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German literature to the high estimation which it now enjoys in France and England. The first two volumes of his history were now published, and his companion was charmed to present to every one, as she said, "the new historian, preceded by his fame." She occupied a house at Vienna during the winter, and all the choice society that this gay capital could afford was collected at her evening parties. Surrounded by persons of eminent rank or great talents, who were noted for their polished manners and sparkling conversation, Madame de Staël strove to forget Paris and the sorrows of her exile.

But through all the splendor and festivities by which they were surrounded, Sismondi saw the feeble and depressed condition of Austria, which seemed to be waiting only for the final blow from the resistless power of Napoleon. He saw the desperate state of the finances, the uncertainty of private fortunes, the languor of the government, and the general anxiety and distress of the people. His active mind could not rest without attempting to investigate the cause of these evils, and to find a remedy for them; though the result of his speculations could hardly have been satisfactory even to himself. He wrote and published a tract on Paper Money, which attracted considerable attention at the time, though it was not calculated to add much to his fame as an economist. He pointed out the abuses of credit, and argued strenuously in favor of the suppression of paper as a medium of exchange, and the restoration of a metallic currency. This advice may have been good enough, as far as it went; but the adoption of it would have been a very insufficient restorative for an empire that was apparently sinking into dissolution. His anonymous biographer's estimate of it is quite too favorable. Strongly supported by the Prince de Ligne, considered, discussed, and praised by the ministers of Austria and Prussia, presented to the Archdukes John and Charles, approved by the Archduke Renier, attentively read in manuscript by the emperor, and afterwards printed at Weimar, the paper of Sismondi, which for a moment raised the hopes of commerce, had no other result than to give its author the satisfaction of having thrown light on an important subject, and having conscientiously labored for the interests of the community."

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Returning to Geneva, Sismondi again applied himself with indefatigable ardor to historical studies and the labors of the

desk. About a year before, he had engaged to furnish the publishers of the Biographie Universelle with all the lives of distinguished Italians which were required by the plan of their work, this being a task for which he was particularly fitted by his knowledge of Italian history and literature. He wrote them all, and sent them to Paris, long before the first volume of this excellent biographical work appeared, in 1811. As soon as this labor was completed, he undertook another subsidiary task, to fill up the intervals of time that were not required for his history, as the only relaxation that he allowed himself was a change of employment. He prepared a course of lectures on the Literature of the South of Europe, which he delivered at Geneva in the winter of 1811-12. Being well qualified for the work by his thorough knowledge of all the languages of Latin derivation, and by his researches in history, which were so extensive as to render him familiar with the literature of all the countries in which these languages were spoken, he soon found that his materials were far more copious than he could use in the lectures, and that they might be woven together into a literary and critical history of some magnitude. He labored upon it during his residence in Italy in 1813, and published it in the following year, in four volumes

octavo.

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The work rose at once to quite a high place in public favor, and has retained its popularity ever since. "Many of my readers," says Hallam, "must be acquainted with the Littérature du Midi, by M. Sismondi; a work written in that flowing and graceful style which distinguishes the author, and succeeding in all that it seeks to give, a pleasing and popular, yet not superficial or unsatisfactory, account of the best authors in the Southern languages." But this sound English critic objects, and with some reason, to Sismondi's occasional tendency - probably derived from his recent visit to Germany and his acquaintance with German literature to over-refinement in criticism, and to contrive strange hypothetical explanations of the nature and design of some of the masterpieces of great authors. Thus, he adopts the hypothesis, that Cervantes did not intend, in Don Quixote, to write a satire upon knight-errantry, but to make his hero a man of noble heart, high purposes, and a fine imagination, whose brain was somewhat over-heated by the sight of daily oppression and wrong, which he vainly attempted to re

dress; in short, he would have us believe, that the worthy knight of La Mancha was only a sort of Tancred or Rinaldo manqué, “fallen on evil tongues and evil days." This is of a piece with some recent follies in Shakspearian criticism, the authors of which would fain persuade us that the great dramatist did not intend to present Falstaff as a coward, or Macbeth as a tyrant and a murderer. It is right to say, however, that Sismondi did not often fall into this strange perversion of ingenuity.

