II. Melancholy-English melancholy proverbial in France-Popularity of Gray-Young and the Night Thoughts: the man and his work; his III. Mournful feelings inspired by the past-Macpherson and Ossian- Origins of Celtic poetry-The fame of Ossian European-How he fared IV. In what way the success of these works was assured by Rousseau I. How it was that in the eighteenth century cosmopolitanism was nothing more than an ill-defined aspiration-Reaction of the classical spirit, due to Voltaire and his school; inadequacy and inferiority of classical criticism-Revival of ancient literature at the approach of II. The Revolution restores the respect for antiquity—Intellectual rupture with the Teutonic nations-Decrease of the literary influence of Rousseau-But the springs which the Revolution had exhausted were rendered afresh accessible to the French mind by the emigration III. Publication of De la Littérature (1800)-It was the expression at once of the cosmopolitan spirit and of the influence of Rousseau-Its origin mainly traceable to English influence-It was the last production of eighteenth century criticism-The author's judgment upon the classical spirit—What she has to set up in its place--Cosmopolitanism becomes a literary theory-Triumph of the influence of Rousseau, and of the Book 1 THE INFLUENCE OF ENGLAND UPON FRANCE Chapter I THE REVOCATION OF THE EDICT OF NANTES AND THE FIRST MIGRATION OF THE FRENCH SPIRIT I. Ignorance of the seventeenth century with regard to England-Prejudices and prepossessions-Ignorance of the language-Instances of English books which were known in France during the seventeenth century-Why these instances prove nothing-Paramount influence of humanism. II. The French colony in London-Propaganda of the refugees on behalf of English philosophy and English political institutions. III. Their works of travel-Their newspapers-In what sense can it be said that the Dutch reviews aided the birth of the cosmopolitan spirit in literature?— Bayle, Le Clerc, and Basnage-Multiplication of international reviews-Their hostility to antiquity-They pave the way for English literature-La Roche, La Chapelle, Maty-French imitators of the refugees: Dubos, Destouches, Desfontaines-Inferiority and unimportance of their work in comparison with that of Protestant criticism. THE revocation of the Edict of Nantes was something more than a religious or political event of great importance in the history of France. It was productive also of far-reaching effects upon her intellectual destinies. For with the revocation began that movement of thought which opened the French mind to a comprehension of northern literature. When Louis XIV. condemned four hundred thousand of his subjects, men of an active and enquiring turn of mind, to live beyond the confines of France, and principally in lands where Teutonic tongues were spoken, he did not suspect that his action would tend towards a thorough transformation of the national genius. It was, nevertheless, in consequence of the revocation A that French thought was brought in contact, first of all with England, and afterwards with Germany. As interpreters between the Germanic and Latin sections of Europe, the refugees were most industrious, and from the heart of the Low Countries, of Great Britain, of Brandenburg, and of Switzerland, Protestant criticism strove, for two centuries, to bring Frenchmen into communication with the mind of Europe. Begun by the refugees, and carried on by Prévost and Voltaire, this propaganda on behalf, more particularly, of English literature, had important consequences. Its effects began to make themselves felt about the middle of the eighteenth century, that is to say, at the moment when Jean-Jacques Rousseau was revolutionizing French literature. As a critic of that age expressed it, "it had long been impossible to doubt that the intermixture of races improves every species, both animal and vegetable," and "the experiment which for thirty years had been made upon a neighbouring country, namely, England," had afforded a clear proof that "the crossing of minds, which have also their races," may result in fertility.1 It appears to me that Rousseau derived more benefit from this "crossing" between the French and English minds than has commonly been supposed. In briefly recalling the nature of the propaganda carried on by the refugees, and of that of their French imitators, we shall therefore be studying the very origins of the revolution which he effected. I In order to estimate its importance we must transport ourselves in spirit to the seventeenth century, and recall to mind the contempt professed by the more outspoken writers of that epoch for the literatures of the Northern countries, and especially for the people which Mme. de Staël described as "the most remarkable of the Germanic nations." It was through England that France was brought into contact with non-Latin Europe. Now, of all European countries, 1 Garat, Mémoires sur Suard, vol. i., p. 153. the England was the one with which Frenchmen of the grand siècle were least acquainted. They regarded it with suspicion on account of its religion, and with detestation on account of its political history. Attached as they were to Catholic and monarchical tradition, the "English tragedies," to use expression of Descartes, had filled them with alarm. Mme. de Motteville speaks of Cromwell and his crew as "rebel savages." Guilty nation," cried Bossuet, " more turbulent within its own borders and in its own havens than the ocean which washes its shores!" How could men who, according to Saumaise, were more savage than their own dogs," and were still regarded by Frenchmen with the inveterate rancour engendered by the wars of the middle ages,1 be thought capable of poetry or art? But little acquainted with the English, the French despised them without scruple. Their contempt was returned with interest. Sir William Temple forbade his daughter to marry a Frenchman, "because he had always had a deep hatred of that nation on account of its proud and impetuous character, so little in harmony with the slavish dependence in which it is kept at home." 2 And if the English accuse the French of servility, they are in turn accused by the French of a savage disposition and senseless pride. "Pride and stupidity are their only manners; their least absurd caprices are full of extravagance," said Saint-Amant of the English, and he spoke de visu, having seen "the malignant Roundheads, to whom the very throne is an object of suspicion,"3 at work in their own country. Two migrations of English royalists, in 1649 and 1688, did not suffice to close this gulf between the two peoples. One would have thought it might have been bridged by the curiosity of travellers. But we have every reason to know that Frenchmen of the grand siècle were but little given to travel. Rare indeed were the writers who, like Malherbe or Descartes, had crossed the northern or eastern frontier. Italy was visited, and Spain; 1 See M. Langlois's study on Les Anglais au moyen âge (Revue historique, 1894). 2 A. Babeau, Les voyageurs en France, p. 99. 3 L'Albion (Œuvres, ed. Livet, vol. ii., p. 439). |