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work can kill a man. The 18th of February, 1564, in the ninetieth year of his age, passed away the sublime being, whose name has only two or three which may be spoken of as synonymous to itself in the roll and calendar of great men-Homer, Dante, Sophocles, and Milton. The Shakspeares, Goethes, and Raphaels represent another order, and however high may be our appreciation of them, in the highest range of the immortals, they can not rank with those. Power is more than beauty; and character is more than grace. After thirty years absence from his native city, he returned. Rome would not part with his dust without a struggle. The coffin was conveyed as merchandise out of the city gates. Only a few knew who he was who entered the city in the covered coffin; but when it was known that the great old prince had come home, that the coffin might be lowered where the cradle had been rocked, the city rose and poured into the church where he lay in state. Over the coffin lay the rich, black velvet, embroidered with gold, the gold crucifix upon it. By the light of torches, carried by the elder artists, the bier was supported, and carried forth by the younger artists from the church, where it had temporarily rested, to the sacred precincts of Santa Croce. There the coffin was opened that Florence might look its last. It was three weeks since he died; but the features were unchanged. There were no symptoms of decay, and the appearance was as if death had only just placed upon him his seal. The Duke was afraid lest the return of the old revolutionary captain should create a commotion in the city; his fears were groundless. Multitudes thronged to gaze as upon the tomb of an old emperor, under whom all was long ago great and glorious; and there they left him to restand there his dust reposes his monument, with those of Dante, Alfieri, Machiavelli, in the same church. It is worth noticing, also, that his old house in Florence is still standing.

What an inadequate paper for such a life and such a man! We are grateful to M. Grimm that he has given to us the opportunity of recreating impressions of an intelligence so noble and vast. We have left a whole world of matters in

un

connection with this great man touched; his relations to the great movements of his times, which beheld the rise of Luther. We think there is every reason to believe that, without being what it was impossible for him to bean extreme man-he sympathized with, and drank in much of the spirit of the German reformation.

We have not attempted to give the pith and poetry of many of his speeches and poems. When he was rebuked on account of the nudity of some of his figures in the Last Judgment, and told that Pope Paul IV. desired that he should reform this fault, he bravely said: "Tell the Pope that is easily done. Let him reform the world, and he will find the pictures will reform themselves." But criticism and remarks on such a life are needless. We have said enough to create, in every reader's mind, a glow of admiration and homage for the memory of him of whom Raphael said: "I bless God I live in the times of Michael Angelo!"

Edinburgh Review.

TAINE'S HISTORY OF ENGLISH
LITERATURE. *

To master the entire literature of a country in ancient and modern times; to sit in judgment upon its philosophers, poets, historians, and men of letters; to estimate aright the mind and character of its people; and to combine with scholarly criticism the broadest theories on the religion and destinies of the human race, is a work which none but the most gifted or presumptuous of men would venture to undertake. Even if that country were his own,-if he had been familiar with its language and traditions from childhood-if he had studied its literature from his youth upwards, he might shrink from an enterprise of such pretension. What, then, must be the courage of an author who aspires to write the literary history of a foreign country? To overcome the perplexities of a strange language, its idioms, its

1. Historie de la Littérature Anglaise. Par H. TAINE. 3 vols. 8vo. Paris: 1863. 2. Tome Quatrième et Complémentaire: Les Contemporains. Paris: 1864.

conventionalities, its changes, is among the least of his difficulties. To do justice to his great theme he should be imbued not only with the spirit of the language, but with the genius of the race who speak it. He must be acquainted with their history, and the conditions under which their literature was created. Above all he should be able to rise above the prejudices of his own nation, and to identify himself with the sentiments of a people of another race.

