heart, dare to touch the books of Richardson, . . . they are sacred! "1 Chateaubriand earnestly invokes a revival of his reputation. Charles Nodier admires his nobility and freedom from affectation.3 Sainte Beuve, in his earliest lines, recalls with emotion "the pure passion" of Clarissa and Clementina.* Lamartine, as well as Michelet, makes Richardson one of the studies of his early life.5 George Sand is enthusiastic in her admiration of the writer whom Villemain describes as "the greatest and perhaps the least conscious of Shakespeare's imitators," and of whom Alfred de Musset says that he has written "the greatest novel in the world." 1 Du sentiment, 1801, p. 221. 3 Des types en littérature. 2 Essai sur la littérature anglaise, pt. v. 5 F. Reyssié, La jeunesse de Lamartine, p. 89; Michelet, Mon journal, p. 81. 6 XVIIIe siècle, lesson 27. Book 111 ROUSSEAU AND THE INFLUENCE OF ENGLAND DURING THE LATTER HALF OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY Chapter I ROUSSEAU AND THE DIFFUSION OF THE LITERATURES OF I. Development of English influence in the latter half of the century-Intercourse with England-Influence of English manners. II. Growth of the cosmopolitan idea-Diffusion of the English language and literature: newspapers and translations. III. Wherein Rousseau assisted the movement-The revolution accomplished by him in criticism-Manner in which he effected the union of Germanic with Latin Europe. THE influence of England had paved the way for the literary revolution accomplished by Rousseau, and, conversely, during the latter half of the century, the influence of Rousseau furthered the spread of English and of the Northern literatures generally among the French. The cosmopolitan spirit in France was born of the union of the Latin with the Germanic genius in the person of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. By the year 1760, the date of the appearance of La Nouvelle Héloïse, "an experiment extending over a period of thirty years"—to use the expression, already quoted, of an eighteenth century writer" had been made upon one of the neighbours of France, namely England: it had long been impossible to doubt that the crossing of races is beneficial to every species of plants and animals; and it was a necessary conclusion that in the human species, which the faculties of thought, speech, and conscience render so especially capable of being brought to perfection, the 1 Garat, Mémoires sur Suard, vol. i., p. 153. crossing of minds, since they, too, have their races, would produce a species little short of divine." In the preceding pages we have endeavoured to show what we are to understand by this crossing of races and of minds. We have attempted to prove that Jean-Jacques Rousseau inoculated the French mind, as Mme. de Staël says, with "a little foreign vigour." We have striven to draw the reader's attention to a fact which has been too little noticed, "the union of the French with the English mind, which, if its immense consequences are borne in mind, is the most important fact in the history of the eighteenth century."1 It has been our object to exhibit the effect of the example set by a great French writer-the most popular of his epoch-in frankly imitating an English model: even were Rousseau's debt less important than it really is, it would be none the less true. that his contemporaries thought they perceived it, and that they hailed with delight-without, at the same time, very clearly discerning its consequences-the influence exercised by England upon his genius. The ancient prestige of the Latin spirit in France had received a blow from which it never recovered. It remains to show how the revolution in French taste accomplished by Rousseau has in its turn facilitated the comprehension of the noble literature of a neighbouring country; how, from 1760 onwards, he came to be pre-eminently the spokesman of those who, wearied by the long domination of the classical spirit, dreamed more or less vaguely of a renovation of art through the agency of the English genius; and how, thanks to him, France was invaded by foreign works which up to that time had been misunderstood and regarded with suspicion, or admired, if at all, only by a few elect spirits. I In the latter half of the eighteenth century, from the close of the Seven Years' War down to the Revolution, the social and intellectual influence of England was on the increase in France. The movement inaugurated by Voltaire, Prévost, and Montesquieu 1 Buckle, History of Civilization in England, vol. ii. Since attained during these