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ment, boldness, and success. But it is time to give a little more particular 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 méditations 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 flétries par le blâme, tant d'infortunes insultées par le pouvoir, tant de sentimens généreux 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 révolution, contristent votre cœur, étouffent vos mouvemens, en imposent 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.

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L'homme a besoin de s'appuyer sur l'opinion de l'homme; il craint 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 involontaires, 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 fières, 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 réflexions 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 caFactère 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, lorsqu'elle a voulu tracer un modèle à tous les siècles. Que de consolations nous sont données par les écrits d'un certain ordre ! Les grands hommes de la première antiquité, s'ils étoient calomniés pendant leur vie, n'avoient de ressource qu'en eux-mêmes; mais, pour nous, c'est le Phédon de Socrate, ce sont les plus beaux chefsd'œuvre de l'éloquence qui soutiennent notre ame dans ses revers. Les philosophes de tous les pays nous exhortent et nous encouragent; et cette langue pénétrante de la morale et de la connoissance intime du cœur humain, semble s'adresser 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'un 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 patric! Dans ce siècle où tant de malheurs ont pesé sur l'espèce humaine, puissions-nous posséder un écrivain qui recueille avec talent toutes les réflexions mélancoliques, tous les efforts raisonnés qui ont été de quelque secours aux infortunés dans leur carrière! alors du moins nos larmes seroient fécondes.

Le voyageur que la tempête a fait échouer sur des plages inhabitées, grave sur le roc le nom des alimens qu'il a découverts, indique où sont les ressources 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 conservatrice s'est servie pour nous aider à traverser l'existence.' Tom. 1. p. 55-59.

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The connexion between good morals and that improved state of intelligence which Mad. de Staël considers as synonimous 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 Madame de Staël observes, only of what she terms la haute literature;' 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 voluptuousness, generally produce a great indifference about dying. They supersede and displace the stronger passions and affec-. tions, by which alone we are bound very strongly to existence; and, while they habituate the mind to transitory and passive impressions, 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 turnnot 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 ob

servations.

This splendid 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 of thought and reflection,

their more profound knowledge of human feelings, and more comprehensive views of human affairs. She ascribes less importance than is usually done to our attainments in mere science, and the arts that relate to matter; and augurs less confidently as to the future fortune of the species, from the exploits of Newton, Watt and Davy, than from those of Bacon, Bossuet, Locke, Hume and Voltaire. In eloquence, too, and in taste and fancy, she admits that there has been a less conspicuous advancement; because, in these things, there is a natural limit

or point of perfection, which has been already attained: But there are no boundaries to the increase of human knowledge, or to the discovery of the means of human happiness; and every step that is gained in those higher walks, is gained, she conceives, for posterity and for ever.

The great objection derived from the signal check which the arts and civility of life received from the inroads of the Northern barbarians on the decline of the Roman power, and the long period of darkness and degradation which ensued, she endeavours to obviate, by a very bold and ingenious speculation. It is her object here to show, that the invasion of the Northern tribes not only promoted their own civilization more effectually than any thing else could have done, but actually imparted to the genius of the vanquished, a character of energy, solidity and seriousness, which could never have sprung up of itself in the volatile regions of the South. The amalgamation of the two races, she thinks, has produced a mighty improvement on both; and the vivacity, the elegance and versatility of the warmer latitudes, been mingled, infinitely to their mutual advantage, with the majestic melancholy, the profound thought, and the sterner morality of the North. This combination, again, she conceives, could have been effected in no way so happily as by the successful invasion of the ruder people, and the conciliating influence of that common faith, which at once repressed the frivolous, and mollified the ferocious tendencies of our nature. The temporary disappearance therefore of literature and politeness, upon the first shock of this mighty collision, was but the subsidence of the sacred flame under the heaps of fuel which were thus profusely provided for its increase; and the seeming waste and sterility that ensued, was but the first aspect of the fertilizing flood and accumulated manure under which vegetation was buried for a while, that it might break out at last with a richer and more indestructible luxuriance. The human intellect was neither dead nor inactive, she contends, during that long slumber, in which it was collecting vigour for unprecedented exertions; and the occupations to which it was devoted, though not of the most brilliant or attractive description, were perhaps the best fitted for its ultimate and substantial improvement. The subtle distinctions, the refined casuistry, and ingenious logic of the School divines, were all favourable to habits of careful and accurate thinking; and led insensibly to a far more thorough and profound knowledge of human nature-the limits of its faculties and the grounds of its duties-than had been attained by the more careless inquirers of antiquity. When men, therefore, began again to reason upon human affairs, they were found to have

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