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    —death is beautiful , lmt what if death ue the dissolving essence , and life never find itself again . One of the " inner facts" which those unhappy , but unspecified Compts { probably si new American sect ) ignore , is tlie tendency of ova * age toil sponge out objective being " ' —a -very insane process , certainly , but one ^ vliiclx Wordsworth is discovered to have tried : — He was haunted early , as he plainly enough shows us , with that mischievous tendency , that curse of bur age , though it possibly never became this to him , to sponge out for the most part objective being , or to make it only a wing on which to float away through the vast void of subjective and indefinite abstraction . Prom this he was-ultimately saved . But the feeling and the tendency beset him , The ehild-Lood of Wordsworth unfortunately has proved the manhood of millions of men in our age ; he says , \ " ¦ . I felt the sentiment of "being spread O ' er all that moves , and all that seemeth still .

    But it is a glittering , cold , unsubstantial page that sentiment of being , it affects us personally like the glaring wide open eyes of a beautiful corpse , or say , the eyeless socltet of a dead universe . How the sentiment became a page , and how that page came to resemble " the eyeless socket of a dead universe , " and where Mr . llood made acquaintance with tliis universe with , its eye out , so as to enable him to detect the resemblance , lie does not tell us . " We have so little confidence in " inner facts" of th . isl . md that we found this " Unusual Biography" unusually hard reading . There is a great deal about Pantheism , of -which Mr . Hood knows little , and much , more about Greek poetry , of wliieh . lie knows nothing at all ; there is abundance of rhetoric , such as in bad American literature passes for very superior eloquence ; capitals , dashes , and notes of admiration , grand names , and bewildering epithets make the page unusual , but do not make it very interesting . Had lie not quoted largely from Wordsworth ' s poems , there would lave been nothing to lure the reader through two chapters , unless prompted by "intuitional curiosity" to see what verbiage could be printed with malice

    repense . :- : Absurd as the book is , there are gleams of remarkable talent in it ; and if the author is very young , we should prophesy that he will live , not only to be ashamed of this production , but to produce works of which he may reasonably be proud . The question of age is all important in this case . If the crudity and extravagance belong to unripeness , there is sufficient sap in him to ripen good fruit . But he must learn not to talk about what he does not understand , and not to use words without attaching definite meanings to them . Let him read a play or two of Sophocles ( not in translation ) and he will appreciate the effect likely to be produced by many pages of this Biography ' on those who have a somewhat nearer acquaintance with the Greek . Drama tb-ar ^ is to he gathered from Sehlegel and the Magazines . He has great command of language , aivd grpat love of poetry ; liis ambition is high , and lie has faculty of more than ordinary vigour ; "but at present he is misled by detestable models , and until he learns to laugh heartily at many chapters of this work , he had better keep in manuscript whatever he writes .

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    THE AGE OF LOUIS XIV . Louis Fourteenth , and tlie Writers of 7 iis Aye . By the 'Rev . J . J . Astie . Translated by the Rev . E . N " . Kirk . Boston : Jewett and Co . This volume contains a series of lectures originally delivered in French some years ago to a New York audience . M . Astic then invited the citizens of America tostudy , with him , old France , especially old Paris . His irregular recital begins with the year 1 G 38 , -when Louis XIII . was on the throne , when Maria de Medici was in banishment , -when , the Huguenots had been subdued , the friends of Montmorency crushed , the king and the court overpowered by the supreme will of Kickelieu . The contrast is interesting between the capital of the Thirteenth Louis and that of the Third , ' -Napoleon . There were then no asphaltic pavements , no Hue llivoli , no Madeleine , no Place de la Concorde . The Jardin desPlantes , the Tuileries , the Louvre , the

