gance in the midst of which we read the flutter of loitering courtesans mov him. His poetry is like one of those ing about anxic esly in the dark gilt and painted stands in which flowers Doubtless their homes are not pleas. of the country and exotics mingle in ant, or they would not change them urtful harinony their stalks and foliage, for these bagmen's delights. We climb their clusters and cups, their scents four Alights of stairs, and find ourselves anil hues. It seems made expressly in a polished, gilded room, adorned for these wealthy, cultivated, free busi- with stuccoed ornaments, plaster stati ness men, heirs of the ancient nobility, ettes, new furniture of old oak, witj new leaders of a new England. It is every kind of pretty nick-nack on the part of their luxury as well as of their mantel-pieces and the whatnots. “I1 morality; it is an eloquent confirmation makes a good show;" you can give a of their principles, and a precious arti- good reception to envious friends and cle of their drawing-room furniture. people of standing. It is an adver.

We return to Calais, and travel to tisement, nothing more; we pass haif wards Paris, without pausing on the an-hour there agreeably, and that is all, road. There are on the way plenty of You will never make more than a house noblemen's castles, and houses of rich of call out of these rooms; they are men of business. But we do not find low in the ceiling, close, inconvenient amongst them, as in England, the rented by the year, dirty in six months, thinking, elegant world, which, by the serving to display a fictitious luxury. refinement of its taste and the superior. All the enjoyments of these people are ity of its mind, becomes the guide of factitious, and, as it were, snatched the nation and the arbiter of the beau- hurriedly; they have in them some. tiful. There are two peoples in France: thing unhealthy and irritating. They the provinces and Paris;

the one dining, are like the cookery of their restaurants, sleeping, yawning, listening; the other the splendor of their cafés, the gayety thinking, daring, watching, and speak of their theatres. They want them too ing: the first drawn by the second, as a quick, too pungent, too manifold. They snail by a butterfly, alternately amused have not cultivated them patiently, and and disturbed by the whims and the culled them moderately; they have audacity of its guide. It is this guide forced them on an artificial and heating we must look upon! Let us enter soil ; they grasp them in haste. They Paris ! What a strange spectacle! It are refined and greedy; they need is evening, the streets are aflame, a every day a stock of word-paintings,

luminous dust covers the busy noisy broad anecdotes, biting railleries, new crowd, which jostles, elbows, crushes, truths, varied ideas. They soon gel and swarms near the theatres, behind bored, and cannot endure tedium. the windows of the cafés. Have you They amuse themselves with all their remarked how all these faces are might, and find that they are hardly wrinkled, frowning, or pale; how anx. amused. They exaggerate their work fous are their looks, how nervous their and their expense, their wants and gestures ? A violent brightness falls their efforts. The accumulation of on these shining beads; most are sensations and fatigue stretches their bald before thirty. To find pleasure nervous machine to excess, and their here, they must have plenty of excite-polish of social gayety chips off twenty ment: the dust of the boulevard settles times a day, displaying an inner ground on the ice which they are eating ; the of suffering and ardor. smell of the gas and the steam of the But how quick-witted they are, and pavement, the perspiration left on the how unfettered is their mind! How walls dried up by the fever of a Paris. this incessant rubbing has sharpened ian day, " the human air full of impure them! How ready they are to grasp rattle "—this is what they cheerfully and comprehend every thing! How breathe. They are crammed round apt this studied and manifold culture their little marble tables, persecuted has made them to feel and relish ten by the glaring light, the shouts of the dernesses and sadnesses, unknown to waiters, the jumble of mixed talk, the their fathers, deep feelings, strange and monetonous motion of gloomy walkers, sublime, which aitherto seemed foreign

to every

to their race! This great city is cos- transıcat, the 1st familiar ; he wid mopolitan; here all ideas may be born; not restrict himself, he gave hinıself to no barrier checks the mind the vast all; he possessed the last virtues which field of thought opens before them remain to us, generosity and sincerity without a beaten or prescribed track. And he had the most precious gift Use neither hinders nor guides them; which can seduce an old civilization, an official Government and Church rid youth. As he said, “ that hot youth, a them of the care of leading the nation : tree with a rough bark, which covers the two powers are submitted to, as all with its shadow, prospect and path." we submit to the beadle or the police With what fire did he hurl onward love, man, patiently and with chaff; they jealousy, the thirst of pleasure, all the are looked upon as a play. In short, impetuous passions which rise with the world here seems but a melodrama, a virgin blood from the depths of a young subject of criticism and argument. And heart, and how did he make them clask be sure that criticism and argument together! Has any one felt them more have full scope. An Englishman en- deeply? He was too full of them, he tering on life, finds to all great questions gave himself up to them, was intoxian answer ready made. A Frenchman cated with them. He rushed through entering on life finds to all great ques- life, like an eager racehorse in the tions simply suggested doubts. In this country, whom the scent of plants and conflict of opinions he must create a the splendid novelty of the vast heavens faith for himself, and, being mostly un- urge, headlong, in its mad career, able to do it, he remains open to every which shatters all before him, and himuncertainty, and therefore