phies and critical essays; and the labors of indefatigable editors have illustrated the works of all the great masters of English literature. Nor have literary histories been wanting, more or less imperfect. Warton's tedious history of English poetry provokingly concludes with the accession of Elizabeth, and before the commencement of the golden age of English poets. But in truth we possess no broad and comprehensive work to embrace so vast and varied a theme. HalWe need not wonder, then, that so lam, in his "Introduction to the Literafew comprehensive histories of any na- ture of Europe," examined the literary tional literature have been written. Of history of his own country during the all the countries of Europe, Italy has re- fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth cenceived the fullest measure of historical turies; but a work of so wide a scope, criticism. From the works of Tirabos- however able, could not embrace a comchi, Muratori, Ginguené, and Sismondi, plete view of the copious literature of a complete history of Italian literature England. In 1844, Professor Craik premay be collected; while the classical sented a more comprehensive survey, associations of that country, the genius in his "Sketches of the History of Literof its writers, and the charms of its lan-ature and Learning in England," which guage, have attracted hosts of critics and attracted less attention than they deblographers. France, with all her culti- served, from the unpretending form in vation and literary resources, has not yet which they were published. A revised found an author to do justice to the edition of this work appeared in 1861, history of her own national literature. under the title of "A Compendious HisThe huge work of the Benedictines is an tory of English Literature, from the unfinished fragment, and works like Norman Conquest," which, without prethose of Laharpe and Nisard hardly tending to any deep philosophy or origiattain to the dignity of literary history. nal criticism, maps out the whole field M. Sainte-Beuve, who is regarded by M. of English literature with creditable Taine as the founder of the school of scholarship and patient learning. Prohistorical criticism to which he himself fessor Craik was followed, in the present aspires to belong, has given to the world year, by Mr. Morley's first instalment of in his varied Essays the nearest approach a work of higher pretensions, which to a history of French literature. Ger- proposes to tell, in a philosophical spirit, many, whose searching intellect has sur-the story of the English mind."" veyed all history, sacred and profane, Meanwhile, however, he has been anand whose genius had penetrated every department of learning, was, until lately, without any historian of her own literary achievements. The learned and thoughtful history of Vilmar, however, now presents an historical and critical review of a literature, still in its youth if compared with the older literatures of Europe. Spain owes to Bouterwek, a German, to Sismondi, a Swiss, and to Ticknor, an American, sketches of her literary history, which none of her own writers had supplied.

England abounds in literary biogra

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ticipated by a French scholar and critic of remarkable talents, who has just published a history of English literature, from the earliest ages to the present time. To this work we now propose to call the attention of our readers.

A French book is rarely altogether dull; we may be sure that its plan will be symmetrical, its style light and spirited, its language epigrammatic. Its theories, even if shallow or unsound, will assuredly be suggested in the happi

*English Writers. The Writers before Chauwith an Introductory Sketch of the Four * Geschichte der deutschen National Literatur Periods of English Literature. By Henry Mor

von A, F. C. Vilmar.

cer;

ley. 1864.

est form; and should it relate to Eng- Its intrinsic literary merits come to us land, we naturally expect to meet with recommended by a Committee of the pleasant sarcasms upon our climate, our French Academy, who unanimously address, our manners, our cookery, our judged a prize to its author. The Acadsociety, and our morals. But the work emy, however, refused to confirm the of M. Taine comes to us introduced by a award of its Committee, on the ground name already famous in France, and not that M. Taine's system was in violation unknown in England. M. Taine was of the received principles of philosophiborn in 1828, and his talents were dis- cal orthodoxy. † We may regret that played from an early age. At college the author should have forfeited this he was becoming familiar with ancient literary honor; and we wish the Acadeand modern literature, while other youths my could have left him the prize, while were still plodding over their dictiona- they protested against his opinions. But ries and grammars. Nor was he long con- the censures with which that learned tent with the mere learning of a student: body has been assailed in France on this he soon ventured upon original thought occasion are unjust; because in judging and speculation. In an Essay on the of the claims of a philosophical work, it Fables of La Fontaine, written for his is difficult to separate its literature from degree as Doctor of Letters, and pub- its philosophy. Surely the Academy lished in 1853, he first propounded cer- had a right to say that philosophical tain critical theories which he has con- error, however cleverly maintained, was tinued to advocate in his later works. not entitled to distinction at its hands. ‡ In 1855, the French Academy awarded M. Taine's philosophy will be still less him a prize for the best essay on Livy, acceptable in England; for while it which displayed not only good writing shocks many received opinions in regard and scholarship, but views of criticism to religion, morals, and history, it is apso bold and original as to startle the plied to our character and literature, in a grave academicians who sat in judgment manner offensive to the national pride upon it. Showing little deference to re- and cultivated taste of Englishmen. To ceived opinions, he took an independent many of M. Taine's principles and opinline of his own, which he was able to ions we entertain strong objections; but hold with spirit and a happy confidence though we shall have occasion to conin himself. Such a man was evidently test his conclusions, we are not insensidestined to achieve fame in literature. ble to the comprehensive scheme of his He was not to be tempted by a small work, the originality of his style, the professorship, which would have doomed felicity of his illustrations, the discrimihim to teach inferior intellects, again nation of many of his criticisms, and his and again, what he had already learned rare familiarity with the English lanhimself, but chose boldly the career of a guage. Unfortunately, notwithstanding man of letters, which commands more these merits, M. Taine is entirely defiflattering distinctions in France than in cient in those qualities which are necesany other country of Europe. His pen sary to raise his work to the standard has never since been idle; and having he himself proposes. He has read with further displayed his talents as a critic, marvelous industry a vast number of in essays upon the French philosophers English books. We can hardly discover of the nineteenth century, and upon crit- any portion of the wide field of our litericism and history, his efforts have culmi-ature which is unknown to him. But nated in the more ambitious work which lies before us. *

