portraiture of two lovers, who ramble and converse in solitude; the whole interest is embodied in the picture of the anxieties suggested by love amidst the calm of deserts, and the repose of religious feeling. The work is written in the antique form, and is divided into prologue, narrative, and epilogue. The chief portions of the narrative take a denomination, as the huntsmen, the laborers, &c., as in the first ages of Greece, the rhapsodists sang under various titles, fragments of the Iliad and of the Odyssey. "For now some time," says M. de Chateaubriand, "I only read Homer and the Bible; happy if it is made evident, and if I have succeeded in imparting to the tints of the desert, and to the sentiments peculiar to my heart, the colors of these two great and eternal models of the beautiful and the true." It has been said that Chateaubriand was, at this time, profoundly imbued with the feelings and ideas of him whom he called le grand Rousseau, and whom he places in his first published work among the five great writers who must be studied. But he personally defended himself from the imputation of siding with a philosopher, whose eloquence he justly admired, but whose doctrines he equally justly condemned. "I am not," he says, "like M. Rousseau, an enthusiast for savages; and, although I have, perhaps, had as much reason to complain of society as that philosopher had reason to praise it, I do not think that pure nature is the most beautiful thing in the world. I have always found it very ugly, wherever I have had occasion to see it. So far from being of opinion that the man who thinks is a depraved animal, I think it is thought that makes the man. With that word na.ture,' every thing has been lost. Let us paint nature, but beautiful nature; art ought not to cccupy itself in describing monstrosities." "Atala "" was soon followed by "The Genius of Christianity," a work which it is undeniable imparted to France for a time a sacred stamp, a kind of moral baptism, which the lower class of her literary population vainly struggled to belie and to discard, by plunging into odious and revolting excesses. "It is no doubt permitted to me," remarked the author at the time, "under a government which does not prescribe any peaceable opinion, to take up the defence of Christianity, as a subject of morality and of literature. There was a time when the adversaries of that religion had alone the right to speak. Now the lists are again open, and those who think that Christianity is poetical and moral, can say so aloud, and it is still permitted to philosophers to argue the contrary." The expression used by the author, "the poetry of Christianity," reveals the whole principle by which he was animated. His enthusiasm, the brilliancy of his thoughts, the pomp of his images, the vividness and animation of his style, however worthy of admiration, all leave the same impression of a straining for effect, that is not congruous with the sobriety and magnitude of the subject of which he treats. With M. de Chateaubriand, reason is generally the slave of imagination and passions. In the "Genius of Christianity," as in his subsequent work "Les Martyrs," we find that the ob ject of their author is not so much to vindicate the truth and sanctity of the Christian religion, as to prove that it is poetical and interesting. We search in vain for any edifying comparison between paganism and true faith; the inquiry resolves itself into a consideration of Homer and Virgil, on the one side, of Tasso and Camoens on the other. Thus the question, instead of being social and religious, becomes merely literary-a question of art and taste-nothing more. M. de Chateaubriand is acknowledged by all to be a most admirable painter, although sometimes guilty of exaggeration; but it may be more than doubted whether he will ever be ranked among men of sound reasoning and profound thought. The true Christian thinker must, it has been most justly observed, be shocked to see the worship of our Saviour defended by flowers of rhetoric; to see paganism, with all its sensual idolatry, its voluptuous absurdities, favorably contrasted with the austere, pure, Christian religion, the eternal symbols of which are self-denial, suffering, prayer. It is, indeed, matter of notoriety, that the ecclesiastics of Roman Catholic Europe universally expressed dissatisfaction with the very books that seemed to be written in the interest of the clergy. If the works of M. de Chateaubriand had been ever free from this prevailing taint, the illustrious author's friends might contend that he adopted the only mode of making any religious impression on the country; that it was, in fact, necessary to appeal, in the first place, to the imagination of France. But during the whole of his life, and in all his works, he has been misled by poetry, imagination, and love of ef 273 fect. Thus, in his "Essay on English Lit- | constituted the chief of M. de Chateauerature," there are many sparkling, para- briand's works of fiction. "René" is the doxical papers, written to prove that Luther type of morbid reverie-of the bitterness had no genius, and that Roman Catholicism resulting from social inaction blended with is more favorable to liberty than Protestant- a proud scorn and self-satisfaction; his ism. In his "Etudes Historiques," with haughty and solitary soul finds in disdain still greater inconsistency, he places that