self as well. He desired too much ; he curiosity and to every pain. In this wished strongly and greedily to enjoy gulf, which is like a vast sea, dreams, life in one draught, thoroughly; he did theories, fancies, intemperate, poetic not glean or enjoy it ; he tore it off like and sickly desires, collect and chase a bunch of grapes, pressed it, crushed each other like clouds. If in this tu-it, twisted it; and he remains with mult of moving forms we seek some stained hands as thirsty as before. * solid work to prepare a foundation for Then broke forth sobs which found an future opinions, we find only the slow- echo in all hearts. What ! so young, ly-rising edifices of the sciences, which and already so wearied! So many here and there obscurely, like sub precious gifts, so fine a mind, so delimarine polypes, construct of impercept cate a tact, so rich and varied a fancy, ible coral the basis on which the belief so precocious a glory, such a sudden of the human race is to rest.

blossom of beauty and genius, and yet Such is the world for which Alfred anguish, disgust, tears, and cries ! de Musset wrote: in Paris he must be What a mixture ! With the same read. Read? We all know him by attitude he adores and curses. Eternal heart. He is dead, and it seems as if illusion, invincible experience, keep we daily hear him speak. A conversa. side by side in him to fight and tear tion among artists, as they, jest in a him. He became old, and remained studio, a beautiful young girl leaning young; he is a poet, and he is a skeptic. over her oox at the theatre, a street The Muse and her peaceful beauty, washed by the rain, making the black Nature and her immortal freshnese, pavement shine, a fresh smiling morn- Love and his happy smile, all the swarm ing in the woods of Fontainebleau, of divine visions barely passed before every thing brings him before us as if his eyes, when we see approaching with he were alive again. Was there ever curses, and sarcasms, all the spectres a more vibrating and genuine accent ? of debauchery and death. He is as a This man, at least, never lied. He man in a festive scene, who drinks from only said what he felt, and he has said it a chased cup, standing, up, in front, us he felt it. He thought aloud. He made amidst applause and triumphal music, the confession of every man. He was not admired, but loved; he was more

. “O médiocrité ! celui qui pour tout bien than a poet, he was a man. Every one

T'apporte à ce tripot dégoûtant de la vie found in him his own feelings, the most

Est bien p·ltron au jeu s'il ne dit: Tout or

a

a

his eyes laughing, his heart full of joy, / sparkling jets, and shine under the neated and excited by the generous most glowing poetic sun that ever rose 1 wine he quaffed, whom suddenly we We feel pity ; we think of that other sce growing pale; there was poison in poet, away there in the Isle of Wight, the cup; he falls, and the death-rattle who amuses himself by dressing up lost is in his throat; his convulsed feet epics. How happy he is amongst his beat upon the silken carpet, and all the fine books, his friends, his honeysuckles terrified guests look on. This is what and roses! No matter. De Musset we felt on the day when the most be in this wretched abode of filth and loved, the most brilliant amongst us, misery, rose higher. From thu heights suddenly quivered from an unsten at- of his doubt and despair, he saw the taick, and was struck down, being hardly infinite, as we see the sea from a storm able to breathe amid the lying splendors beaten promontory. Religions, theis and gayeties of our banquet.