    Invaby a literary standard , was below mediocrity ; his aptitude for literary criticism was exemplified in his supreme preference of Chapelain . Nor were his public virtues at all conspicuous . He had no idea of his duties as a king , said Fenelon . Even Racine , though accustomed to natter , made comments not less severe upon the conduct of the royal administrator ; and the royal administrator was so magnanimous as to disgrace Racine for circulating his opinions . The truth is , that no monarch -was ever more vain than Louis XIV . Whether from La Valliere , De Montespan , and De MaLnten on . ; from the Catholic priests , with . Bossuet at their head ; from the dramatists , poets , and critics ; from RocTiefoucauld , Vaugelas , and Flechier

    were among the king ' s , generals ; he carried on , therefore , great wars , but never fought or commanded in person .. His passage of the Rhine , whatever Boileau may say , was an insignificant feat—a military achievement of the fourth order , according to Napoleon . Tlie river was not deep , the position was not defended , and the king crossed after his army . Much of the literary splendour surrounding his court seems to have been the l'esult of accident , though lie . was adroit enough , in all cases , to appropriate whatever glory rose within the limits of his dominion . Delille says , " A glance from Louis gave birth to Corneille ; " but Corneille was long obliged to carry his own shoes to a cobbler's stall to have them mended , and when he was on his dying bed , Racine was compelled to intercede for him that he might have some broth . The patronage of the throne was , to say the least , somewhat capricious . We are inclined to believe with St . Simon , that Louis , iudjred

    at Versailles and at Ranibouillet ; from generals and diplomatists ; from foreign princes and from his own ministers , he expected incessant and unstinted adulation . He was the principal actor 5 n France , in manner and language pompous , ostentatious in his liberality , prodigal in his style of living , and grandiloquent in his negotiations with the several European Powers . He was never weary of hearing from expectant courtiers that his was the genius that had arbitrated at A 5 x-la-Chapelle , at Nimegue , and at Ryswiek . It was true that in the firsi instance he had given the law to Spain ; that in the second he had dictated to the leading Governments of Europe ; and tliat in the third he had displayed a sph'it of surprising moderation . But it is mere historical transcendentalism to insist that notkini ?

    but policy tempted him to accept an apotheosis from the priesthood . As if vanity had no influence over the actions of kings ! He repaired the public roads ; he improved the sea-ports ; he encouraged commerce ; he founded new colonies ; he raised the navy of France to an emulation with the navies of Holland and England ; many branches of manufacture , of cloths , glass , and tapestry , flourished under his care . But every action of liis life , of whatever kind , displayed the one predominating passion of his nature—an all-forgetting egotism . St . Simon ' s anecdote of his conduct towards Madame de Maintenon illustrates a selfishness to which a parallel is rarely found : —

    She often -went to Marly , in a state in which no one would have thought of sending even a servant ; and at one time , on a journey to Tontainebleau , they feared she would die on the road . In whatever state slae might be , the king always went to see lieu at the ordinary time , and carried on . whatever projects he might have in hand . And even , if she was in her bed , trying to break a fever by a profuse perspiration , the k 5 ug , who was fond of the air , and disliked heated rooms , would be astonished on coming in , to find all the windows closed , and would immediately order them to he opened , although he saw in what state she was ; and thus they must remain until he went to supper at ten o ' clock , however cool the night might be . If while there he wanted music , neither fever nor headache would prevent his having it , Avith a hundred candles shining in her eyes . The king went , also , with his train , without ever asking her if she was incommoded . The popularity of Louis XIV . was founded , in great part , on the principle by which Napoleon obtained the suffrages of the simple classes . He was called " great" —not " good" as Henry IV . was called—because he gave to France an appearance of supremacy , and was successfully insolent to neighbouring states . Yet he was ultimately defeated , and forced to sue for peace , by Holland , even then a secondary power ; in the war of the Spanish succession lie was continually beaten ; he was at one moment forced to nieditate on a night from Versailles . M . Astie ' s lectures , translated by Mr . Kirk , arc slight , but useful , criticisms on the genius of Pascal , Corneille , Fenelon , La Fontaine , Boileau , Racine , and lloliere . They will serve to introduce those authors to students as yet unacquainted with them , while more mature readers may find some interest in a comparison of their own impressions with those of INI . Astie . The mysticism of Fenelon is skilfully described in contrast with the less subtle mysticism of Bossuet . In all respects , the volume is creditable to the literary taste of the writer . The translation is elegant and clear ; we have not the means of testing its accuracy .

