them France was made acquainted with all its most important productions. Through them too this knowledge was spread far and wide. When the abbé Dubos visited London in 1698 and in 1702, he associated with the refugees, and particularly with Moivre, and it was to them, doubtless, that he was indebted for that smattering of foreign literature which is discernible in his Réflexions sur la poésie et la peinture.

1

In his book Dubos quoted from a few English poets, among them Butler, the author of Hudibras. He also translated, in a magazine published at the Hague, some scenes from Addison's Cato.3 But his taste remained thoroughly French. "Though I often visit other countries," he wrote, "in order to become acquainted with their opinions, I do not surrender the opinions I hold as a Frenchman. Like Seneca I can say: Soleo saepe in aliena castra transire non tanquam transfuga sed tanquam explorator."

A few years later than Dubos, Destouches visited London, whither he accompanied cardinal Dubois. He resided there from 1717 to 1723, and contracted a highly romantic marriage with a young Scotchwoman.*

Probably the refugees welcomed him no less warmly than they welcomed Dubos, and, a few years later, Voltaire. Destouches, who seems to have been acquainted with Addison, borrowed from him, as is well known, the subject of his Tambour nocturne, an adaptation of The Drummer, and, under the title of Scènes anglaises, translated several scenes from The Tempest of Dryden and Davenant. But the Scènes anglaises did not appear until 1745, and the Tambour nocturne was not played before 1762. Thus the part played by Destouches in bringing English works to the knowledge of the French public was insignificant.

It was otherwise with the abbé Desfontaines, the most active if not the most illustrious rival of the refugees in France before Voltaire and Prévost. Desfontaines' ambition, or one of the least of his ambitions, was to be, as it were, the recognised 1 Le Blanc, Lettres, vol. i., p. 142.

2 Part i., section 18.

3 The first three; see Nouvelles littéraires (the Hague, October 1716), vol. viii., p. 285. Cf. in the same periodical (January 1717) two letters on Cato by Boyer. 4 Cf. Desnoiresterres, Voltaire et la société française, vol. i., p. 215 Villemain, Tableau de la littérature au xviiie siècle, 12th lesson.

authority for introducing English works to the public notice. The translator of a pamphlet by Swift, The Grand Mystery, or the Art of Meditating over an House of Office, Desfontaines also (1727) either rendered Gulliver into French, or pretended to have done so; for there are fair grounds for believing that this version is by a certain Abbé Markan.1 What is certain is that the irascible critic, for all his pretensions, had a very poor knowledge of English,2 and Voltaire did not deny himself the pleasure of convicting him of it. This did not, however, prevent him from corresponding with Swift, nor even from writing a sequel to Gulliver, which met with very little success. "Oh! as to the new Gulliver," wrote Lenglet-Dufresnoy, “it is from beginning to end invented and manufactured by M. l'abbé Desfontaines." Lastly, the abbé translated Fielding's Joseph Andrews, but the result is scarcely more creditable to his knowledge than is his Gulliver.

3

Thus, during the first thirty years of the century, the refugees remained the most industrious, the best informed and the most highly qualified of all those who devoted themselves to the task of popularizing English literature.

What they lacked was ability. They were compilers and abstractors, but not writers. Their part was to rough-hew the materials which have been worked up by more eminent men, and this is no contemptible function. They were the humble predecessors of a Voltaire and a Prévost. But it was necessary to say, since it has too often been forgotten, that the work of the latter was rendered possible only by the persevering labour of the former.

1 E. Nisard, Les ennemis de Voltaire, p. 49.

2 Cf. Clément, Les cinq années littéraires, vol. i., p. 61. Voltaire had commissioned Desfontaines to translate his Essay on The Epic from the English. Desfontaines made an error in every line (cf. the letters to d'Argens, 19th Nov. 1736, and to Thiériot, 14th June 1727). If we may believe Voltaire, he understood the language so little, that when required to give an account of Berkeley's Alciphron, which is an apology for Christianity, he took it for an atheistical production. (Letter to Cideville, 20th September 1735.)

3 Le Nouveau Gulliver ou Voyage de Jean Gulliver, fils du Capitaine Gulliver, translated from an English manuscript by M. l'abbé D. F. Amsterdam, 1730, 2 vols. 12mo. • Bibliothèque des Romans, p. 342.

Chapter II

WRITERS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE DIFFUSION OF ENGLISH

INFLUENCE: MURALT, PRÉVOST, VOLTAIRE

I. Prévost and Voltaire were themselves preceded by the Swiss, Béat de Muralt, the author of the Lettres sur les Anglais et les Français (1725)—Muralt's characterWherein he carried on the work of the refugees, wherein he went beyond them-His illusions-His opinions on English literature and the English intelligence-Great success of his book: Muralt and Desfontaines-His influence on Rousseau.

II. Admiration of the abbé Prévost for English ideas; he assists in diffusing themHis two journeys to England-His translations-His cosmopolitan novels: the Mémoires d'un homme de qualité and l'Histoire de Cléveland—His magazine, La Pour et Contre (1732-1740): the author's aim and method-England occupies a large share of its space.