glory and their decay, the human race, Wel! such as he was, we love him/ its pangs and its destiny, all that is forever : we cannot listen to another ; sublime in the world, appeared there beside him, a!l seem cold or false. We to him in a flash of lightning. He felt, leave at midnight the theatre in which at least this once in his life, the inner he had heard Malibran, and we enter tempest of deep sensations, giantthe gloomy rue des Moulins, where, on dreams, and intense voluptuousness, the a hired bed, his Rolla * came to sleep desire of which enabled him to live, the and die. The lamps cast flickering lack of which forced him to die. He rays on the slippery pavement. Rest- was no mere dilettante ; he was not less shadows march past the doors, and content to taste and enjoy; he left his trail along their dress of draggled silk to mark on human thought; he told the meet the passers-by. The windows are world what was man, love, truth, hapfastened ; here and there a light pierces piness. He suffered, but he imagined ; through a half closed shutter, and he fainted, but he created. He tore shows a dead dahlia on the edge of a from his entrails with despair the idea window-sill. To-morrow an organ which he had conceived, and showed it will grind before these panes, and the to the eyes of all, bloody but alive. wan clouds will leave their droppings That is harder and lovelier than to go on these dirty walls. From this fondling and gazing upon the ideas of wretched place came the most impas- others. There is in the world but one sioned of his poems! These vilenesses work worthy of a man, the production and vulgarities of the stews and the of a truth, to which we devote ourselves, lodging-house caused this divine elo- and in which we believe. The people quence to flow ! it was these which at who have listened to Tennyson are such a moment gathered in this bruised 'better than our aristocracy of townsfolk beart all the splendors of nature and, and bohemians ; but I prefer Alfre: history, 10 make them spring up in de Musset to Tennyson.

• Sec ante, p. 111, 1. 1.

INDEX.

Beaumont, Francis, 173, 182, 281, 2,
Becket, Thomas à, 69.

Beckford, W., 8.5.
PELARD, 101,102.

Bede, the Venerable, 01.
Addison, Joseph, 383, 397, 402, 408 ; his wife Bedford, Duke of (Jobn Russell), 407

and writings, 416-434, 629, 036, 823, 629, Beethoven, Lewis van, 531.
634 seq., 648.

Behn, Mrs. A phra, 324, 376.
Adhelm, 61, 64, 116.

Bell, Currer. Ser Bronte, Charlotte.
Agriculture, improvement in, in sixteenth Benoit de Sainte Maure, 5x.
century, 109; in the nineteenth, 807, 674 Bentham, Jeremy, 113, 629.
seg.

Bentley, Richari, 103.
Akonside, Mark, 803.

Beowulf, an Anglo-Saxon epic poem, 43
Alcuin, bí, 86.

45.
Alexander VI., Pope, 240.

Beranger, 243, 637.
Alexandrian philosophy, 28.

Bergmann's translations of Icelandio le
Alfred the Great, 51, 54.

gends, 39.
Alison, Sir Archibald, 507.

Berkeley, Bishop, 103.
Amory, Thomas, 477.

Berkley, Sir Charles, 314.
Angelo, Michael, 116, 211, 499.

Berners, Lord, 117.
Anglo-Saxon poetry, 48, seq.

Best, Paul, 266.
Ann of Cleves, 117.

Bible, English. See Wiclif, Tyndale.
Anselm, 68.

Bilney, Thomas, martyrdom of, 253.
Anthology, the, 129, 144.

Blackruore, Sir Richard. 361.
Arbuthnot, Dr. John, 445.

Blount, Edward, 120.
Architecture, Norman, 67, 86; the Tudor Boccaccio, 85, 88, 383.
style, 110.

Bodley, Sir Thomas, 148.
Ariosto, 116, 136, 367.

Boethius, 52, 53.
Aristocracy, British, in the nineteenth Boileau, 316, 338, 367, xi, 393., 488, 192, 888
century, 576, seq.

VEDMON, hymns of the house Bible, 60, 61,

Ban yan, John, 270-277, 910.

Condilac, swpben-Bonant do, 681, 576
Burke, Edmund, 403, 411-410, 480, 637, 148. Congrove, wuliam, 340, 345, 349-352, 392
Burleigh, Lord (Wullam Cecil), 163, 638. Conybeare, J. J.. 46 seq.
Burnet, Bishop, 397.

Corbet, Bishop, 258.
Burney, Francisca (Madame D'Arblay), Corneille, 25, 360, 367.
392, 413, 480,631.

Cotton, Sir Robert, 148.
Burns, Robert, 376; sketch of his life and Court pageantries in the mixtdentb or
works, 510-519.

tury, 111.
Burton, Robert, 110, 149–151, 257, 293. Coventry, Sir John, 315
Busby, Dr. Richard, 378.

Coverdaló, Miles, 249
Bute, Lord, 387 seq., 407.

Cowley, Abraham, 146, 147, 257, 277
Butler, Bishop, 413.

