Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/710

 674 FRANCE [LITERATURE. distinguished children, were by no means free. The abso lute literary importance of the two was very different. Madame de Stael s early writings were of the critical kind, half aesthetic half ethical, of which the 18th century had been fond, and which their titles, Lettres sur J. J. Rousseau, De V Influence des Passions, De la Litterature consideree dans scs rapports avec les Institutions Social-ex, sufficiently show. Her romances, Delphine and Corinne, have singularly lost their attraction in seventy years, but their influence at the time was immense. The work, however, which had really the most fertile influence was the De VAllemagne, which practically opened up to the rising generation in France the till then unknown treasures of literature and philosophy, which during the most glorious half century of her literary history Germany had, sometimes on hints taken from France herself, been accumulating. The style of these vari ous works is not of the most admirable, and in their matter there is still, as we have said, much hollow talk. But the enthusiasm which pervaded them had a powerful effect, and the indications of new sources at which this enthusiasm might satisfy itself had an effect more powerful still. Chateau- The literary importance of Chateaubriand is far greater, briand. while his literary influence can hardly be exaggerated. Chateaubriand s literary father was Rousseau, and his voyage to America helped to develop the seeds which Rousseau had sown. In Rene and other works of the same kind, the naturalism of Rousseau received a still further development. But it was not in mere naturalism that Chateaubriand was to find his most fertile and most successful theme. It was, on the contrary, in the rehabilitation of Christianity. The 18th century had used against religion the method of ridicule; Chateaubriand, by genius rather than by reasoning, set up against this method that of poetry and romance. &quot; Christianity,&quot; says he, almost in so many words,&quot;is the most poetical of all religions, the most attractive, the most fertile in literary, artistic, and social results.&quot; This theme he de velops with the most splendid language, and with every con ceivable advantage of style, in the Genie du Christianisme and the Martyrs. The splendour of imagination, the sum- monings of history and literature to supply effective and touching illustrations, analogies, and incidents, the rich colouring so different from the peculiarly monotonous and grey tones of the masters of the 18th century, and the fervid admiration for nature which were Chateaubriand s main attractions and characteristics, could not fail to have an enormous literary influence. The romantic school acknow ledged, and with justice, its direct indebtedness thereto; but at the same time Chateaubriand s power of argument is perhaps weaker than that of any writer of equal emi nence; and great as has been his literary following, his followers have very rarely adopted his principles. Literature since 1830. In dealing with the history of French literature during the last half century, a slight alteration of treatment is requisite. The subdivisions of literature have lately become so numerous, and the contri butions to each have reached such an immense volume, that it is impossible to give more than cursory notice, or indeed allusion, to most of them. It so happens, however, that the purely literary characteristics of this period, though of the most striking and remarkable, are confined to a few branches of literature. The characteristic of the 19th century in France has hitherto been at least as strongly marked as that of any previous period. In the Middle Ages men of letters followed each other in the cultivation of certain literary forms for long centuries. The chanson de geste, the Arthurian legend, the roman d aventure, the fabliau, the allegorical poem, the rough dramatic jeu, mystery, and farce, served successively as moulds into which the thought and writing impulse of generations of authors were successively cast, often with little attention to tlio suitableness of form and subject. The end of the 15th century, and still more the 16th, owing to the vast extension of thought and knowledge then introduced, finally broke up the old forms, and introduced the practice of treating each subject in a manner more or less appropriate to it, and whether appropriate or not, freely selected by the author. At the same time a vast but somewhat indiscriminate addi tion was made to the actual vocabulary of the language. The 17th and 18th centuries witnessed a process of restric tion once more to certain forms and strict imitation of pre decessors, combined with attention to purely arbitrary rules, the cramping and impoverishing effect of this (in Fe&quot;nelon s words) being counterbalanced partly by the, efforts of indi vidual genius, and still more by the constant and steady enlargement of the range of thought, the choice of subjects, and the familiarity with other literature, both of the ancient and modern world. The literary work of the 19th century and of the great romantic movement which began in its second quarter was to repeat on a far larger scale the work of the IGth, to break up and discard such literary forms as had become useless or hopelessly stiff, to give strength, suppleness, and variety to such as were retained, to invent new ones where necessary, and to enrich the language by importations, inventions, and revivals, The result of this revolution is naturally most remarkable in the belles lettres and the kindred department of history. Poetry, not dram atic, has been revived ; prose romance and literary criticism have been brought to a perfection previously unknown ; and history has produced works more various, if not more re markable, than at any previous stage of the language. Of all these branches we shall therefore endeavour to give some detailed account. But the services done to the language were not limited to the strictly literary branches of litera ture. Modern French, if it lacks, as it probably does lack, the statuesque precision and elegance of prose style to which between 1650 and 1800 all else was sacrificed, has become a much more suitable instrument for the accurate and copious treatment of positive and concrete subjects. These subjects have accordingly been treated in an abundance corresponding to that manifested in other countries, though the literary importance of the treatment has perhaps pro portionately declined. We cannot even attempt to indicate the innumerable directions of scientific study which this copious industry has taken, and must confine ourselves to those which come more immediately under the headings previously adopted. In philosophy France, like other nations, has principally devoted itself to the historical side of the matter, and the names of Damiron, Jules Simon, Vacherot, Quinet, De Rcmusat, and Renan must be men tioned. Victor Cousin (1792-1867), after enjoying a brief celebrity as the chief of an eclectic school, is now princi pally remembered as a philosophical historian and critic. Towards the latter part of his long life he quitted even this connexion with philosophy, and devoted himself chiefly to the study of French history. The importance of Auguste Comte (1793-1857) is rather political and scientific than literary. We must also mention M. Taine (b. 1828), a brilliant writer, who busies himself alternately with history, philosophy, and criticism. Theology again, with the ex ception of Lamennais, to be mentioned hereafter, supplies no name on which we need linger except that of M. Renan (b. 1823), whose somewhat florid literary style has contributed largely to the influence of his theological ideas. Montalem-. bert (1810-1870), an historian with a strong theological tinge, deserves notice, and among orators Lacordaire (1802- 1861) and the Pere Felix (b. 1810) on the Catholic side, and Athanase Coquerel (1820-1875) on the Protestant. The Pensees of Joubert, partly moral and partly literary, belong, in point of publication and interest, to this period, and so do the melancholy moral izings of De Sdnancour