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What he describes is the level of life in large communities such as he resided in: there is no heroic passion, no enthusiasm of any kind in his story-for the bye-ways of ambition are not romantic. Still the tale of GilBlas had great success, for it described, not merely what was passing round the author, but what was passing round most men pursuing the hackneyed existence of what in their separate countries was called-the world.

As Le Sage was essentially the man of the city, Rousseau was as essentially the man of solitude. All that he knew of mankind was what he knew of Rousseau. The only mode he had of describing human nature, was that of describing the workings of his own breast; -he was the creature of sentiment and emotion-so was his book. Indeed, it is easier at a first glance to see why Rousseau should have written the Nouvelle Héloise, than it is at a first glance to see, why the Héloise, appearing amidst the worldly, the polished, the voluptuous, and selfish society of Louis XV, should have had such success. But there are in most men two natures-that nature which they acquire in action and from custom, which makes them do to-day as they did yesterday, and as they see others doing, without

reflection or passion, but from habitual impulse-and that other nature-which we only find when we seek for it, but which is in the depths of all our souls; which we find alone, and when we are called upon to think; a nature of higher and nobler energies, such as from the very elevation at which it aims, can rarely be carried into action save by men of great powers. I speak of that source of sublimity within us from which all religions flow; of that source of superiority and strength which we discover in sickness, in suffering, and oftimes in great perils; raising us above what we have been accustomed to consider ourselves; coming not from stoicism, not from superstition—but simply from solitude and self-commune ;-for it was said wisely and profoundly by the philosopher, "Enter yourselves-there you will find the Gods!"

Rousseau and Byron, both different in action from what they were in thought, yet living much in solitude, addressed our more lonely and thinking side of the heart: they spoke to man at the time when he momentarily withdraws himself from the world, not at the time when he is mechanically moving in the world; and this is why they produced a deeper impression upon the mind of their age, and

a less impression upon its manners, than others of their cotemporaries.

Thus Le Sage and Rousseau might have lived and written together, as they wrote and lived at different periods; and been popular, not only at the same time, but with the same people.

The two principal styles of modern fiction then, being as I have said, those of Le Sage and Rousseau, the one addressed to the musings of mankind, the other depicting their manners; -a third, some few years back introduced itself-of which we possess the great master,' and which supplied a want of the epoch, and more particularly of England, then beginning to be very generally felt.

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With the difference of popular institutions, there was, as in that branch of my subject I remarked, sure to be felt a great increase of popular interest for historical productions. The great historical masters of ancient times were remarkable for their style, their thoughts, and their descriptions; the chronicles of the middle ages were mostly dry narrations of facts; and the history that combined them, until the 18th century, was mere compilation. The school of which Voltaire and Hume were the chiefs, addressing itself to men of letters, and writing

with partial views, consisted rather in disquisitions upon preceding times, than in descriptions of them. Gibbon is our only great historian who wrote upon the ancient model; but his subject, except in a few particular points, was not one of general interest, and produced only amongst scholars the sensation, which if it had been a history of England, it would have produced upon English society at large.

The modern French historians, adopting a new and more animated and picturesque way of treating their subject, supplied to their own country, in a great measure, the want that had been felt; and their works, re-published in small numbers, became the most widely circulated of their time. But in England, our more recent histories, possessing great merit in solidity and research, were still more unattractive to the general reader than those that had preceded them.

A desire was felt, which no one satisfied, till Sir Walter Scott, succeeding the Misses Porter, who had already feebly attempted the same line of romance, carried his genius into a school, fore-destined to be popular-becoming what he will remain-the Shakspeare of his time-the great popular historian of England. His success was too extraordinary not to lead

to imitations; he has been accordingly imitated in Germany, in Italy, and also in France by men of very considerable ability.

The three most remarkable French romances are:-Cinq Mars, by M. de Vigny; the Chronicle of Charles IX, by M. Mérimée; and Notre Dame, by M. Victor Hugo.

Of these three I should give the first place to the Chronicle of Charles IX, though the least known in this country, and not perhaps the most popular in France. The merits of M. Mérimée are precision and force. There is nothing unnecessarily lengthened in his fiction; the Chronicle' is but one volume, through which you are breathlessly hurried by a series of dramatic effects. He pourtrays truly also, no small quality as an historical novelist in the time of which he writes. The passion, the levity, the superstition, the gallantry, the debauch and blood-thirsty cruelty of that epoch, memorable by the massacre of St. Bartholomew, are worked up together in his tale, energetically, vividly, but naturally, and without any overstrained reach after colours or force.*

*The fault of the author's story is, indeed, its subject : faithful to the period of which he writes he violates-how could it be otherwise—in speaking of those gay and lust

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