    hdes , the Pantheon , presented a rude and unfinished aspect . Paris was a _ quaint , antique city , in the midst of a state governed upon Gothic principles , by a succession of priests . What did Louis XIV . accomplish for this city and this state ? He consolidated , for a time , the absolutism of the monarchy , and that centralization "which M . dc Toequeville traces so far through tlic internal history of France . . The sciences of war and finance had able representatives in his day . He whs the contemporary of great dramatists , satirists , orators , theologians . And he bequeathed misery and disaster to his countrymen . Voltaire , perhaps , eulogized the age of Louis XIV ., as he eulogized the manners of China—to exasperate his contemporaries . Certainly , when he compared it to the age of Pericles , of Augustus , and of the Medici , and even ranked it before them , he presented but a slight justification of this excessive praise . A \ c should know little of the times of " the Great Louis "

    were information to be found nowhere but in Voltaire ' s splendid fragment . But we understand the spirit of that century without remembering that Ferney ever nursed a philosopher . More is to be learned indirectly than from the lieavy volumes of annalists and compilers . The servility of tlie brilliant generation is exhibited in the lives and works of Racine , of Boileau , and of Bossuet , of whom Lamartincs says , that he never forgot liis king while he thought of his God . The cold academic tendencies of the epoch -we perceive in llonsard , who forced tlio Muse of France , as Boileau expresses it , to sing in Greek and Latin . It is true that Racine had been a pupil of tlio Port-Royalists , and had been inspired by that teaching which in loss creative minds yielded only pedantry . They revived St . Augustin , but they revived also the classic authors ; they preached the u doctrine of Grace , " but they also restored the love of the antique in literature , of Jbschyliis and Euripides .

    The reign of Louis XIV ., commencing with the political . degradation of France , and marked at various times by acts of civil and religious usurpation , cUd temporarily extend the frontievs of Franco . Lorraine , Flanders , Franclie-* jorut < i , Strasbourg , were added to the monarchy , which was , nevertheless , reduced as well nu exhausted at its close . Turcnnc , Conde . Luxembourg ,

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    RETROSPECTS OF HUNGARY . La IIo ? iff > 'ie , son Ct nie ct sa Mission : Etude historiqua suit'ie par Jean lie Ilunyad lle ' cit ( hi A" l Siccle . 13 y Charles Louis Chassin . l'aris : Gamier fritres . Whjcn the Hungarians in lS-18 proclaimed tlieir national independence , the populations of Western Europe looked on in surprise and perplexity . The jjcople that had tlms risen in arms was half unknown . It had to create sympathy , it was without the heroic renown of Poland and Italy ; it was an apparition in the East , and the popular ideas respecting this unfamiliar representative of revolution took vague forms , and were long involved in confusion . Croatia , the Han , and tlie Magyars were shadowy names that ilittcd across the scene , but it was not before several months had elapsed that the real nature of the struggle between the House of Hapsburg and the Hungarian constitutionalists began to be understood . It is dihicult , now , to realise the enormity of the ignorance that prevailed . The events of the insurrectionary years threw a powerful light upon the centre and east of Europe , exactly as the events of the Russian war extended the geography of table-talkers across the vast territories between Riga and Odessa , through tlio Tuuric Chersonese , and even beyond the limits of civilization on the Anxoor ; the perspective of the newspaper readers' eye "was deepened as far as the borders of Hungary , and , as M . Chassin expresses it , it was discovered that revolutionary Frunco has a sister upon tho frontiers of Asia ,

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    October . 18 , 1856 . ] THE LEADER . 1003

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 18, 1856, page 1003, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2163/page/19/