We have seen that the conclusion of the History of the Italian Republics was published in January, 1818; and as early as May in the same year, its author had determined to undertake his still larger work, the History of the French, which afforded him his chief occupation for the rest of his life. His preparations for this great task were made with the same thoroughness and conscientious diligence which he had shown in all his previous undertakings. He immediately began to collect the necessary books; the purchase of an extensive library, formed without regard to expense, had become necessary to him, and he set about the collection of one with great ardor. "I look upon these quartos," he remarked, "with a sort of respect and fear, when I reflect that I must go through them all, and must make myself as familiar with them as I have long been with the collection of Muratori." Hitherto, he had worked chiefly by means of borrowed books, and had been obliged, therefore, to write out copious extracts. The ownership of the volumes enabled him to change this plan; instead of copying at length, he prepared annals in which the memorable events of each year were entered, with full references, as he drew them from the original sources. This mode led to a rigid comparison of the different chroniclers, their several accounts of the same transaction being placed side by side, and the discrepancies were consequently detected with ease.

After three years spent in preparation, the first three volumes of the work were published, in 1821; the others followed, usually three at a time, at intervals of every two or three years, till 1842, in which year the twenty-ninth and last volume was published, after the death of the author. He wrote the concluding sentence of it only five weeks before he died. The work properly begins with the reign of Clovis, though some preliminary chapters relate to the condition of Gaul

under the Romans, and it ends with the accession of Louis XVI., thus comprising a period of about thirteen centuries. As a whole, it is pronounced with quite general consent to be by far the ablest and most trustworthy history of France that has yet been written. Other historians may have shown more art in composition and greater command of style; their narratives may be more flowing and spirited, their descriptions more vivid and picturesque, their philosophy more comprehensive and profound. But no one has been more cautious and thorough in the investigation of facts, or more accurate and conscientious in the exhibition of them. Freedom from prejudice and loyalty to truth might be inscribed on the work as its motto. Sismondi regarded history as the foundation of the social sciences, and as most precious from the perpetual illustrations it affords to moral, political, and economical truths. "No one has so well shown," says Mignet, "the influence which economical changes, taking place in the interior condition of a nation, have exercised on the form of its government and the crises of its existence." He complains, however, that Sismondi has judged the state of manners and the actions of men in every age, not by estimating the ideas and the wants of that age, but according to a moral rule which is absolute and inflexible; but this quality many readers will consider as an excellence. He says, also, that we sometimes perceive the spirit of the Protestant and the republican citizen of Geneva in the severity of the historian towards Catholicism and royalty. But he concludes with the following high praise, which may be admitted to be a fair estimate of the work.

"In spite of these imperfections, the History of France is a vast monument raised to the honor and for the instruction of our country, by a man who loved it, though he was sometimes severe towards it a man of immense knowledge, of sound and steady judgment, of great ability, of scrupulous honesty; who, belonging to two distinct eras, has marked the transition between the school of the eighteenth century, whose generous principles he has followed up without its scoffing levity, and that of our own time, whose knowledge he possessed without having all its freedom of mind." - pp. 20, 21.

After the abdication of Napoleon in 1814, Geneva, which had been annexed to France, recovered her independence; and Sismondi, being chosen a member of the supreme council,

assisted in the work of reorganizing the little republic. But his joy at the reëstablishment of his country's independence was darkened by many perplexities and fears; the wretched policy of the restored Bourbons, and the doubts as to the future disposition which the Allies might make of the territories that had been wrested from France, cast a gloomy cloud over the future. Sismondi, had been no Bonapartist; if no other cause had given him a bias against Napoleon, he must have imbibed one from his long intimacy with Madame de Staël. He must have shared her feelings towards the man who had inflicted on her so many slights and petty persecutions. But neither was he a loyalist, and he dreaded the consequences of the subjugation of France upon the great cause of political freedom throughout Europe. When he visited Paris in January, 1815, to superintend the publication of the 9th, 10th, and 11th volumes of his Italian Republics, he found the authorities there, instead of busying themselves about measures for the restoration of commerce, industry, and the national tranquillity, were occupied in celebrating the funeral obsequies of Louis XVI. The people deemed this an insult, the army had grievances of its own, and every thing appeared ripe for an explosion.

Sismondi, then, was not surprised by the return of Napoleon from Elba in March of that year; perhaps he welcomed the event, as the accession to power of a man who, having found how hollow were the alliances of kings, would now be disposed to throw himself into the arms of the people, and to strengthen his own throne by protecting their liberties. After the publication of the Acte Additionnel, which his old friend and fellow-citizen, Benjamin Constant, had assisted in inditing, and which appeared to him a better constitution than any which France had yet received, and especially after two decrees had been issued, abolishing the slave-trade and restoring the freedom of the press, Sismondi gladly came forward as a supporter of the government of Napoleon. The patriotic party generally seemed inclined to rally round the man who was now disposed, either from policy or conviction, to lend a hearty support to their cause. Intimations were also sent, it is said, to Madame de Staël, inviting her to return to Paris, on the ground that her advice was needed respecting a new constitution; but she coldly replied, "He has done without me and without a constitution for twelve years; and even now,

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