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    M JUmiiE Montegut , whose able contributions to the Revue des Deux Mondes we have often had occasion to notice , has just republished from that journal one of its most striking papers , under the title of Du Genie Frangais . On its first appearance in the pages of the Revue a few months since , the article justly excited a good deal of attention , and many will be glad to possess it in a more permanent form . It is a thoroughly philosophical and complete analysis of a most difficult subject—the peculiar temper , the characteristic genius of the French people . M . Monte gut does not disguise from himself the perplexing nature of the problem he undertakes to solve . After stating that there is no country more easily judged of in appearance , more difficult to judge of in reality , and that the various judgments pronounced upon , it may be ranged under two main divisions—that is , monarchical and revolutionary—he adds : —

    The truth is that France is a country of contradictions , being at once a daring innovator and an obstinate conservative , at once revolutionary and traditional , Utopian and formalist . There is no country in which things perish more quickly , none in which the remembrance of them survives so long . The French are a people revolutionary and traditional : revolutionary , because the changes they have experienced are more numerous than those of any other people ; traditional , because under all these changes the same spirit lives and breathesi These revolutions and transformations have a double character , which renders them altogether enigmatical ; they manifest themselves in a form so rash and impetuous as to surprise the judgment and disconcert the reason , and at the same time they have an appearance of simplicity and heartiness so singular , that , the first moment of surprise being over , you are astonished at your not having foreseen them , and at having thought that they could possiblv happen otherwise . Another fact , not less

    striking , is the unenviable facility with which France changes her conditions of existence and of thought ; without effort , with no strain or compulsion , -with no gradual accumulation of forces , no previous calculation of the difficulties of the work to be accomplished , or of the strength of the resistance to be en-Countered . As a skilful artist , who runs over on his instrument with the same indifferent enthusiasm the whole gamut of human feelings , the French genius passes without transition from one order of ideas to another with an ease that , while it confounds the observer aad excites his admiration , at the same time fills him with alarm if not with disgust . He admires the plastic intelligence of the people among whom such metamorphoses are possible ; he trembles for its conscience ; he is indignant at its facile forgetfulness and apparent ingratitude . Amongst other peoples political and moral revolutions are the work of time . We see them dawn , develop themselves slowly , ingraft themselves on the past , or gradually idea to another

    nsurp its place ; we seize the point of transition from one fact or one fact or another idea . In France nothing of the kind takes place . We pass from Bossuet to Voltaire without preparation and without any marked transition ; chivalric , bourgeois , monarchical , Catholic , revolutionary , atheistic , industrial by turns , France wears each of these costumes with so much ease , that you might imagine she had never worn any other , and plays each of these parts with such perfect sincerity , that you are tempted to believe the last is the only one which really belongs to her . This may be called the spirit of superior scepticism , indifferent to all things because it comprehends all equally ; or of transcendent epicurianism , loving change for the sake of pleasure , and variety from the relish of contrasts ; or , again , it may be called an artistic spirit , which regards things as goo ' d and moral , according to the position they occupy and the emotions they excite . It is nothing of the kind , however ; and this French genius , if fitted to disconcert both its friends and its enemies , is raised far above such interpretations .

    The explanation of these apparent contradictions offered by M . Montkgtjt is that the French have , as a nation , a passionate love of abstractions , and a practical tendency to realize without let or hindrance their successive ideals . This thesis is admirably worked out in a brief but suggestive sketch of the history and lite . rature of the nation . The writer shows that , despite all appearances to the contrary , progress is the law of its political life ; the aim of each successive revolution , however imperfectly realized , being a nobler and broader one than the lnst . The treatise is republished in an expanded form , mainly for the purpose of inspiring with hope and confidence thoso earnest and patriotic minds which , on a superficial view of its present state , may be tempted to despair of their country . In this point of vicav the publication of such a thoughtful and noble-spirited dissertation is most seasonable just now . It is appropriately dedicated " To Thomas Caklyle , as a token of admiration for his great talent , and profound cslccm for his character . "

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    Tho edition of Bacon by Sitedding , Ellis , nnd Heath may truly bo considered as a national work , and worthy of the illustrious writer whose speculations aro still the source to which thinking minds of all nations repair . Tho fourth volume of this magnificont edition has just appeared . It contains now translations of the Novunt Organum and tho Da Augmoniis . Although no one to ¦ whom Latin is even tolerably familiar will be satisfied with a translation of thoso works , tho original boing at hand , so thoroughly had Bacon impressed his own genius for felicitous expression on that language , yet to tho muss of readers a translation was ou many accounts desirable , and all former translations have been both innccumto and inelegant . Tlio new translations which have boau oxcoutcd by and under tho suporinlondonco of Mr . p _ Si ? E » i ) iNO ,-dovnot-proibss 4 o ^ bo-nt ( jiuill y ^ acctti 7 \ Lo , _ but , rallio ^ a 3 Jr , aualutiQi | ia ^ t . a bo road by themselves , everywhero carefully reproducing tho meaning , but fiomothnos varying tho expression , when tho moaning could thus bo more clearly rondorcd . Tho result in a vory Baconian stylo , and perhaps a more readable translation ; yet wo havo many doubts as to tho propriety of alteringand in somo oasos even greatly improving—tho language of an author so iUuatrioua . fidelity Booms to us Iho first virtue in a translation . Wo have gone through this volunio , soduood by tho charm of great thoughts and noblo

    expressions , and should not , unless by actual . comparison , have detected any variation from Bacon's own words , so entirely has the manner as well as the spirit of the original been reproduced ; but on reaching down the Latin , and comparing several passages , we perceive that Mr . Sfedding has allowed himself latitude in expression while adhering closely to the sense . The fifth volume , which is shortly to appear , will complete the Philosophical Worksand a conspicuous place should be found for them in every student ' s bookcase .

