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commentaries in the news, that what the army alone has there accomplished, army and fleet combined have failed to do at Wilmington, attacked by them from the seaward side.

That Sherman's triumph brings the war near to its close we do not attempt to predict. To us it seems that the end of the struggle is even more a political and financial than a military question. But we return to our original thesis in declaring that this great contest abounds with important professional lessons, to which a new one has been added by the autumn events in Georgia. If a general's perfect adaptation of given means to a required end-if careful forethought in design, with a just mixture of audacity and caution in execution-may fairly challenge our admiration; Sherman's campaign in 1864, and those of Grant and Lee in the preceding years, seem not unworthy to be classed with the highest achievements which the annals of modern warfare record.

No. CCXLVIII. will be published in April.

THE

EDINBURGH REVIEW,

APRIL, 1865.

No. CCXLVIII.

ART. I.-1. Histoire de la Littérature Anglaise. Par H. TAINE. 3 vols. 8vo. Paris: 1863.

2. Tome Quatrième et Complémentaire: Les Contemporains. Paris: 1864.

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No master the entire literature of a country in ancient and modern times; to sit in judgment upon its philosophers, poets, historians, and men of letters; to estimate aright the mind and character of its people; and to combine with scholarly criticism the broadest theories on the religion and destinies of the human race, is a work which none but the most gifted or presumptuous of men would venture to undertake. Even if that country were his own,-if he had been familiar with its language and traditions from childhood,—if he had studied its literature from his youth upwards, he might shrink from an enterprise of such pretension. What, then, must be the courage of an author who aspires to write the literary history of a foreign country? To overcome the perplexities of a strange language, its idioms, its conventionalities, its changes, is among the least of his difficulties. To do justice to his great theme he should be imbued not only with the spirit of the language, but with the genius of the race who speak it. He must be acquainted with their history, and the conditions under which their literature was created. Above all he should be able to rise above the prejudices of his own nation, and to identify himself with the sentiments of a people of another

race.

We need not wonder, then, that so few comprehensive histories of any national literature have been written. Of all the countries of Europe, Italy has received the fullest measure of historical criticism. From the works of Tiraboschi, Muratori,

VOL. CXXI. NO. CCXLVIII.

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Ginguené, and Sismondi, a complete history of Italian literature may be collected; while the classical associations of that country, the genius of its writers, and the charms of its language, have attracted hosts of critics and biographers. France, with all her cultivation and literary resources, has not yet found an author to do justice to the history of her own national literature. The huge work of the Benedictines is an unfinished fragment, and works like those of Laharpe and Nisard hardly attain to the dignity of literary history. M. Sainte-Beuve, who is regarded by M. Taine as the founder of the school of historical criticism to which he himself aspires to belong, has given to the world in his varied Essays the nearest approach to a history of French literature. Germany, whose searching intellect has surveyed all history, sacred and profane, and whose genius has penetrated every department of learning, was, until lately, without any historian of her own literary achievements. The learned and thoughtful history of Vilmar, however, now presents an historical and critical review of a literature, still in its youth if compared with the older literatures of Europe. Spain owes to Bouterwek, a German, to Sismondi, a Swiss, and to Ticknor, an American, sketches of her literary history, which none of her own writers had supplied.

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England abounds in literary biographies and critical essays; and the labours of indefatigable editors have illustrated the works of all the great masters of English literature. Nor have literary histories been wanting, more or less imperfect. Warton's tedious history of English poetry provokingly concludes with the accession of Elizabeth, and before the commencement of the golden age of English poets. But in truth we possess no broad and comprehensive work to embrace so vast and varied a theme. Hallam, in his Introduction to the Literature of Europe,' examined the literary history of his own country during the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries; but a work of so wide a scope, however able, could not embrace a complete view of the copious literature of England. In 1844, Professor Craik presented a more comprehensive survey, in his Sketches of the History of Literature and Learning in England,' which attracted less attention than they deserved, from the unpretending form in which they were published. A revised edition of this work appeared in 1861, under the title of A Compendious History of English Literature, from the

Geschichte der deutschen National Literatur, von A. F. C.

Vilmar.