decisive years its full strength. these are just the years when the genius of Jean-Jacques was revolutionizing French literature and unsettling what up to that time had been recognized in France as the principles of criticism, it is necessary briefly to call to mind the extent to which circumstances lent their assistance, unsuspected by Rousseau, to a work of which he himself doubtless failed to gauge the true import. Between 1760 and 1789, the intercourse between the two countries became closer and closer. The favour with which everything English was received in France attracted thither a large number of distinguished foreigners, including adventurers like Hales, poets like Gray,1 novelists like Smollett, economists like Arthur Young, actors like Garrick, critics like Johnson, and philosophers such as Hume or Dugald Stewart. In the same drawingroom-d'Holbach's, for example-such visitors as David Hume, Wilkes, Shelburne, Garrick, Priestley, and Franklin the American would come and go one after the other. Some of these guests created a sensation; among them "the English Roscius," as Diderot calls Garrick, who inspired Mme. Riccoboni with a "warm, indeed a very warm, friendship," 3 and dreamed of converting Voltaire to the worship of Shakespeare; Wilkes, described by JeanJacques as "that mischief-maker," who posed as a great victim, astonished all Paris by his fiery eloquence, and went about everywhere with his daughter, "like Oedipus with Antigone "5; Hume, whom people rushed to behold as they formerly crowded "to see a rhinoceros at a fair "-David Hume—" heavy and silent," described by Rousseau, who at first befriended him but afterwards became his enemy, as "the truest philosopher I know, 1 Gray's visit was paid some years earlier. See the journal of his tour in France and Italy in Gray and his friends, by Duncan C. Tovey (Cambridge, 1890). 2 See Peregrine Pickle, ch. xxxv.-1. $ See the dedication to the Lettres de Mme. de Sancerre. 4 Cf. Ballantyne, op. cit., p. 271. Garat, Mémoires sur Suard, vol. ii., p. 91 et seq. poétiques, Paris, 1769, p. 182: Ce républicain intrépide Qui brave les plus grands revers, R (Cf. Légier, Amusements and the only historian who ever wrote in an impartial manner"1; and many others as well. The name of Englishman, said Gibbon, who came to Paris in 1761, was clarum et venerabile nomen gentibus, and a key to the door of every salon. Conversely, the French learned to cross the Channel, and the "pilgrimage to England" became almost obligatory. Buckle observes with pride that during the two generations which separated the close of the reign of Louis XIV. from the commencement of the Revolution, there was scarcely a single Frenchman of note who did not cross the straits. With regard to the period anterior to 1750, the assertion would be hazardous. Messieurs de Conflans and de Lauzun, Mmes. de Boufflers and du Boccage were quoted as having been to England. A writer of the day remarks with interest that Mme. de Boufflers is the first lady of quality to attempt the journey.3 But during the latter half of the century a trip to England formed a part of the education of every intelligent man. The practice was adopted by the majority of such scholars and men of learning as Buffon, La Condamine, Delisle, Élie de Beaumont, Jussieu, Lalande, Nollet, and Valmont de Bomare; by the greater number of politicians and economists, from Montesquieu to Helvetius, from Gournay to Morellet, from Mirabeau Lafayette or Roland; and, to a constantly increasing extent, by ordinary men of letters-Grimm, Suard, Duclos, and many others. In the philosophical circle of which Rousseau was so long a member, what was preached was also practised. Helvetius's friend, the abbé Le Blanc, spent several years in England, and on his return brought back three great volumes of letters, heavy in style, but not lacking in discernment, which complete the work of Voltaire and Muralt. Raynal, the author of 1 Letter to Mme. de Boufflers, August 1762. See also Confessions, ii. 12. 2 Miscellaneous Works, p. 73. On English travellers in France during the eighteenth century, see Rathery: Les Relations sociales et intellectuelles . . ., 4th part, and A. Babeau, Les Voyageurs en France. 3 Dutens, Journal d'un voyageur, vol. i., p. 217. to 4 Le Blanc's Lettres were translated into English in 1747 (London, 2 vols. 8vo) and discussed by English critics. See Mémoires de Trévoux, May and June 1746; Nouv. litt., January 1751; Clément, Les cinq années littéraires, iii. 26; Tabaraud, Histoire du philosophisme anglaise, vol. ii., pp. 443-444. |