint de prendre son amour-propre pour sa conscience; il s'accuse

de folie, s'il ne voit rien de semblable à lui; et telle est la foiblesse de la nature humaine, telle est sa dépendance de la société, que l'homme pourroit presque se repentir de ses qualités comme de défauts involuntaires, si l'opinion générale s'accordoit à l'en blâmer: mais il a recours, dans son inquiétude, à ces livres, monumens des meilleurs et des plus nobles sentimens de tous les âges. S'il aime la liberté, si ce nom de république, si puissant sur les ames fieres, se réunit dans sa pensée à l'image de toutes les vertus, quelques vies de Plutarque, une lettre de Brutus à Cicéron, des paroles de Caton d'Utique, des reflexions que la haine de la tyrannie inspiroit à Tacite, les sentimens recueillis ou supposés par les historiens et par les poëtes, relèvent l'ame, que flétrissoient les événemens contemporains. Un caractère élevé redevient content de lui-même, s'il se sent d'accord avec ces nobles sentimens, avec les vertus que l'imagination même a choisies lorsq'elle a voulu tracer un modèle a tous les siècles. Que de consolations nous sont données par les écrits d'un certain ordre! Les grand hommes de la première antiquité, s'ils étoient calomniés pendant leur vie, n'avoient de resource qu'en eux-mêmes: mais, pour nous, c'est le Phédon de Socrate, ce sont les plus beaux chefs-d'œuvre de l'éloquence qui soutiennent notre ame dans ses revers. Les philosophes de tous les pays nous exhortent et nous encouragent; et ce langue péné trante de la morale et de la connoissance intime du cœur humain, semble s'addresser personnellement à tous ceux qu'elle console.

"Dans les déserts de l'exil, au fond des prisons, à la veille de périr, telle page d'une auteur sensible a relevé peut-être une ame abattue moi qui la lis, moi qu'elle touche, je crois y retrouver encore la trace de quelques larmes; et par des émotions semblables, j'ai quelques rapports avec ceux dont je plains si profondément la destinée. Dans le calme, dans le bonheur, la vie est un travail facile mais on ne sait pas combien, dans l'infortune, de certaines pensées, de certains sentimens qui ont ébranlé votre cœur, font époque dans l'histoire de vos impressions solitaires. Ce qui peut seul soulager la douleur, c'est la possibilité de pleurer sur sa destinée, de prendre à soi cette sorte d'intérêt qui fait de nous deux êtres, pour ainsi dire, séparés, dont l'un a pitié de l'autre.""Qu'elles sont précieuses ces lignes toujours vivantes qui servent encore d'ami, d'opinion publique, et de patrie! Dans ce siècle où tant de malheurs ont pesé sur l'espèce humaine, puissions-nous posséder un écrivain qui recueille avec talent toutes les reflexions mélancoliques, tous les efforts raisonnés qui ont été de quelque secours aux infortuneés dans leur carriere alors du moins nos larmes seroient fécondes.

"Le voyageur que la tempête a fait échouer sur des plages inha bitées, grave sur le roc le nom des alimens qu'il a découverts, indique où sont les resources qu'il a employées contre la mort, afin d'être utile un jour à ceux qui subiroient la même destinée. Nous, que le hasard de la vie a jetés dans l'époque d'une révolution, nous devons aux générations futures la connoissance intime de ces secrets de l'ame, de ces consolations inattendues, dont la nature conserva

trice s'est servie pour nous aider à traverser l'existence." Tom. 1. p. 55-59.

The connexion between good morals and that improved state of intelligence which Mad. de Staël considers as synonymous with the cultivation of literature, is too obvious to require any great exertion of her talents for its elucidation. She observes, with great truth, that much of the guilt and the misery which are vulgarly imputed to great talents, really arise from not having talent. enough-and that the only certain cure for the errors which are produced by superficial thinking, is to be found in thinking more deeply at the same time, it ought not to be forgotten, that all men have not the capacity of thinking deeply-and that the most general cultivation of literature will not invest every one with talents of the first order. If there be a degree of intelligence, therefore, that is more unfavourable to the interests of morality and just opinion, than an utter want of intelligence, it may be presumed that, in very enlightened times, this will be the portion of the greater multitude-or at least that nations and individuals will have to pass through this troubled and dangerous sphere, in their way to the loftier and purer regions of perfect understanding. The better answer, therefore, probably is, that it is not intelligence that does the mischief in any case whatsoever, but the presumption that sometimes accompanies the lower degrees of it; and which is best disjoined from them, by making the higher degrees more attainable. It is quite true, as Mad. de Staël observes, that the power of public opinion, which is the only sure and ultimate guardian either of freedom or of virtue, is greater or less exactly as the public is more or less enlightened; and that this public never can be trained to the habit of just and commanding sentiments, except under the influence of a sound and progressive literature. The abuse of power, and the abuse of the means of enjoyment, are the great sources of misery and depravity in an advanced stage of society. Both originate with those who stand in the highest stages of human fortune; and the cure is to be found, in both cases, only in the enlightened opinion of those who stand a

little lower.

Liberty, it will not be disputed, is still more clearly dependent on intelligence than morality itself. When the governors are ignorant, they are naturally tyrannical:-force is the obvious and unfailing resource of those who are incapable of convincing; and the more unworthy any one is of the power with which he is invested, the more rigorously will he exercise that power. But it is in the intelligence of the people themselves that the chief bulwark of their freedom will be found to consist, and all the principles of political amelioration to originate. This is true, however,

as Mad. de Staël observes, only of what she terms "la haute litterature," or the progress of philosophy, eloquence, history, and those other departments of learning which refer chiefly to the heart and the understanding, and depend upon a knowledge of human nature, and an attentive study of all that contributes to its actual enjoyments. What is merely for delight, again, and addresses itself exclusively to the imagination, has neither so noble a genealogy, nor half so illustrious a progeny. Poetry and works of gayety and amusement, together with music and the sister arts of painting and sculpture, have a much slighter connexion either with virtue or with freedom. Though among their most graceful ornaments, they may flourish under tyrants, and be relished in the midst of the greatest and most debasing corruption of manners. It is a fine and a just remark of Mad. de Staël, that the pursuits which minister to delight, and give to life its charm and volup tuousness, generally produce a great indifference about dying. They supersede and displace the stronger passions and affections, by which alone we are bound very strongly to existence: and, while they habituate the mind to transitory and passive impres sions, seem naturally connected with those images of indolence, and intoxication, and slumber, to which the idea of death is so readily assimilated in characters of this description. When life is considered as nothing more than an amusement, its termination is contemplated with far less emotion, and its course, upon the whole, is overshadowed with deeper clouds of ennui, than when it is presented as a scene of high duties and honourable labours, and holds out to us at every turn-not the perishable pastimes of every passing hour, but the fixed and distant objects of those serious and lofty aims which connect us with a long futurity.

The introduction ends with an eloquent profession of the author's unshaken faith in the philosophical creed of perfectibility: -upon which, as it does not happen to be our creed, and is very frequently brought into notice in the course of the work, we must here be indulged with a few preliminary observations.

This splended illusion, which seems to have succeeded that of optimism in the favour of philosophical enthusiasts, and rests, like it, upon the notion that the whole scheme of a beneficent providence is to be developed in this world, is supported by Mad. de Staël upon a variety of grounds: and as, like other illusions, it has a considerable admixture of truth, it is supported, in many points, upon grounds that are both solid and ingenious. She relies chiefly, of course, upon the experience of the past; and, in particular, upon the marked and decided superiority of the moderns in respect to thought and reflection— their more profound knowledge of human feelings, and more