Weekly national intelligencer., 1854-11-11
NATIONAL INTELLIGENCER
NOTES ON NEW BOOKS.

From the French of vIcroR Cousin. By IF. w. Ricord.
New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1854
We are glad to see this last work of M. Cousins
Ia an English dress. Having perused it with un-
tagging interest as it appeared in leading periodi-
cal of Paris, we have read it afresh and with re-
newed pleasure in the version of Mr.. Ricord. We
do not wish to be or to seem hnlcal and fastdlous
In the matter of transations. We are aware OF the
difficulties which environ the task of transferring
an authors thought, in form and spirit, from one
tongue to another but it does seem to US that MIR.
Rcord might succeed in rendering the matchless
purity of NJ Cousins French into somewhat more
graceful, perspicuous, and idomatic English. We
venture to hint that he follows little too closely
the Gallo tsne of thought and expression, and there
by mpairs the easy and natural flow of his English die
tion But we are not ambitious to be considered an ar
Litter esgantiarum.
We can easily believe that this work has been to NJ
Cousin labor of love- We remember his partialty for
the men Of the seventeenth centuryhe century Of the
great Conde" in war; Of Cornee in literature and Of
Rene Dsscartes in philosophy the century in which the
brilliant and bloody field of Rocroy to the
and the Dscours de Ia Methode" In another of his
works NJ. Cousin has not hesitated to affirm that the
seventeenth century in France the greatest Steele of
human history the age which embraces the greatest
number Of extraordinary of every kind when states
men and rulers like Henry w, Richeeu Mazarin, Col
bort and Louis XIV seen giving the hand to each
other in an unbroken succession Of sagacous policy ut
home and yalor abroad when writers like Corneils and
Pascal Moliere and Racine La Fontaine and de Sevgne
gavo the French tongue that in Europe
which yet lost and when painters like Pous-
sn Lesusur and Claude Lorran We'd with the schools of
Rome and Florence while they surpassed those Of Fan
<ers and Spain.
1t is Of such age that NJ Cousin treats in the volume
before u.s. and Of its most brilliant illustrations
forms the theme of his story-we about to write o
his eulogy. And in this contribution Of authors old
age and lsttersd we have memoir devoted to the
of history 1t history in the guise of biography
department Of literature in which the French language
is already SO rich It easy perceive that NJ Cousin
tells the story Of Madame de Longusves youth with
the zeal Of IN admrer will say of partisan and
apologist Her youth it must be admitted, was blame
less and unreprosehsd and though clouds and shadows
arkensd the purity of her character in after years,
may still please to admire the radiant promise Of her
early dawn History, however, according to our idea,
is something more than drama in which the and
te Of bygone years pass before and act
their parts 1t is tribunal before which they to be
tried grand assxs, like that the old Egyptians held
the dead which must seek to ascertain the charac
ter Of ts subscs and whose award it must depend
whether they shall be embalmed in the worlds
memory or De leIt TO no IN Cou 10
rat We are no admirers of that species Of biograph
cal Boswslism which is neegantly but expressively
called whtswashng" We like to the '.saint-
ed dead not they after their TRANSPORTATION but
as they in the flesh not gods and goddesses, but
men and women like the crest of mankind"
There are certain historical personages who though
sinners have been, believe, much sinned against by
the tribe of envous and bgottsd scrbblers whose pur
blind vision neapactatss them for perceying any thing
good Of their country, sect, party We laugh
the praension any such monopoly of virtue
But determined are, like old Michael de Montaigne,
believe any miracles out Of religion and the church
we always suspect the canonization of and women
whose names we do not find in Buffers Lives of the
Saints" Mary, Queen Of Scots that impersonation of
love and beauty Of those whose friends
and foes have contended like Michael and Apolyon dis
putting for the body Of Noses The see in the
and misguided princess the victim only of
toward fortune of unreentng malice the part of
her enemies while these in her nothing better
than the fahlsss sovereign and guilty leman, tratress
TO her subjects and shame to her Let avow
that side with neither, and that while blushDg
ut the frailtes which cannot deny, pity her for
misfortunes into which she fell through the weakness
rather than badness Of her heart. She saint
like Queen Elizabeth of Hungary and still less she
the Mesana which her enemies would ain portray her.
Napoleon Bonaparte another OF those characters TOR
whose absolute possession Ahrman aad 0romazdes would
seem be contending the field of history He, too,
has his defamers and his panegyrsts his blind detrac
tors and his blind adulators. Among country
men two reverend clergymen have written his hago-
graphy, and, if he half good they depict
him. he deserves to be nominated before the Aposocal
CGnsara at Rome for the posthumous honors Of beati
fcaion already too long delayed We yield to none in
admiration Of Napoleon l. He the incarnation of
nounce him demon? Far from it but his intellect
greater than his heart good and yet that heart
was better than many would have us believe He acted
too often like the remorseless child Of destiny he
deemed himself and yet the soft tnking Of the vesper
bell is known to have stirred with fearful emotion the
athomless mind into whose sullen and sombre depths
ray Of sunshine from the soul seemed pierce.
He was not just man made perfect" was he
ogre Of malgnity who made evil his good. We mnish
alike his condemnation by Alison and his apotheosis
by an Abbott. But We turn to the subject before u.s.
The life Of Madame de Longuevie has been written by
the good Jansenst vllefre NJ Cousin has not sought
he tells u.s. rewrte it after him But documents never
before published and letters whose existence was before
unknown having fallen into the authors hand he offers
the present work in the hope that it will throw new
light upon court and convent" they existed in the
early half of the seventeenth century and will besides
eucdate many obscure points in the life of Madame
de Longueyille and in that of her brother Louis de
Bourbon Duke dEnghien, who gave such lustre the
Of Conde the fields of Rocroy, Fribourg Mort
lipgen and Lens. The reader of this memoir WILL we
are cure be persuaded that NJ Cousin has not over