70.

72.

that is most detestable, all that virtue can pre- said that a woman's conceptions in romance are sent that is most elevating, alternately employ nothing but a picture of what has really passed their varied pencils. Life appears to them nei-through her own heart; if so, what an extraorther a scene of probation, in which suffering dinary one has her genius exhibited of her heart, must be endured, nor a period of enjoyment, in and the various crimes it has shared, the vicissiwhich gratification can securely be obtained; tudes it has experienced! It is painful to see a but a journey, in which alternate storms and mind in many respects so finely strung, and resunshine are to be experienced, altogether irre-sponding to some of the noblest feelings and spective of the conduct of the travelers. Their most touching emotions of our nature, so deepobject is not, like the Greek dramatists, to reply tinged by the prevailing passions and vices resent the picture of a heroic mind wrestling of the age as to have lost all sense of their real with the storms of fate, nor, like the best class character, and ready to represent them, in works of English novelists, to record the final triumph of imagination, as equally attractive with the of virtue over the machinations of wickedness. most dignified and honorable sentiments in What they aim at is to paint the human mind, awakening the sympathies of the human mind. stirred by every passion, yielding to every seEUGENE SUE can not be assigned so high a place duction, and experiencing the alternate trans- as either of the preceding writers in ports and torments, gleams of sunshine and a lasting estimate of contemporary Eugene Sue. horrors of the tempest, consequent on such a merit, though his present reputation concession to the impulses of wickedness. has been fully as great as that of either. It is imVICTOR HUGO is the first and most graphic of possible to deny to the author of The Wandering this school of novelists, in which Dumas, Jew, or the Mysteries of Paris, a very powerful imVictor Eugene Sue, and so many others, have ac-agination and creative fancy; but it is an imaginHugo. quired such brilliant contemporary repu- ation so wild, and a fancy so distorted, that fortation. His works are extremely voluminous, eign readers, at least, can not appreciate them. and, considered as pictures of the manners and There is a natural appetite in mankind for scanideas of successive eras of French history, ex- dal and pictures of hidden profligacy; and whotremely interesting. The author of Notre Dame ever lifts up the vail, which so many are anxhas given an equally graphic account of many ious to peep under, is sure, for the time at least, other periods of French story, and mingled his- to enjoy an extensive popularity. But it is for toric truth with all the interest which romance, a time only. Delineation of scenes of secret imagination, and licentiousness could communi- voluptuousness never can attain a lasting popucate to its pages. Deeply versed in antiquarian larity, if it was for no other reason than this, and historie lore, he has adorned his pages with that the sexes can not speak of them to each all the truthfulness and vivacity which the de- other, and thus a great charm of works of imlineation of nature and the representation of agination is lost. However much various pereality can alone confer. Unfortunately, he has culiarities in human nature, which fall too mingled with it the unbridled license and love prominently under the observation of the histoof excitement which the passions of the Revo- rian, may lead him to form an unfavorable estilution have rendered essential to present suc-mate of it, there are others which have a directcess in France. He has gone far to barbarize the language of his country; there is in his writings as great a chaos of words as ideas; and if Racine or Molière were to rise from their graves, they would find half the words unknown to them. Gibbon has said with truth, that a very curious and valuable work might be written on the connection between words and things; nor is it surprising it should be so; for what are words but the expression of ideas? Judging by this standard, the Revolution has indeed produced a new world of thought in France; for most certainly it has all but created a new language.

71.

Sand.

Victor Hugo's mind is essentially picturesque and pictorial; he has considerable powGeorge ers of the pathetic, but it is not his native bent. Very different is the case with the highly-gifted female writer whose works appear under the name of GEORGE SAND. She is endowed with powers in that respect which never were exceeded either by man or woman. She has all the strength of passion which characterizes the former, and all the tenderness which is the most beautiful feature of the latter. Strange phenomenon! that the exquisite pathos and romance which distinguish her finer passages and more perfect works, should be combined with the open profligacy and undisguised licentiousness which are equally conspicuous in them; nay, that the same characters should alternately present the one and the other. It is

