clearness of the arrangement and the vivid and pleasing style; his weakness is due to his fondness for constructing an hypothesis-very beautiful, it is true -and making his facts fit this hypothesis. Sometimes they will not fit, whereupon he calmly ignores them. He is too fond of drawing conclusions and forgets that sometimes in criticism a theory may be stated only as a theory without attacking any consequence. His ideas seem to have modified, however, later on in life. During the fourteen years, 1876-90, he was engaged upon his greatest work, Origins of Contemporary France, which appeared in five volumes. It is a history of the social conditions of France during a hundred years; and has three divisions-The Ancient Régime, The Revolution, and The Modern Régime. The whole of this great work is evolved upon a philosophic theory which was Taine's own. It was that the environment of a race points its development and influences its social conditions; that national literature depends upon national life and racial instinct; and that the proper method for the social or literary historian is to make an exhaustive examination of the physical conditions as well as the mental qualities of the race with which he deals. An excellent theory if not pushed to extremes. Taine's fault was that he too often arranged his facts to fit his theory. But few names remain. Perhaps ERNEST RENAN is the most important, because, with a very striking critical gift, he combined a remarkable style. He was born 1823 and educated for the priesthood, but found that his tastes precluded the final step. His life was for the most part uneventful. In 1860 he went on government business to the Holy Land. He died in 1892. His importance is rather philosophical than literary, but a fine technique enters into all his writings. His most famous work is The Life of Jesus (1863), which treats of the work of Christ from a purely human point of view. Its effect was very great. Renan's other work was largely historical. He is considered by some the last important French writer of the century. Of recent years there has been a revival in the study of ancient French Literature and philology. M. PAULIN PARIS (1800-1881) won fame by his extensive knowledge of medieval literature and his editions of valuable reprints. His son Gaston (b. 1839) did much for Romance philology. One of his chief works was Study of the Position of the Latin Accent in French Literature (1862). In 1896 he was elected to the French Academy in place of Dumas fils. In briefly summarizing the literature of France during the nineteenth century, it may be said that the main feature, the pervading feature, is romanticism. This great movement began about the beginning of the century and reached its culmination in 1830. Thence it continues with Hugo, Balzac, Sainte-Beuve, De Musset until it reaches its extreme with such writers as Baudelaire and Zola. For naturalism is, after all, best regarded as romanticism developed to an ultimate degree. There have been other influences besides this paramount one which have gone to shape the century's literature. English literature was one of these. Its force was felt strongly towards 1855, and since, Taine and Montégut both fostered the influence and the English novel--especially the work of Scott, Dickens and Thackeray-made its mark in France. In 1858 Darwin's great book-The Origin of Species-was translated into French and produced a surprising effect. Finally, George Eliot found imitators. Thus, the English literary influence is felt along definite lines. German literature was slower in finding place as a force to be reckoned with. Eventually-after 1860-it influences French philosophy, "through the medium of Ernest Renan"; French philology and learning generally— as was natural enough, for German erudition has come to be an influence and a stimulation throughout the world; and French literature directly, by the translation of Goethe and Schiller about 1870. During the century the literary achievement of France has proceeded evenly in all departments— poetry, drama, the novel, history, criticism. The standard has been high, especially under the men of 1830. While it is impossible to give detailed discussion of the point, the probability is that the new men of the later century are not on a par with their predecessors. However, the whole matter of contemporary literary criticism is a dangerous one, so often does the judgment of posterity reverse the judgment of contemporaries. Enough to say that the French literature of the nineteenth century presents a great upheaval and a great achievement along lines that preserve what is best and most typical. Nor need the work of the past hundred years--comprising such things as Toilers of the Sea, and The Human Comedy, and Jocelyn-fear comparison with the ages gone before. CHAPTER XXIII. ITALY AND SPAIN. A SMALL ACHIEVEMENT.-ITALY: HER HERITAGE.-ALFIERI, THE FIRST MODERN.-THE REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH.-MONTI AND FOSCOLO.—PELLICO.-MANZONI AND ROMANCE.-—LEOPARDI.—GIUSTI AND MAZZINI.-CARDUCCI.-D'ANNUNZIO.SPAIN: THE LANGUAGES.-FRENCH INFLUENCE.-QUINTANA. -DE LA ROSA.-ESPRONCEDA.-CAMPOANOR.-VALERA AND THE NOVELISTS.-THE SORROW OF SPAIN. - THE literature of Italy and Spain during the century has been on a lower plane than that of the other nations which we have been considering. This is the more remarkable since in both cases there were writers of great value in the past. With Spain we associate the names of Lope de Vega, Cervantes and Calderon; with Italy comes the memory of Dante, and Petrarch, and Boccaccio. And both nations have had so marked an effect upon the mental development of Europe that it is strange to find their influence dying utterly away as a contemporary force. Spain, since her Golden Age of literature (which, by the way, corresponded very closely with our Elizabethan period), and Italy since Boccaccio, have done nothing to compare with the best in the other countries under discus |