Page:The Criticism of Chateaubriand.pdf/8

68 and talent, which, in any other line, would be certain of that worldly success, which, as we live in the world, is the only success to be desired?" Even poets must at last learn wisdom. The bitterness and the hollowness of praise will be perceived; and then who will be at the trouble of writing a book? Again we repeat, the time is fast approaching when no more books will be written. .—The list of "literary calamities" is far from being exhausted even in the present day. We quote the following letter addressed by Comte D'Orsay to the "Court Journal," as a practical illustration of the above theory:— ",—By a judgment of the Cour Royale of Paris, a tedious and expensive lawsuit, in which M. Paul de Kock was, in the first instance, successful, has been unexpectedly decided against him; and that celebrated author is not only reduced to sudden destitution by the costs of the award, but, in being forbidden the right to publish a complete collection of his numerous works, deprived of the hope to repair his loss from the resources of his own industry and genius. "Under circumstances so cruel and unforeseen, and in the full reliance both on the generosity of the British public, and the sympathy which unites the cultivators of literature in either country, it is proposed to open a subscription at Messrs. Ransoms', Pall Mall East, on behalf of the Smollett of France. "I have the honour to be, "Your obedient Servant, "" This letter is written in a generous and enlightened spirit: its appeal is made in behalf of poverty and talent. In our time, can such an appeal be made in vain? L. E. L.