ly opposite tendency, and demonstrate how
many elements of the noble and the generous
are mingled with a selfish alloy in our fallen
nature. Not the least of these is the fact, proved
from every page of literary history, that no work
of genius ever attained to great and lasting fame
which was not of a pure and elevating tendency;
and if the sin of genius devoting itself to works
of an opposite tendency is great, the punishment
is still greater, for it is that of ultimate oblivion.
It is in this sense we are to understand the just
observation of Sir Joshua Reynolds, not less ap-
plicable to literature than painting, "The pre-
sent and future times are two rivals; he who
courts the one must make up his
mind to be discountenanced by the on Painting.
other." 1

1 Lectures

the Revolu

Perhaps the most remarkable branch of French literature, during the Res- 73. toration, and unquestionably that Periodical which has exercised the most power- literature of ful influence on contemporary events, France since is the PERIODICAL This mighty en- tion. gine, which has now come to exercise so powerful an influence over the fortunes both of France and England, and which, for good or for evil, appears to be omnipotent, has acquired even a greater ascendency in the former country than the latter. At least the journals have done so; for it is a remarkable fact, eminently characteristic of the different temperament of the people of the two countries,

75.

struction

De

that while the Newspapers are more powerful We are not to ascribe this importance merely in France, the monthly or quarterly literature to the greater excitability, and liais more influential in Great Britain. There are bility to immediate impressions, of Causes of no Reviews or Magazines in France, which the French than the English. At this differ sway so powerfully the opinions each of their least, as much was it owing to the ence. own sections of the community, as the Edin- absence of those influences to the of the inburgh Review, the Quarterly, the Westminster, south of the Channel which on the fluence of and Blackwood's Magazine. The Revue des north of it still exercised a predom- property. Deux Mondes is a most able periodical; but it inating influence. The nobility were still erect deals more with science and literature, and in England, not only in their hereditary homes, with past than present events. It would ap- but in political weight; the country gentlemen, pear that the sober-minded English, though though much curtailed of their importance, still they all read the daily press, often distrust its lived, dispensed hospitalities, and enjoyed inviolence, or dread its misrepresentations, and fluence on their estates. It was in these two reserve the moulding of their opinions for the bodies that the ruling power in the State was more deliberate articles of the higher periodical still to be found; the inhabitants of cities, literature; while the French, ardent, hasty, though daily rising in political consequence, and impetuous, yield an instantaneous assent had not yet become the rulers of the empire. to the effusions of the daily press, which fall in It is on the inhabitants of cities, however, or with or inflame their preconceived impressions, those whose habits have been formed there, and are often prepared to act on the most that the daily press acts with its principal violent of their suggestions. It is well known force; the comparatively secluded life, rural that nearly all the revolutions which have con- occupations, and intellectual slowness of the invulsed France during the last sixty years have habitants of the country, always render them been prepared and brought on in this way; more tenacious of old habits and ideas, and and it was this which made the Duke of Wel- less amenable to modern influence. In France lington say, that in Paris they conspired in the this class was entirely awanting; the division public squares. of the landed estates among the peasantry had extinguished the land as the seat of political influence, or of peculiar and influential thought. Every thing depended on the opinions of the inhabitants of towns, the very class most liable to be swayed by the daily press. Thus the arena and rewards of composition for the public journals were different in the two countries: in England, the country was the seat of influence, the House of Commons the theatre of contest; in France, Paris and the chief towns were the ruling power, the disposition of their citizens determined the fate of parties, and they were almost entirely directed by the daily press. Hence the difference in the class of men who at that period in the two countries engaged in its animated and varied pleadings.

74. Different class of

writers in the daily press in

press

in France.

