The Press.
London, England, 1854-04-29 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

lar discontent muttered at intervals. The

eighteenth century, regarded from a Pa-
risian point of view, with its prolonged
levity and its impending catastrophe, seems to
us like looking at a scene of revellers by Wat-
teau, under a thunder-cloud painted in by
Turner. We have in truth been made

over-familiar with the period ; and even as
an essayist M. Bungener has to contend
against the numbers who unconsciously de-
scribed it at the time, along with his own con-
temporaries, who have sketched, preached,
and lectured about it from every point of
view. It is, therefore, not wonderful that on
so exhausted ground his toil should not be

well repaid.
Julian is a Roman Catholic priest, with a
pietistic spirit, an amiable character, and a
wavering faith. He is used merely as a sort
of lay figure, for the purpose of grouping
about him all the characters of the time of
Louis XV., stuck up in one posture in their
familiar historical costume, and inevitably
suggesting to us Madame Tussaud's ex-
hibition. Our author appears amidst these
stiff mechanical figures, and stalks round
them, moralising about each, and making us
feel that ethics are out of place amongst
such waxworks. Rousseau, Voltaire, Diderot,
Marie Antoinette, Madame du Deffand, and
MMes. Philippon and Necker in their teens
(the Roland and De Stael of history), de Mau-
repas , La Harpe, the Due de Chartres, Mirabeau,
Robespierre, and, last not least, Doctor Guil-
lotin (whose bones we thought were Mr.
Croker's peculium), with many more, figure as
" characters " in "Julian." Then in " The
Priest and the Huguenot" there is a similar
parading of historical names, interspersed
with passages that read like extracts from ser-
mons. A reference to the table of contents
will at a glance show the motley nature of the
literary fare offered to us :
L'Esprit of Helvetius
A strange Auto•da fe l9O
The Character and Works of Helvetius
French Journals in the Eighteenth Century
Voltaire's Implacability
Peculiarities of Rousseau l9O
The Encyclopaedists observe the Auto-da-fe from a

distance -
Recantations of the Infidels
Want of Candour of Authors of the present Day
Helvetius becomes thoughtful—Sad Discovery caus-
ing serious Reflections
Noble Career of Antoine Court
Literary Labours of Court de Gebelin
And again :
State of the Foreign Relations of France, Broglie
and Soubise
Richelieu's Studies
Richelieu and his Task
A Bankrupt Nation
Diplomacy
Fruitless Consultations—The Navy
Plans of the Protestants _ _ _

We are more sorry for this, as M. Bungener
has a mind of remarkable breadth, and wields a
pen of masculine eloquence on themes suited
to his discursive and reflective genius. We
rank him very high amongst the composers
of philosophical eloquence. There is a struggle
in his intellect between the German and
Gallivan modes of looking at life, its duties,
and its mysteries. Born in 1814 at Marseilles,
Laurence Louis Felix Bungener inherited
from his father (a native of Heddesdorf, near
Neuweid, in Rhenish Prussia) the contem-
plativeness of German character. His mother
was a Swiss Vaudoise, and it appears that in
his early years he displayed many signs of a
deeply meditative mind. He was remarkable,
even in boyhood, for his long solitary walks
amid the wild rock scenery of Marseilles, and
at eleven years of age he wrote a sermon
which arrested special notice from an accom-
plished clergyman. He studied both at Mar
seilles and Geneva, and was ordained a minis-
ter at the latter city in 1839, as it seems that
he was not entitled to the rights of a French
citizen. In the professor's chair, and in the
pulpit, he lost no time in grappling with
Romanism, against which he has preached
and written with a union of strenuous logic
and serene power rarely found in polemical
literature. Without the vehemence of Merle
D'Aubigne, or the rhapsodical bursts of
Michelet, M. Bungener has assailed the
Church of Rome with sturdy spirit and a skilful
use of theological argumentation, that can
unmask sophistry even to vulgar percep-