III. Voltaire and the Lettres anglaises (1734)—Importance of the book in Voltaire's life-His intercourse with men of letters during his stay in London-Knowledge of the language-His efforts to awaken interest in English matters— Origin of the Lettres philosophiques: they consist of two books.

IV. Insufficiency of Voltaire's information ; his wilful inaccuracy—The pamphleteer injurious to the critic-Why his book is nevertheless of the highest importance in the history of the influence of England-Voltaire encourages imitation of English works.

BETWEEN 1725 and 1740 three men were responsible, in varying degrees, for the work of directing the attention of the French public, aroused by Protestant criticism during the early part of the century, towards England.

One of them, now entirely forgotten, the author of a lively and agreeable collection of letters which made some stir in its day, was Béat de Muralt, a Protestant of Berne, who carried on, if he did not anticipate, the work of the refugees, and is very closely connected with them. Another, much more celebrated, became, through his novels, his journal, and certain famous translations, one of the warmest champions of the new literature

then being introduced into France. This was the abbé Prévost. The third, and by far the greatest, has given an account of his work in the following words: "I was the first to make Frenchmen acquainted with Shakespeare; I translated passages from him forty years ago, as well as extracts from Milton, Waller, Rochester, Dryden, and Pope. I can assure you that before my time there was not a man in France who had a knowledge of English poetry, while Locke had scarcely been heard of." 1 And certainly the author of the Lettres anglaises is entitled to claim such credit as may be due to one who, by dint of his own genius and notoriety, imbued Frenchmen with a veneration for the philosophy, the political science and the literature of England. But he has no excuse for forgetting or concealing what he owes to those who preceded him. For if the Lettres anglaises or philosophiques were published in 1734, Muralt's Lettres sur les Anglais et les Français had appeared in 1725, while the most important of Prévost's novels, as well as the first volume, at any rate, of Le Pour et Contre are likewise anterior to them. Voltaire, in short, provided "a brilliant summary," as Sainte-Beuve expressed it, of what had been said of England by other writers before him. But, besides drawing freely upon the works of his predecessors, he neglects to mention that others had already aroused the attention of the public and had prepared the way.

I

"Now that we are reprinting everything," wrote SainteBeuve, "we certainly ought to reprint the letters of M. de Muralt they deserve it. He was the first to say many things which have since been repeated less plainly and less frankly." 2

1 Voltaire to Horace Walpole, 15th July 1768.

2 On Muralt see the excellent monograph by M. de Greierz: Beat Ludwig von Muralt (Frauenfeld, 1888, 8vo); an article by M. E. Ritter in the Zeitschrift für neufranzösische Sprache und Literatur (1880), and various documents published by same author, especially an account of Muralt's religious ideas, in the Étrennes chrétiennes for 1894. See also the histories of French literature in Switzerland by M. Godet and M. Virgile Rossel (the latter of which contains a complete bibliography). Lastly, I may venture to refer the reader to an article in the

Plain, frank, and withal somewhat eccentric: such, in truth, was 'this atrabilious Swiss,' as he was called in his own day."

A Bernese of Protestant family, by education half French, half German, and born on the border line between two civilizations, he was well qualified thoroughly to understand them both. Employed as a soldier in the French service, he became tired of the military profession, and, crossing over to England, noted down his impression of the country, during 1694 and 1695, for the benefit of a friend. Returning to Switzerland he embraced pietistic ideas of a very exalted type, and having provoked his expulsion first from Berne and then from Geneva, took shelter at Colombier, where, after his mysticism had involved him in an extraordinary adventure, he died. "You read Muralt," St Preux writes to Julie: "remark his end, lament the extravagant errors of that sensible man." 1

To these "extravagant errors" we owe certain religious works, now, deservedly it would seem, forgotten.2

Muralt's reputation, however, rests not on these works but on his Lettres sur les Anglais et les Français et sur les voyages,3 frequently reprinted during the eighteenth century, and even under the Revolution. There are six letters on England and as many on France; both groups are written from a somewhat Protestant standpoint, but with a shrewd pen, and one a hundred times more vivid than those of Basnage de Beauval and Van Effen. When he wrote these charming pages, Muralt was not yet under the influence of the ideas which so entirely altered the course of his life during its later years, and almost Revue d'histoire littéraire de la France (January 1894), in which I have spoken of Muralt more at length. Since the publication of the first edition of this book, two fresh editions of Muralt's Lettres have appeared (Berne and Paris, 1897), one with notes in French by M. E. Ritter, the other with notes in German by M. de Greierz.

1 Nouvelle Héloïse, vi. 7. Eloisa (published by Hunter, Dublin, 1761), letter 159. 2 L'instinct divin recommandé aux hommes, 1727; Lettres sur l'esprit fort, 1728; Lettres fanatiques, 1739. Muralt also left some fables, and collaborated with Marie

Huber.

3 (Geneva) 8vo. Possibly the book was on sale as early as 1724. (Cf. Bibliothèque française, vol. iv., part ii., pp. 70-82).