*The following is a list of M. Taine's published works:-"La Fontaine et ses Fables, 4th ed. ;" "Essai sur Tite Live, 2nd ed.;" "Voyage aux Pyrénées, 4th ed.;" "Les Philosophes Français au XIX. Siècle, 2nd ed.;" "Essais de Critique et d'Histoire;" "L'Idéalisme Anglais : étude sur Carlyle, 1864;" "Le Positivisme Anglais : étude sur Stuart Mill, 1864."

he writes of England as the late Mr. Buckle wrote of countries which he knew by books and by books only. His ignorance of the real character of this country and of its people is extreme. Nay, it is

† Le Constitutionnel, 13th June, 1864: Notice par M. Sainte-Beuve.

We learn, with pleasure, that M. Taine has just been appointed by the Emperor to the chair of Art and Esthetics, in the Ecole des Beaux-arts.

and Junius as specimens of their bitterness of feeling and power of invective; but he does not seem aware of the exquisite polish of the blade that inflicts so mortal a wound. He dilates on the roughness and strength of Shakspeare, but he entirely fails to catch the delicacy and marvelous fitness of his diction; and we attribute this defect not so much to an imperfect knowledge of the English tongue, as to a want of refinement in M. Taine's own character, which may be traced throughout these volumes.

worse than ignorance, because he substitutes for the facts which he does not know the wild and fantastical theories of his own facile pen. He is intoxicated by his style until he believes in monsters of his own creation. Morality, religion, and the domestic virtues appear to have been among the first objects which attracted M. Taine's attention in England, as if they had not previously fallen within the sphere of his observation; but to this first discovery he soon added a second-that the effect of these peculiarities was only to ripen hypocrisy, the We will now proceed to follow M. principal fruit of the English soil. It is Taine through his survey of English indeed marvelous that a man should literature,-pausing, when necessary, to have acquired so considerable a knowledge of our books, and so little of the country which produced them. But with the French, ingenuity is apt to supply the place of observation. No people in Europe are so incapable of comprehending and appreciating foreign nations. M. Taine's recently published letters on Italy are just as clever and just as absurd as his estimate of England. He sees as much of the world as a man can do whose whole field of vision extends along the Boulevards of Paris; everything else is in the clouds, unsubstantial, amusing, and essentially un

true.

This work is therefore radically deficient in that soundness of judgment and historical precision which might have given to it a permanent value, even in this country; and we regret its imperfections the more as it is written in a spirit calculated to perpetuate the vulgar prejudices which have too long prevailed between the two greatest nations of Europe. M. Taine is never weary of denouncing the forced expressions, the accumulated metaphors, and the complicated structure of English composition. But these are precisely the defects of his own style. Everything he says is overstrained. The art of good writing in the French language is to be essentially clear, simple, and correct. M. Taine struggles under a redundancy of ornament which oppresses the reader; and in his perpetual effort to say everything in a forcible manner he becomes coarse and fatiguing. Indeed, we question whether he has any perception of the highest qualities of style. He quotes some of the finest passages of Burke

express our own opinions, but avoiding lengthened controversy. The Introduction lays down, with scientific precision. M. Taine's historical theory, by which he determines the religion, the laws, the social habits, the literature, and the arts of different nations. Three causes contribute to the elementary moral condition of a people-"race, position, and period."* The primordial characteristics of the distinct races of mankind are almost immutable: they may be modified by changes of climate and situation, but their distinctive principles are never to be effaced. In the "position" of a nation are included its geographical situation, its climate, the character of its country, and other conditions by which it is surrounded. By "period" is signified any given epoch in the progress of a nation towards civilization. These three conditions of race, position, and period being ascertained, the moral and intellectual character of the people may be determined. Here is the true key to the science of history and criticism. This is very much the doctrine of Mr. Buckle, and we suspect M. Taine has unconsciously borrowed a good deal of his philosophy from the same source. The merits of the theory must be tested by its application. In his essay on La Fontaine, M. Taine pressed his theory to the very verge of absurdity. La Fontaine wrote his fables not because he was a man of genius, but because moral necessity made him a poet, and just such a poet as he was. He was a Gaul, he lived in Champagne, and had been admitted to the Court of Louis XIV.,