Cowper, Williani, 520 523.
Butler, Samuel, 313, 314, 408.

Crabbo, George, 522. 54.
Byng, Admiral, 387, 407.

Cranmer, Archbishongo, 2+, 251
Byron, Iord, 490; his wife and works, 888- Crashaw, Richard, 257
B6A.

Criticism and Hifiory. F? spy.

Cromwell, Oliver, 20, 257, 268, 612, 691 TI
C.

Crowne, John, 324.

Curll, Edmunol. 194.

60; his
paraphrago of parts
116.

D.
Calamy, Edmund, 270.
Calderon. 102, 166, 186, 323.

DANIEL, Sannel, 14
Calvin, John, 244, 263, 402.

Dante, 89, 100. 1982, 299, 00hs
Camden, William, 148.

Darwin, Charles, 24.
Campbell, Thomas, 625, 844.

Davie, Adam, fio.
Carew, Thomas, 144.

Davies, Sir Jóbn, 25..
Carey, Mr., 526.

Dayo, John, 261.
Carlyle, Thomas, 20, 538, 579, 883 ; style and Decker, Thomas, 1ri8.
mind, 648 seq. ; vocation, 688 seq.; phi.

De Foe, 406, 457-461, 576
losophy, morality, and criticism, 662 seg.;

Delille, James, 496.
conception of history, 668.

Denham, Sir John, 34, 341
Carteret, John (Earl Granville), 408.

Denmark, 33, 35.
Castlereagh, Lord, 187.

Dennis, John, 419.
Catherine, St., play of, 58.

Descartes, 319, 366, 6tit
Cellini, Benvenuto, 31, 78, 116.

Dickens, Charles, 630, 3:38. his novele. 683
Cervantes, 71, 97, 136, 461.

603.
Chalmers, George, 56.

Domesday Buok, 66, 5:0.73
Chandos, Duke of (John Brydgen), 488.

Donne, John, 146, 20%.
Chapman, George, 188.

Dorat, C. J., 493, 659.
Charles of Orléans, 63, 100.

Dorset, Earl of Charles Sarkville), .sf
Charles I. of England, 632.

Drake, Admiral, 109.
Charles II. and his court, 314 seg.

Drake, Dr. Nathan, 109, 110, 162.
Chateaubriand, 19, 427.

Drama, formation of the 173 seq.
Chatham, See Pitt.

Drayton, Michael, 126 sot., 131, 257
Chaucer, 74, 75, 86, 100, 383.

Drummond, William, 2:13.
Chesterfield, Lord, 390 seq., 480, 492. Dryden, John, 26, 293 : los como llom. 3:21
Chevy Chase, ballad of, A.

323, 338 ; his life an, writings 365 396
Chillingworth, William, 148, 258, 259, 402.

419, 487, 609.
Christianity, introduction of, into Britain, Dudevant, Madame (fin..rge Sand), 5.88
47, 62.

Dunstan, St., 36 seg.
Chroniclers,
French, 62.

Durer, Albert, 242, 242
Chronicles, Saxon, 63.

Dyer, Sir Edward, 128.
Cibber, Colley, 489, 493.
Cimbrians, thé, 39

E.
(larendon, Lord Chancellor (Edward
Hyde), 148, 314.

EABL., John, 148.
Clarke, Dr. John, 396, 403.

Eddas, the Scandinavian, 19-41, 510.
(lasaic spirit in Europe, Its odgin and Edgeworth, Maria, 619.
natura, 330-332.

Edward VI., 203.
Classical authors translated, 113, 119. Edwy and Elgiva, story of, 37, 38.
Olive, Lord, 629.

Eliot, George. See Evans, Mary A
Coleridge, Hartley, 167,

England, climate of, 31.
Coleridge Samuel Taylor, 523 seq.

English Constitution, formation of the, 14
Collier, Jeremy, 361, 3:8.

Elizabeth, Queen, 109-112, 147, 120.
Collins, William, 804.

Elwin, Rev. Whitwell, 487, 4:10 seg
Essex, Robert, Earl of, 162, 163.

Erigona, John Scotus, 51, BA.
Comdey-writers, English, 340 seq.

Esménard, Joneph Alphonso, 104.
Comines, Philippo do, 8.

Etherege, Sir Goorge, 324, 340,
Commerce in sistoonth contury, 109, 372 Evans, Mary A. (deringe Ellot), 830, RIO
seq.

4