Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 10.djvu/127

Rh explicit on the divinity of Christ, original sin, and the doctrines of grace, he was censured and suspended by his ecclesiastical superiors. In the following year, for having taken part in the formation of a Société Evangélique, which contemplated, among other objects, the establishment of a new theological hall, he was ﬁnally deprived of his charge. After some time devoted to travel in Italy and England, he returned to Geneva and ministered to an independent congregation until 1836, when he became professor of systematic theology in the college which he had helped to found. This post he continued to occupy until 1857, when he retired from the active duties of the chair. His death occurred at Les Grottes, Geneva, on the 18th of June 1863. His best known work, entitled La TILéopneustie on Pleine Inspiration des Saintes Ecrz'tnres, an elaborate defence of the doctrine of “plenary inspiration,” was originally published at Paris in 1840, and rapidly gained a wide popularity in France, as also, through translations, in England and America. It was followed in 1860 by a supplementary treatise on the canon (Le Canon (les Saintes E'critures an double point (le vue de la Science et de la Foi), which, though also popular, has hardly been so widely read. Gaussen was also the author of two published series of sermons, of an exposition of Daniel, and of a variety of occasional publications of a missionary or polemical character. His lectures on Genesis, Exodus, Joshua, Jonah, and Luke were published posthumously.  GAUTIER, (1811–1872), was born at Tarbes in 1811. He was educated at the grammar school of that town, and afterwards at the College Charlemagne in Paris, where it does not appear that he particularly distinguished himself, though in later life his remarkable literary faculty and instinct enabled him to give to much of his work an air of scholarship and almost of erudition. He very early devoted himself to the study of the older French literature, especially that of the and the. This study qualiﬁed him well to take part in the romantic movement, and enabled him to astonish Sainte-Beuve by the phraseology and style of some literary essays which, when barely eighteen old, he put into the great critic’s hands. In consequence of this introduction he at once came under the inﬂuence of the great romantic cénacle, to which, as to Victor Hugo in particular, he was also introduced by his gifted but ill-starred schoolmate Gérard de N erval. With Gerard, Petrus Borel, Corot, and many other less known painters and poets whose personalities he has delightfully sketched in the articles latterly collected under the titles of IIistoi-re du Romantisme, &c., he formed a minor romantic clique who were distinguished for a time by the most extravagant eccentricity. A ﬂaming crimson waistcoat and a great mass of waving hair were the outward signs which qualiﬁed Gautier for a chief rank among the enthusiastic devotees who attended the rehearsals of IIerna—ni with red tickets marked “Hierro,” performed mocking dances round the bust of Racine, and were at all times ready to exchange word or blow with the perruques and grisd-tres of the classical party. In Gautier’s case, however, whatever they might be in others, these freaks were not inconsistent with real genius and real devotion to sound ideals of literature. He began (like Thackeray, to whom he presents in other ways some striking points of resemblance) as an artist, but soon found that his true powers lay in another direction. His ﬁrst considerable poem, Albertus (1830), displayed a good deal of the extravagant character which accompanied rather than marked the movement, but also gave evidence of uncommon command both of language and imagery, and in particular of a descriptive power hardly to be excelled. The promise thus given was more than fulﬁlled in his subsequent poetry, which, in consequence of its small bulk, may well be noticed at once and by anticipation. The Comedic de la rlIort, which appeared soon after (1832), is one of the most remarkable of French poems, and though never widely read has received the suffrage of every competent reader. Minor poems of various dates, published in 1840, display an almost unequalled command over poetical form, an advance even over Alberlus in vigour, wealth, and appro- priateness of diction, and abundance of the special poetical essence which is so often absent in the most ﬁnished poetical work. All these good gifts reached their climax in the Emaux et Camécs, ﬁrst published in 1856, and again, with additions, just before the poet’s death in 1872. These poems are in their own way such as cannot be surpassed. Gautier’s poetical work contains in little an expression of his literary peculiarities. There are, in addition to the - peculiarities of style and diction already noticed, an extra- ordinary feeling and affection for beauty in art and nature, and a strange indifference to anything beyond this range— an indifference nearly absolute, and which has doubtless injured the popularity of his work to almost as great a degree as that in which it has increased its special excellence and its charm to those who have a taste for it. But it was not, after all, as a poet that Gautier was to achieve either proﬁt or fame. Thrown as he was into circles which were nothing if not literary, it was natural that he should attempt all literary forms, and certain, considering his powers, that he should be successful in all. For the theatre, however, he had but little gift, and his dramatic efforts (if we except certain masques or ballets in which his exuberant and graceful fancy came into play) are by far his weakest. For a time he acted as secretary to Balzac, but found this occupation uncongenial enough, though it left some traces in his independent work. His ﬁrst novel of any size, and in many respects his most remarkable work, was JIIade— moz'selle de 1112: upin (1835). Unfortunately this book, while it establishes his literary reputation on an imperishable basis, was unﬁtted by its subject, and in parts by its treat— ment. for general perusal, and created even in France a prejudice against its author which he was very far from really deserving. During the years from 1833 onwards, his fertility in novels and tales was very great. Les Jeane France (1833), which may rank as a sort of prose Albertus in some ways, displays the follies of the youthful romantics in a vein of humorous and at the same time half-pathetic satire. Fortum'o (1838) perhaps belongs to the same class. Jettat-ura, written somewhat later, is less extravagant and more pathetic. A crowd of minor tales display the highest literary qualities, and rank with Mérimée’s at the head of all contemporary works of the class. First of all must be mentioned the ghost story of La Jllorte Amoureme, a gem of the most perfect workmanship. For many years Gautier continued to write novels. La Belle Jenny (1864) is a not very successful attempt to draw on his English experience, but the earlier Militona (1847) is a most charming picture of Spanish life. In Spi'rite (1866) he endeavoured to enlist the fancy of the day for supernatural manifestations, and a Roman dc la ilIomie (1856) is a learned study of ancient Egyptian ways. His most remarkable effort in this kind, towards the end of his life was Le Capitaine Fracasse (1863), a novel of the school of Dumas projected nearly thirty years before. This book contains some of the ﬁnest instances of his literary power. It was, however, neither in poems nor in novels that the main occupation of Gautier as a literary man consisted. He was early drawn to the more lucrative task of feuilleton writing, and for more than thirty years he was among the most expert and successful practitioners of this art. soon after the publication of illademoz'selle de ﬁlaupz'n, in which he had not been too polite to journalism, he became irrevocably a journalist. The rest of his life was spent either