Page:The Library, volume 5, series 3.djvu/172

 160 RECENT FOREIGN LITERATURE. writers is not much followed in this country. R. de Rivasso devotes a volume entitled c L/unite d'une pensee. Essai sur 1'oeuvre de M. Paul Bourget precede d'une lettre de M. Maurice Barres,' to the confutation of the idea (set down in Larousse) that Bourget ' est un libertin (freethinker) qui finit par etre touche de la grace/ and to prove that from his youth Bourget has been the convinced defender of the social order in religion and morals. So Dr. Theodor Reik in 'Arthur Schnitzler als Psycholog' treats the characters in Schnitzler's novels and plays as objects of psychological analysis just as if they were really living men and women. Such books seem scarcely needed. If a reader or spec- tator cannot enjoy the work of novelist or dramatist without such explanations, he might perhaps better let it alone. A. Aulard's new book, ' Les grands orateurs de la revolution Mirabeau Vergniaud Danton Robespierre/ forms a delightful guide to the right way of enjoying the speeches of those, or indeed of any, great orators. It must never be forgotten that there is something of the actor in every great orator, for he must preserve a calm demeanour while seeming to be moved by strong passion. Aulard illustrates this from the fact that while Mirabeau was speaking, he used to receive little notes, read them, and introduce the subjects of them into his speech with the greatest ease. The effect to those in the secret the general audience, of course, knew nothing of it was like a conjuror who tears a piece of paper into fragments, which he swallows in the presence of the audience, and