The Press.
London, England, 1853-08-13 00:00:00

proached by any of her own sex. and, had her
judgment equalled her imagination, she would
have been rarely surpassed by the other ; in
her own age she had few rivals of either sex.
Though born during the prevalence of
democratic opinions, and warmly attached to
a father who, by education aunt inclination.
professed them, but living in Paris. surrounded
by a brilliant aristocracy, and captivated by
the distinction of historic names and the
splendour of noble birth, she had all her life
an inclination to over-estimate the advantages
she did not herself possess.
Warmly attached in her youth to two of the
most subtle and unsteady of the wits and poli-
ticians of her day—the Conde Louis de Nar-
bonne, anti the I'rineo de Talleyrand—her
political principles were unsettled and incon-
sistent. She loved a monarchy. and she knew
that without the support of an aristocracy it
must either degenerate into a despotism or a
republic ; but she disliked the Royal Family of
France, by whom she had been slightingly
treated, and she admired the democratic insti-
tutions which had called forth the powers of
those orators whose eloquence had fixed her
youthful fancy.
Her first publication was the " Letters on
Rousseau." It was soon followed by an essay
on " The Influence of the Passions." Both
these works possess passages of great eloquence
and power, but they exhibit no profound
knowledge of human nature—both were
written under the corrupting influence of
revolutionary opinions in morals and religion.
and both inculcate the baleful doctrine that
the dictates of the passions should be our
only guide. Her own feelings were vehement.
anti site had never learnt the duty of self-con-
trol : neither the philosophy of her father, nor
the formal Calvinism of her mother, was calcu-
lated to instil religious principles on her
ardent and susceptible nature; and during the
whole of her life she acknowledged no moral
restraint, except such as her kindly nature
and her generous heart imposed upon her.
Her polities' essays are numerous, and none
of them without eloquence and power. Her
" Considerations star la Revolution Francaise,"
though unfinished, is decidedly the best of
these. It was a posthumous work, and the oc•
cupation of her last years : it contains the
cream of her experience, the result of a life of
keen observation passed amongst the most
sagacious and least scrupulous of her con-
temporaries. We are unable to draw from it. how-
ever, any practical or comprehensible scheme
of government. Mankind will not be ruled
by eloquent maxims and a series of logical and
witty pamphlets. It is an error to suppose
that man will discover his true interest anti
pursue it ; and Mine. tie Stael, above all per-
sons, should have made large allowances for
the influence of vanity and passion. She ad-
mires the British constitution ( which Miss
Norris, by the way, intOrms us was at that time
very little worth her notice), but in her at
tempts to reproduce it for France she loses
sight of all that tends to conciliate its con-
flicting elements, to secure the assistance of
all classes of citizens in its support, anti to
endow it with strength and vitality.
Her best work is, perhaps, her " 4 iermany."
In it she exhibits a more various and exten-
sive knowledge than in any of her other per-
formances, a sounder criticism, a happier
style, a more playful fancy. and a deeper ap-
preciation of the great oldects of our creation.
She was very imperfectly acquainted, we be-
lieve. with the German language, and hut
slightly with its literature, through the medium
of translations ; of its institutions and cus-
toms she could have had but a superficial
knowledge : and in all these particulars the
assistance of M. Schlegel might have been
of service; but we think Miss Norris is at
unnecessary pains to assure us that his help
did not extend beyond. Persons who are familiar
with his own works will not suspect him of
having inspired those of Mine. de Stael.
Her Corinne, the work by which she is now
best known, is far less powerful than many of
her other performances. The characters of
the English hero and the two rivals tin• his
love are unnatural : but they are worse—they
are inconsistent and uninteresting ; the mo
lives attributed to them are too absurd to have
lever seriously influenced human beings, and