an inexplicable source of superiority over notorious impostor and would-be Messiah, all men and things. It is the personificaApollonius of Tyana, among the Christian tion of one of those moral maladies which martyrs, and allows the truth of the popu- so often assail human nature, blighting all lar tradition, which classes the Saviour of freshness and vigor in the soul. By many the world among the vile mob of pagan dei-" René " is considered as the finest specities wherewith the Pantheon of Tiberius was populated. ex men of its author's style and genius, yet it will not admit of comparison by the side. Bonaparte was not slow to perceive the of its prototypes, "Manfred," "Childe use which might be made of a pen which, Harold," and other creations of a similar if it had not the gift of raising an imperish- character in which Lord Byron delighted. able monument to its possessor's literary Yet gloomy, pensive, and desponding, and fame, had at least the art of gratifying, and at the same time so lofty and so scornful in sometimes leading the taste of the time. the consciousness of genius, "René " Nothing was better fitted than such compo-ercised a pernicious influence and added to sitions to assist in the restoration of letters, the previously existing dissatisfaction of of religious observances, and society; but, the minds of the more youthful, idle, and like most of the ornaments of the consular ambitious portions of society. and imperial times, these productions were of tinsel rather than solid gold; and men continued to praise them rather from their original effect than any fresh perennial charm which they possess. M. de Chateaubriand, was, however, of too independent a spirit to submit to the conditions of Bonaparte's service, especially when it was degraded by treachery, and stained by blood. However various indeed may have been his impulses during his political career, however great the versatility of his ideas, it must be allowed that he has always sacrificed his personal interests to what he considered his duty; he has never hesitated to sacrifice his ambition to his conscience. Upon the murder of the Duke d'Enghien he instantly resigned his post of Minister Plenipotentiary to the Valais, and served Napoleon no more; for although the young poet and the embryo statesman might be regarded as a soldier of fortune, he was at least no mercenary retainer. M. de Chateaubriand's political life may be said to have begun in 1814. His début in the cause of the restored monarchy was brilliantly successful. The fall of Napoleon was viewed by numbers in France with great satisfaction; the country was in a deplorable state of exhaustion; French blood had flowed for years in every part of Europe; the miseries and terrors of war had weighed so oppressively on all, that the word " peace was hailed with boundless enthusiasm. Nevertheless, the partisans of the dethroned emperor were still numerous, and ready to rush in the field at the first signal. It was with the view of opposing this yet powerful and formidable body of Bonapartists that M. de Chateaubriandcarried away by that passionate excitement so rife in France at this eventful momentpublished his celebrated pamphlet on Bonaparte and the Bourbons. This pamphlet may be considered as the genuine, ardent, and unreserved expression of the passions that were then filling the It was after this check in his public ca- Royalist party with almost delirious exulreer, that M. de Chateaubriand started on tation. It, as Louis XVIII. expressed it, his pilgrimage to the Holy Sepulchre, and did the work of an army; 100,000 copies that he described in glowing colors befitting were sold with prodigious rapidity; and the part he had assumed, his itinerary from whilst the allied forces occupied the capital Paris to Jerusalem, including his return of France and brought back the descendant through Egypt, Barbary, and Spain, where of St. Louis, it was some compensation he paused to mourn in the halls of Grenada over the last of the Abencerrages. This, with "René," which like "Atala " might be considered a fragment of "Les Natchez," VOL. XV. No. II. 18 that the greatest master of the French language, intensely national in his predilections and defects, should have pleaded the cause of the Bourbons in the popular ear Notwithstanding that M. de Chateau- incompetent, rash, and pretentious policy briand's political pamphlets form his chief had almost caused a rupture with this countitle to literary eminence, that they are try, which had nurtured him in penury, had master-pieces of stirring eloquence and of inspired the government of the restoration dialectic logic, and that in them he shines with the fatal scheme of regaining the fronwith undimmed lustre, yet is his political tier of the Rhine by the sacrifice of the career most obnoxious to the severity of East, and had involved the Dynasty, which criticism. In his devotion to the cause of he purposed to uphold, in a disastrous war royalty, he always maintained that the best with Spain; when M. de Villèle declared means of governing France were to be found it was even worse to have Chateaubriand in in an unalterable fidelity to the charter of the cabinet than in opposition, and he was Louis XVIII. He saw in it the anchor of cashiered with singular asperity at two safety for his country, which he had beheld hours' notice; then the ex-minister took tossed by so