From this unbounded influence of the daily son general opinion, and, through it, on the measures of Government, and the fate not only of administrations but dynasties, has arisen an important difference between the France and character of the journals and the England. class of men who write in them in the two countries. In England, till very lately, the highest class of writers very seldom wrote articles in the daily press; and if, on particular occasions, and to serve a special purpose, they did so, they endeavored to conceal their names, and were often not a little ashamed if they were found out. Even in the monthly and quarterly literature, though they contributed largely, they endeavored to keep up Add to this, the citizens of the metropolis the incognito, and the essays were not collected had discovered a more summary 76. and published, with the author's name, till his and effectual method of asserting Owing also success in his avowed publications rendered it and securing their political su- to facility of probable that they would be favorably received premacy than by the slow method Revolution by the public. In France, on the other hand, of parliamentary influence. The not only were the leading journals on the Revolution had taught them on many occasions Liberal and Royalist sides regularly and daily that, by means of a well-concerted urban tu supported by the very highest writers both in mult, especially if aided by any considerable point of talent and reputation, but, so far from defection on the part of the military, not only being ashamed of, they gloried in it, and con- | might the legislature be overawed, and the exsidered it their best passport to present influ- ecutive subdued, but the dynasty itself might, ence and lasting fame. Chateaubriand, Guizot, if necessary, be changed. The work of reBarante, Thiers, Lamartine, Eugene Sue, Dumas, peated conflicts, during a long series of parliaVictor Hugo, and, indeed, all the popular writ-mentary campaigns, might be done in three ers of the age, contributed almost daily to the public journals, and their collected articles form not the least interesting, and perhaps the ablest part of their whole compositions. It is to this cause that the extraordinary ability of the public press during the Restoration, and the vast influence which it had on general opinion, is to be ascribed. Men of philosophic minds, and possessing stores of information, seldom write so well, at least for the time, as when under the influence of political excitement; for that gives fire to thoughts matured by study, and based on previous reflection.

days. If victorious, the claims of the leaders of the daily press, by whom the minds of men had been prepared for the revolt, were at once recognized; the editors of newspapers became ministers of state. No one need be told that M. Thiers, M. Guizot, M. Lamartine, and a great proportion of the statesmen who have ruled France since the fall of Napoleon, were borne forward to power in this way-a thing to this day altogether unknown on this side of the Channel. It is not surprising that the greatest talent in France put into the newspaper lottery when such prizes were in the

wheel. And, accordingly, the class of men who wrote in the public journals in Great Britain has been sensibly changed since their influence on political change has been rendered more direct; and it is sometimes now supported by the leading statesmen and first writers of the

age.

77.

thick; his countenance unexpressive; his voice, when raised high, degenerated into a scream. But all these disadvantages were more than compensated by the energy of his mind, and his wonderful power in the representation of passion: he acted with magical effect because he felt strongly, and was thoroughly in earnest However clearly we may perceive that this the best, perhaps the only security for succhange is unavoidable, and that the cess, whether in literature or art. Nothing Danger of influence of the public journals on could exceed the thrill of horor which ran this state general opinion, and through it on through the audience in his representation of of things. the measures of Government, in all the more impassioned scenes. Those who have free countries, is daily becoming more decided, experienced a similar sensation from the perit is impossible to contemplate the change with-formances of Mademoiselle Rachel can alone out apprehension. The great danger of the form a conception of it. To English spectators daily press is, that it is led to inflame the pas- the principal fault of his acting appeared to be sions of the moment; its profit, its fame, often that his vehement gesticulation began too early, its existence, depend on doing so. Whatever and went on too long; the demands on the veis the prevailing inclination of the public mind, hement sympathies of the audience were too that the great majority of the daily press is incessant. That peculiarity, however, belongs sure to increase. But as the prevailing inclina- to the whole French school of acting, and arises, tions are just as often wrong as right, and partly from the animated manners of the peofounded in error as based in truth, it is impos-ple, and partly from the experienced necessity sible to contemplate without apprehension the of supplying, by the intensity of the representgrowth of a power in the state capable of ation, for the measured language and stately rendering any one of these errors omnipotent voice of the poet. for the moment, and precipitating the nation, Contemporary with Talma, and, like him, with the general concurrence of the influential one of the last stays of the legitimate masses, into a course of measures which may drama in France, was MADEMOISELLE Madlle. eventually prove its ruin. The well-known GEORGES. She was gifted with far Georges. inability of the vast majority of men to con- greater natural advantages. Dark hair, a template or give long consideration to remote splendid bust, and commanding countenance, consequences, however obvious to the thinking a fine figure, and majestic air, gave her, like few, renders this danger only the greater as Mrs. Siddons, that command of the senses the institutions of the state become more demo- which, on the stage, is so important an elecratic: and the ultimate and certain triumph ment in general and lasting success. Her menof truth over falsehood, of reason over delusion, tal qualities were on a level with her physical affords no security whatever against these dan-advantages, and rendered her, during nearly gers; for though that may enlighten future ages, it will not prevent the errors of the present from working out their natural result; and if the state is destroyed, it is poor consolation for the victims in it to discover that they have been ruined by the consequences of their own