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Norman Conquest,' which, without pretending to any deep philosophy or original criticism, maps out the whole field of English literature with creditable scholarship and patient learning. Professor Craik was followed, in the present year, by Mr. Morley's first instalment of a work of higher pretensions, which proposes to tell, in a philosophical spirit, the 'story of the English mind." Meanwhile, however, he has been anticipated by a French scholar and critic of remarkable talents, who has just published a history of English literature, from the earliest ages to the present time. To this work we now propose to call the attention of our readers.

A French book is rarely altogether dull; we may be sure that its plan will be symmetrical, its style light and spirited, its language epigrammatic. Its theories, even if shallow or unsound, will assuredly be suggested in the happiest form; and should it relate to England, we naturally expect to meet with pleasant sarcasms upon our climate, our dress, our manners, our cookery, our society, and our morals. But the work of M. Taine comes to us introduced by a name already famous in France, and not unknown in England. M. Taine was born in 1828, and his talents were displayed from an early age. At college he was becoming familiar with ancient and modern literature, while other youths were still plodding over their dictionaries and grammars. Nor was he long content with the mere learning of a student: he soon ventured upon original thought and speculation. In an Essay on the Fables of La Fontaine, written for his degree as Doctor of Letters, and published in 1853, he first propounded certain critical theories which he has continued to advocate in his later works. In 1855, the French Academy awarded him a prize for the best essay on Livy, which displayed not only good writing and scholarship, but views of criticism so bold and original as to startle the grave academicians who sat in judgment upon it. Showing little deference to received opinions, he took an independent line of his own, which he was able to hold with spirit and a happy confidence in himself. Such a man was evidently destined to achieve fame in literature. He was not to be tempted by a small professorship, which would have doomed him to teach inferior intellects, again and again, what he had already learned himself, but chose boldly the career of a man of letters, which commands more flattering distinctions in France

English Writers. The Writers before Chaucer; with an Introductory Sketch of the Four Periods of English Literature. By Henry Morley. 1864.

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than in any other country of Europe. His pen has never since been idle; and having further displayed his talents as a critic, in essays upon the French philosophers of the nineteenth century, and upon criticism and history, his efforts have culminated in the more ambitious work which lies before us.*

Its intrinsic literary merits come to us recommended by a Committee of the French Academy, who unanimously adjudged a prize to its author. The Academy, however, refused to confirm the award of its Committee, on the ground that M. Taine's system was in violation of the received principles of philosophical orthodoxy.† We may regret that the author should have forfeited this literary honour; and we wish the Academy could have left him the prize, while they protested against his opinions. But the censures with which that learned body has been assailed in France on this occasion are unjust; because in judging of the claims of a philosophical work, it is difficult to separate its literature from its philosophy. Surely the Academy had a right to say that philosophical error, however cleverly maintained, was not entitled to distinction at its hands. +

M. Taine's philosophy will be still less acceptable in England; for while it shocks many received opinions in regard to religion, morals, and history, it is applied to our character and literature, in a manner offensive to the national pride and cultivated taste of Englishmen. To many of M. Taine's principles and opinions we entertain strong objections; but though we shall have occasion to contest his conclusions, we are not insensible to the comprehensive scheme of his work, the originality of his style, the felicity of his illustrations, the discrimination of many of his criticisms, and his rare familiarity with the English language. Unfortunately, notwithstanding these merits, M. Taine is entirely deficient in those qualities which are necessary to raise his work to the standard he himself proposes. He has read with marvellous

The following is a list of M. Taine's published works:-'La 'Fontaine et ses Fables, 4th ed.;' Essai sur Tite Live, 2nd ed.;' Voyage aux Pyrénées, 4th ed.;'Les Philosophes Français au XIX. Siècle, 2nd ed.;' 'Essais de Critique et d'Histoire ;' 'L'Idéalisme Anglais: étude sur Carlyle, 1864;' 'Le Positivisme Anglais : étude sur Stuart Mill, 1864.'

Le Constitutionnel, 13th June, 1861: Notice par M. SainteBeuve.

We learn, with pleasure, that M. Taine has just been appointed by the Emperor to the chair of Art and Esthetics, in the Ecole des Beaux-arts.

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