many violent gales; and he refuge in the columns of the Journal des became, therefore, one of its firmest and Débats, whence he directed a tremendous most faithful supporters. Yet styling him- fire against the increasing bigotry and inself at once "a royalist by reason, a legiti- tolerance of the party to which the accesmist by duty, and a republican by taste," sion of Charles X. gave a decided and fatal his political career has generally been con- ascendency. M. de Chateaubriand was sidered as governed by a singular conflict always, under whatever colors he fought, a of these opposite motives. It is, however, firm and constant vindicator of the liberty well to remember that while the earlier part of the press, of the unfettered expression of of his political life was characterized by opinion, the privilege of a truly free people, the defence of that spirit of olden royalty from whence emanate all social regenerawhich prevailed in the charter, because he tions. In his last work, the "Congrès de saw it threatened by the modern revolu- Verone," published a few years ago, he tionary ideas; in the after part, by the de- vindicates his conduct in sending a French fence of its liberal elements, he felt the ne- army to relieve Ferdinand from the consticessity of opposing the old aristocratic ideas tutional demands of his subjects, and to which, in spite of all his efforts, still con- crush a nascent liberty, with so much suctinued stagnant and exclusive. Hence it cess, that he is said to have succeeded in was that but a short time back, M. de Cha-washing away that blemish on his character teaubriand was looked upon almost as a according to the ideas of modern France; revolutionist by the legitimists, while the but according to an authority nearer home, government considered him, together with" the history of the congress of Verona, as the great orator, Berryer, as one of the recorded by himself, suffices to stamp his offimost formidable champions of legitimacy. cial career with the deepest condemnation. There is every reason to believe that this M. de Chateaubriand may be said to apparent political inconsistency has often have retired from public life with his exresulted from his being in advance of the pulsion from ministerial power. He still parties he joined at different periods; from raised his warning voice against the errors his bold independence in withstanding their of the government, which were leading to demands when opposed to his own con- the catastrophy of 1830; and in the height scientious principles, and from his careless- of that revolution, he was borne one hour ness in mortifying their pride and selfish-in triumph by the men of the barricades, ness whenever he thought that just provocation had been given. and in the next he delivered his last speech in the Chamber of Peers in favor of the When at a later period of the restoration, rights of the Duke de Bordeaux. At that it was considered by the government ad- moment his expression to the Duchess de visable, as a mode of inspiring confidence, Berri, “Madame, votre fils est mon Roi," to call to the highest dignities of the and his pamphlet against the banishment of realm the men of the revolution and of the this elder branch of the royal family, markempire, M. de Chateaubriand wrote his ed him out as the leader, or at least the "Monarchie selon la Charte," the aim of champion of the Legitimist party; but his which was to controvert the opinion gene- time was gone by, and his relations with rally entertained at the time, that there was the elder Bourbons, it has been truly rea want of capacity among the royalists, and marked, soon dwindled down into a harma monopoly of talent among their adversa-less and not unpleasing mixture of loyalty, ries. As a reverse to this, when his own politeness, and devotion. In the character of M. de Chateaubriand | feeling of pride on the part of the author, the enthusiasm, if not the true genius of the for these two volumes of essays are replete poet, was blended with the aspirations, if with rancor against cotemporary literature not the fixed energy of a statesman. As a politician he did not possess that steadiness and certainty of foresight which belongs to practical and experienced minds. The positive easily escaped an imagination so quickly excited, feelings so easily carried away, and a temper truly Bretonne in its stormy pride. Generally in opposition to the reigning power, he was a friend either to the past state of things or else engaged in some visionary plan for the future. The present was always neglected. The same thing applies itself to his works, which have been compared by a contemporary to a dazzling arsenal, where you find weapons for and against every system-in favor of and against liberty-for and against monarchy, constitutional freedom, and Bonapartism. For example, since 1830, M. de Chateaubriand, in his pamphlets, especially in the celebrated one entitled, "Du Bannissement de la Famille de Charles X.," and in another on the imprisonment of the Duchess of Berry, approached the verge of republicanism, and joined in friendly communion with Armand Carrel and Beranger; nay, he penned on Napoleon, whom he s reviled at the Restoration, divers eulogistic pages, in which he exalts that conqueror to a level with the Hannibals and the Charle magnes. and against some of its most distinguished promoters. The pen of M. de