folly.

78.

The stage

79.

twenty years, the most admired actress on the boards of the Théâtre Français. She was not so vehement in her representation as either Talma or Rachel, but she was, perhaps, on that account only the more pleasing; the mind was less worn out, from the outset, with violent emotions, and therefore better fitted to feel them in their full intensity in the latter scenes, for which they were reserved. Nothing could exceed the magnificence of her declamationsthe voice, the manner, the intonation were perfect. It was the spirit of Corneille embodied in the person of a splendid and fascinating woman.

80.

The decline of the drama in France since the Revolution, has necessarily drawn after it the degradation of the stage; in France. for how can the powers of a mighty Talma. actor be exhibited in delineating a succession of murders and adulteries, of incests and poisonings, of hairbreadth escapes and atrocious deeds, such as form the staple of the modern or romantic drama in France? The great performers, whether male or female, have been confined, as a matter of necessity, to the legitimate drama. But although it with difficulty maintained its ground against the surging waves of the romantic school, yet it was not without a violent struggle it was overcome; and perhaps the brightest histrionic genius of France shone forth in the days which immediately preceded the fall of that noble art. At the very head of them all we must place TALMA, a performer so great that he has acquired a European reputation, and is worthy to be placed beside John Kemble and Mrs. Siddons, whose genius then threw an expiring lus-ance on the stage, however, did not belie this tre over the English stage. He had not their flattering delusion. If the love of admiration great physical advantages; he had neither the is, par excellence, the great characteristic of Roman profile of the former nor the majestic French women, Mademoiselle Mars was the inbeauty of the latter; his figure was short and carnation of their temperament. She was co

Very different was the character of MADEMOISELLE MARS, who reigned as supreme in elegant comedy as Mademoiselle Maddle. Georges did in the severer walks of Mars. tragedy. Her countenance was charming, and, without regular beauty, in the highest degree expressive; but her figure was large, which, but for the vivacity and youthfulness of her disposition, would have disabled her from the performance of those juvenile parts in which she so much excelled. This circumstance, however, as is often the case, made her appear young when she really was no longer so. She died at the age of sixty-three, and her passport to the last assigned thirty as her age. Her appear

Place Louis XV., the Pantheon, the Madeleine, the Bourse, the Hôtel des Invalides, the Pillar of Austerlitz—indeed, were completed by the magnificence of Louis XIV., or projected by the genius of Napoleon; but it is no slight proof of the sustained purity and elevation of the public taste that the stately style, begun by the first of these great men, and followed up by the

quetry personified. Never did it appear in a more graceful and fascinating form, and never did it command a greater number of devout worshipers. Without ever being low, she was always attractive: hers were the charms of high-bred beauty, not the hoidenish romping of village maidens. She could descend to represent their festivities, to personify their characters, but it was always with an air of ele-second, has been continued by their successors. gance. She was often on the verge, but never passed the limits of decorum, and the most refined taste could find nothing to except to in her most animated performances.

No changes of government, though they may have for the time suspended, have been able permanently to interrupt the progress of their magnificent edifices. The perpetual charm which these afford to the eye is not the least of the many attractions which permanently attract strangers in such numbers to the French capital.

ing.

83.

regarded as omnipotent, and has forever precluded its artists from taking an elevated place in the pantheon of modern genius.

84.