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    After reading the sixth number of the Virginians , we are much mistaken if this sequel to Esmond be not the most carefully studied and the most elaborately wrought of all the creations of our great Humorist . The taste of the vulgar novel-reader , vitiated by the conventional garbage of the Circulating Library , is no doubt ill adapted to enjoy the exquisite felicities of an art so consummate in its manifestation , so perfect in its mastery of the secrets o £ simplicity— -finished simplicity—that it drives the herd of ready mimics to despair , or lures them to destruction— at sibi quivis Speret idem '; sudet multum , frustraque laboret Ausus idem , tantum series juncturaque pollet . What Btron said of ' easy reading' is true of every form of art ; and when we say of a page of Thackebat that its peculiar charm is like the charm of good company—refined without affectation , simple without sacrifice of superiority , familiar without loss of dignity , easy itself , and putting everybody else at ease—we must not forget how many natural and how many acquired advantages are summed up in so perfect a result .

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    ESSAYS AND REMAINS OF ALFRED VAUGHAN . Essays and Remains of the Rev . R . Alfred Vaughan . Edited , with a Memoir , by the Rev . Robert Vaughan , D . D . 2 vols . J . W . Parker and Son . These Essays and fragments are not only interesting as personal memorials , but valuable as contributions to literature . Alfred Vaughan was among the most remarkable of the younger writers of his day , and his pr incipal work , Hours with the Mystics , belongs to a class of books unhappily too rare , uniting philosophic criticism with erudite research , and lighting up the long dim aisles of mysticism into which so few students have successfully penetrated . Dr . Vaughan , in editing these minor writings and prefacing them by a Memoir , has performed a labour of love , and has collected , with a pride in which all can sympathize , unsolicited testimonies to the worth and genius of his son . Born in 182 , 3 , Alfred Vaughan never enjoyed a robust constitution ; but in early life his mind bore the fruit of a brilliant promise , and although addicted to the more fanciful forms of composition , and inclined to slight the study of metaphysics , logic , and psychology , he became gradually fixed in his devotion to ecclesiastical history . When twenty-two years of age , he wrote in the British Quarterly Review a treatise which was-Parti cularly noticed , on the life and works of Origen . To this Sir Jamestephen objected , on the ground that the subject was ill-chosen and the material imperfect ; but he described the essay as in all respects masterly , a invited young Vaughan to undertake the task of revivifying ' the dullest book ever written , ' Cave ' s Lives of the Fathers of the Fourth Century-Talfourd said , " It is nobly done . " From what Dr . Vaughan quotes , it isevident that his son ' s religious opinions passed shortly afterwards under a partial eclipse ; but nothing of this remained when , during his five years * residence at Birmingham , he commenced and nearly completed his really distinguished book , Hours with the Mystics , based upon an aggregate of uncommon lore , and concentrating in itself the many-coloured rays from old German , Spanish , Dutch , Italian , French , and Latin authorities . Without tracing beyond this point the general outlines of his career as a Christian minister and as a student , we may describe Dr . Vaughan ' s Memoir as a most just and touching tribute to the memory of a young man who deserved all that has been written to his praise , even the noble epitaph here inscribed upon his grave by his father ' s hand . The Essays and Remains are on varied subjects , but one class of research predominates . Origen , Schleiermacher , Savonarola , the Religious ^ Developments of Greece , and Kingsley ' s Jiyjpatia , suggest the tendencies of the critic , who was sometimes compelled , as Sir James Stephen said , to build upon vacuity , and to compensate himself for the scarcity of materials by creating vast imaginary restorations , in the centre of which stood the figures of his prophets , saints , and sages . Thus , the review of Origin ' s life and works opens upon an epicurean picture of ancient Alexandria , rich and bright , with a reflexion of Pharaonic splendour . " This beautiful city was the Venus that arose out of all that idle foam of conquest . " The stylo of the younger Vaughan was originally exuberant , although its exuberance arose , not from the poverty , but from the superfluity of his ideas . Illustrations and analogies thronged upon him as he wrote , and ho endeavoured to marshal them in processional pomp , emblazoning Eastern history in Eastern purple . This habit was speedily abandoned ; tho diction of the essay on Schloicnmachor is sober in comparison with that devoted to Origen , and in tho pungent commentary upon Mackay ' s Progress of tho Intellect tho rhetorical oilbrt entirely disappears . If we were suggesting to young critics , a model , wo would point to this masterly piece of writing , which thoroughly searches a voluminous and formidable book . Nothing could bo more practical than tho remarks on tho plenitude of Mr . Maokay ' s references , doposited like the sediment of unblended studies at tho bottom of every pagc > tipping" every sentortco with learned numerals , revolving Hko the spears ot A « atio . jQftVuIi : y-JMU * d ^ y . oj ^^ doubts while they actually show the way to refutation . These clouds ot erudite tlust will rise for any one who chooses to ahako tho shelves in a library ; but it is one thing to cite and another to criticise . Iho mind ot Alfred Vaughan was too independent and luminous to be daunted by yoico& chattering from scholastic folios , or shadows thrown from mountains ot brown calfskin and Russian leather ; a few cloftr enunciations silenced the Babel , and at tho prick of a pen the vast pile of historical nomenclature collapsed . Tho truth is , that what this admirable young writer attempted

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    ? /¦ viHcs are notfchelegislators , butth . ejudges and police of literature . They do not rnakelaws—they interpret and try to enforce them . —Edinburgh . Review . ?

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    ¦ jfo . 419 , April 3 , 1858 ] THE LEADE B ,. 327

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), April 3, 1858, page 327, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2237/page/15/