*"La Race, le Milieu, et le Moment," p. xxii.

thence his fables. A theory applied in this fashion can not command the assent of any rational thinker. It is the science of history caricatured and travestied. In his present work, M. Taine holds to the same theory, but so qualified as to be little more than a philosophical commonplace. But it is no discovery of his: writers in all ages have noticed the influence of race, of climate, and civilization upon the mind of a people; nay, it is generally taken for granted. It needs no profound philosophy to observe the essential differences between an Englishman and a Frenchman; nor to account for change in the mind of a people in different ages. Every one must be sensible that no Frenchman could have written "Paradise Lost," nor any Englishman Béranger's songs: and that the poetry of Chaucer or Corneille could not have been conceived in the reign of Queen Victoria.* M. Taine's theory may be either a paradox or a truism, according to its application. Sometimes we shall find it pressed as far as in the case of La Fontaine, to the exclusion of individual genius and the free will of man, and sometimes paraded where there is no need of any theory at all. At the same time his theory has naturally tempted him to exaggerate and give undue prominence to those facts which support it, and to overlook other facts, no less material to just conclusions, which happen not to bear upon it.

First we are introduced to the original races from which the English people sprang-Saxons, Angles, Jutes, Frisians, and Danes-half-naked savages from the marshes and forests of the North of Europe. A hopeful parentage! Having lived, in their own countries, amid rain and storms, their minds were naturally gloomy; and when they crossed over the seas into Britain, they found a climate congenial to their Northern temperament. With perpetual rain, mud, and darkness, what could these savages do but hunt,

* These influences were well described by Lamennais. "Plus je vois, plus je m'émerveille de voir à quel point les opinions qui ont en nous les plus profondes racines dépendent du temps où nous avons vécu, de la société où nous sommes nés, et de mille circonstances également passagères. Songez seulement à ce que seraient les nôtres, si nous étions venus au monde dix siècles plus tôt, ou dans le même siècle, à Téhéran, à Bénares, à Taïti."

The

He

fish, and tend swine, gorge themselves with flesh, and get drunk with strong liquors? One solitary virtue, however, was due to this wretched climate. people, driven to their own firesides for warmth, acquired domestic habits; their descendants have inherited a taste for domestic life as well as drunkenness.† "It is not with such instincts," says M. Taine, "that a people quickly attain cultivation." This is his cherished theme; he is never weary of dilating upon our climate, our drunkenness, and natural stupidity. allows, however, that the Saxons had many virtues: their manners were severe, their inclinations grave, and of a manly dignity; they had no taste for luxurious pleasures; they showed a spirit of independence and freedom; and had a grand sense of duty. They made one step out of barbarism, but it was only one step. "This naked brute, who lies all day by his fire-side, in dirt and indolence, between eating and sleeping, whose coarse organs can not trace the delicate lineaments of poetic forms, has glimpses of the sublime in his agitated dreams. He feels what he can not form; and his faith is already the religion of his heart, as it will be when he rejects in the sixteenth century the ceremonial worship of Rome." We infer from this tirade (if it has any meaning at all) that our Protestant faith, which we had believed to be due to a study of the Gospel and free inquiry, was simply the work of our vile climate.

Their songs and poetry attest the char- . acter and manners of the Saxons. "The persons represented are not selfish and cunning like those of Rome; but brave hearts, simple and strong, true to their kinsmen and to their lord in battle,firm and

The author's description of our ancestors and ourselves is so characteristic that it must be cited from the original: "De grands corps blancs, flegmatiques, avec des yeux bleus farouches, et des cheveux d'un blond rougeâtre; des estomacs voraces, repus de viande et de fromage, rechauffes par des liqueurs fortes: un tempérament froid, tardif pour l'amour, le goût du foyer domestique, le penchant à l'ivrognerie brutale: ce sont là encore aujourd'hui les trais que l'hérédité et le climat maintiennent dans la race, et ce sont ceux que les historiens romains leur découvrent d'abord dans leur premier pays." (Vol. i. p. 9,) Before M. Taine repeats his statement concerning the sera juvenum Venus, he should consult some magistrate conversant with the statistics of paternity.

Vol. i. pp, 13, 75, 94, &c.

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