Chateaubriand has traced in this work some very beautiful observations on Milton, but on points known to all; thereafter it becomes singularly excursive, and sundry chapters are altogether devoid of connexion and bearing. The merits of Chaucer are discussed and dismissed in a few lines; those of Spenser are treated with the like lack of ceremony. Several passages on Shakspeare are certainly very fine, although the chapter on the great bard is singularly incomplete. All cotemporary poets are neglected or omitted, with the exception of Byron and Beattie; the former is spoken of with coolness almost amounting to indifference. At the same time M. de Chateaubria id considers it fitting to find space in these essays, as before noticed, for a long paradoxical dissertation on Luther, and for equally strange digressions on M. de Lamennais, Captain Sir John Ross, &c., &c. M. de Chateaubriand also belongs to the political school of historians by his "Etudes Historiques," in which he never omits an opportunity of instituting comparisons between early events in the history of France, and cotemporary occurrences. A rumor has been prevalent during many years that M. de Chateaubriand was preparing a history of France, and the announcemeut had caused high expectations to be entertained: great, therefore, was the surprise, when, in 1832, the "Etudes Historiques" were published. They consist merely of fragments; and he gives as reasons for not putting his former plan into execution, his advanced age, and the discouragement and lassitude provoked by again beholding a darling throne laid prostrate at his feet. There is, however, one feeling that pervades all his works, and it is one of bitterness of lassitude of soul, and disappointed hope. At all periods of his life his favorite themes have been the ingratitude he has experienced, the chilly touch of death, the silent tomb, the very worms that are to banquet on his body. Even in the sole work by which M. de Chateaubriand establishes his claim to belong to the class of By a curious coincidence, M. de Chateaumodern critics, his "Essay on English Li- briand, after having lived through one entire terature," he devotes a chapter in the con- cycle of the great revolution of his country, clusion to the state of his own feelings expired almost at the moment when some tinged with that deep and gloomy discon- of the most terrible scenes of his early youth tent, and full of those expressions of bitter were renewed in the streets of Paris. Some discouragement which are to be met with in time back he visited, in a fit of despondence, all his works. This affectation of melan- the grave that awaited him, and which had choly is the more inexplicable on the part of been prepared for him by his countrymen one who has been so much and so long the on the sea-shore at St. Malo. His body favorite of fortune and of his country. In after a public funeral service at the church this so-called "Essay on English Litera- of the Foreign Missions, has now been reture," M. de Chateaubriand has in no de- moved to the city that gave him birth, and gree followed the progress of modern to the tomb which was the object of his precriticism. This is probably owing to alvious pilgrimage. MM. Victor Hugo and Ampere were to represent the French Aca- this country-will now grieve to think that From Bentley's Miscellany. TEMPER. BY MRS. WARD. "FOUND, dead and unowned, in the upper | my Florence. How the radiant eyes The Christian name of Florence! What old associations, deeply rooted in the heart, did that beautiful name revive! What memories of boyish days, passed in a lovely country, whose sweet scenes had witnessed the happiness of two young lovers! Remembrances of cathedral chimes, of noisy rooks, of the heavy waving venerable trees, of voices on the quiet gliding river, of hallowed anthems swelling in the distance swept by me, as I sat at table after dinner, alone in a cottage-room, with windows opening on a trelliced verandah, rich in roses, and beyond it a velvet lawn. A lady moved across the lawn, gathering flowers, ere the night dew fell: tall, and with a lofty air, her rich garments rustling among the plants, she moved majestically onwards, busied in her graceful occupation. The lady was my wife. Rising from the table, I hurried with a stealthy footstep into a little room within my dressing-room; I closed the door, locked it, and trembling from head to foot, put my nand on a picture, the frame of which, carefully covered, leaned against the wall. I tore the covering off with a desperate and decided air, pulled up the blind shading the jasmine-wreathed window, and gazed upon the portrait of her who had once been smiled into mine as I gazed upon them! how the Suddenly the cheerful laughter of young She-the scornful stepmother-entered my little sanctum with a light. There stood the uncovered portrait of the unfortunate Florence. With what an air of haughty insolence did the lofty lady look upon it! with what bitterness she reproached me for retiring thus to gaze on one long since lost to me and to the world! I made no reply; indeed her anger was wasted alike on me and the unconscious image of the chief object of her wrath. The advertisement in the paper haunted me. Something whispered me that my poor Florence was the "unknown, unowned" corpse lying in the miserable attic of a poor lodging-house. Filled with this idea, I rushed from the |