Last in this bright band, MADEMOISELLE RA81. CHEL is perhaps the most powerful, and Madle. in her genius the most gifted. She is Rachel. the very reverse in personal appearance of Mademoiselle Georges or Mademoiselle Mars; If modern French architecture is remarkable her figure is fine and commanding, but it is for the imposing effect which it thin rather than the reverse, and charms the exhibits, and the purity of taste Modern French eye by the grace of its movements, the lofti- by which it is distinguished, the school of paintness of its height, not the fullness of its propor- same can not be said of its painttions. She seems to have been worn away by ing. Here the meretricious influence of artithe intensity of her own feelings. But they are ficial society is very conspicuous. It is not so vehement, that she sweeps every thing be- nature which the modern French artists have fore her when she gives them vent; it is like a studied, but operatic nature: the gestures and torrent of lava issuing from the summit of Ve- expression of the theatre are conspicuous at suvius. In the delineation of jealousy, in par- every step; the glare of the stage lamps is ticular, she is unrivaled; every fibre, every seen in every light and shade. The attitudes limb, every musele, quivers with the intensity in their historical pieces are all taken from the of the emotion: her whole soul, like the Py- opera, and exhibit that vehemence and contorthoness in the moment of inspiration, seems tion of figure by which their theatrical reprethrown into the writhings of her figure. It is sentations are distinguished, and which is so these wonderful delineations of passion, in its much at variance with the calm and severe most fiery moods, which have given her the simplicity of the old Italian school. So great colossal reputation she enjoys in every part has been the influence of the stage on the modof Europe. Strong deep feeling speaks a lan-ern French school of painting, that it may be guage which is understood in every clime. She has little of the tender in her composition, and seldom aims at its delineation; it is the violent, the scornful, the indignant feelings, which she The painter among them who is distinguishrepresents with such marvelous effect. Her ed by the greatest simplicity, and who, Phedre, Hermione, and Alzire, are master-pieces therefore, has attained to the greatest Le Gros. which those who have witnessed can never for- excellence, is LE GROS. Such is the get. It is melancholy to think that, as she is strength of his genius, and the severe masculine the greatest of French actresses, so she is the character of his mind, that it has caused him LAST; and that after she is withdrawn from the to surmount in a great degree the artificial and public gaze, not a vestige will remain on the meretricious taste by which he was surrounded, stage which Corneille and Racine have immor- and revert to the truth of nature and the severe talized, of the genius which so long added fresh simplicity of ancient art. His great piece of charms to the representation of their dramas. "Napoleon riding over the Field of Eylau the Of all the fine arts, ARCHITECTURE is the one day after the Battle," is worthy to be placed which, since the Revolution, has made beside the finest battle-pieces of Le Brun, both Architec- the most decided progress in France. for grandeur of thought, chasteness of coloring, Nothing strikes a stranger so much, on and generality of effect. There is no contemParis his first arrival in France, as the com-porary historical painting by any British artist bined magnificence and pure taste of their public edifices. Built always of beautiful freestone, which, easily cut at first, becomes hard by exposure to the air, they present, in their simplicity and elegance, a striking contrast to the combination of meretricious taste and perishable materials which are so conspicuous in most of the modern edifices of London. It is probably the very durability and hardness of their materials which have contributed to the chasteness of the style in which they are built. A fantastic or ill-regulated taste works with much more difficulty on granite or freestone than on plaster-of-Paris. Simplicity and chasteness of taste become in a manner a matter of necessity. The finest buildings of Paris-the Louvre, the

82.

ture of

which can be compared to it. The other his-
torical painters of France are all stained by the
great defect of the French school-that of imi-
tating, not nature, but the stage. There is not
in the world, a few brilliant pieces excepted, a
more stupendous exhibition of accumulated bad
taste and unnatural gestures than the great col-
lection of Versailles now presents; it is worthy
to be placed beside the marble monuments of
Westminister Abbey, as a collection of the cor-
ruption and perversion of taste in an age
ing its civilization and refinement.

boast

To the general condemnation of the modern French school of painting, another exception must be made in the pictures of Vernet. HORACE VERNET. He is great, because

65.