New-York daily tribune., 1856-08-02
LITERATURE At PARIS.


PARIS, Monday, July :, l5o5.
In a recenf Dumber of the Rerse de Paris is dra-
matical historic essay emitted: Three Days 10 the
Life OF Marie Stuart. The three days are: Jaau-
a,y 10, February 10, and June ID, 1861. Mary
herself, Boutwell,, Darnley, Knox, religious en-
fhusasts AID other type persOnages o the time, are
portrayed with sufficient regard to historical accu-
racy, and with a .pir, aid effect of local color
that remind ne Of SCOTS masterhand. But 1t
wss not the Scenes HistOriqses Of Daniel Stern
&C, uni, So Agout), that proposed to speak OF at
Oily length. They are pretaced by two or three
paccs of observatiops of which desire to borrow
the 6rst two sentences as convenient heading TO
ny cuIso,y Lotices Of the literature OF the month
~ Hiaotre, says cur author, who, may say 10
passing, is adding to the lis: of her works and TO
her lust fan by history OF the United Provinces,
parts Of which have already been published,
"LMstoire sempdre de nous. LdVde ds pssse A.
tire It oaptire 0sjOardhui les meibeuE fspritS.
Hardly a month passes that | have not 10 record
the appearance Of some hist Tical work Of high
merit. Cousin, Guzot, Villemain, Remusat,
1bitrs not to mention others, have each given the
world one OF more vOlumfs within the year. Since
ny last letter about books, the historical list has
bttn increased by the oilowing
LFgiise et FEmpire Roman dH ~ Sitoh-The
Chul ch spd Roman mpire in the Fourth Century,
by AlheIt de Brogle. The FIRST part, m two
volumes il entitled the Reign of Constantine; two
oil er parts, Julian the Apostate and IheOdoslus
the Great are IN preparation. The author objects
to previous writer's this highly important transit
un period in modern history that, as the ecclesias-
ticsl writer's, they have been too exclusively occu-
pied with the Church, or, as Gibbon, have consld-
cred cIeeds snd councils little more than traes OF
pIiestly quqrrels. lie aims 10 treat the whole
movement of the time finding nothing more sgnlii-
cot than Just II q relations between the political
and religious events and personages aOd their com
biDtd influence. Mont atbOlic readers will be
incDtd TO think that NJ. de Broglie gives too high,
if not too large place to the Church and church
men. Hstoire dAuiia et de ses SGccesseus-Iis.
tory of Aftl4 and his Successors until the estab
lishneLt Of the Hungarians in Europe, followed by
legends aid traditions, by Amedee Therry.
hitherto Attila the Hun, Attia the ScOurge OF
God, has been, for most OF Us, hardly more than
name-a great fee faw.fum, very terrible
and very dimly conceived Of-whO fought the
greatest battles that ever were fought in Europe,
ufo wasted the continent from COnstantinOple 10
Orleans, aud who was buried in three collins in
some unknown spot. Moved by an uRspeak4ble
curio.ity in presence of the strange aud terrible
figure of the King OF the Huns, putting on one
" side the phantasmagoria Of convention ahi;h has
" made Aitila rather q egtndary than historic per-
" sUp Amedee Thierry sought TO penetrate 10 the
"nsn and describe him as he really was" His
authorities are Priscus, several chronicles of the
fifth century, then Jornapdes, then the Teutonie
poems, the Latin MODkish legends and traditions
of Eastern origin brought by the Hungarisns.
ChTistophe COiOmb HistOue de "a Vie, ttc-lIis-
tory of the Life and Voyages of Columbus by
Bo,ey dc LOrl ues. 1t is strange says the adyer-
tiiemt ut of this work, that the discovery Of the
"Ntw World baS never been written in French, and
"not less singular that the history the wonderful
MIN Who doubled the space of the globe has never
"bet related by European. The best biography
"of christopher Columbus is due 10 the American,
"Wa,hiDgtOn Irving; but it has been said that his
work is too grave far romance and too light for
history And so NJ. de LOrgues has studied
original documents at Genoa and Rome and iu
ain in order oprOduce these two stout volumes,
very autheLtic, very grave, and perhaps little
beayy, but doubtless Il ore complete than any other
history of the great discoyerer.
l. fnoien teime et Ia Reroiatioa-The Ancient
Re gime and the Revolution. One might think con
siderirg the Libraries full OF books already written
IN AID about the French Revolution, that this
theme was exhausttd and yet here is a volume
without which the written history of the greatest
lroup of events that have occurred since Lutner's
line, If not since Luiher's Masters time is in.
CO mpltIe. II is long since A historical work of
equal value has appeared. You will be less sir.
prised TO hear this when you hear the authors
a me--Alexis de Tocqueyille. The work is not
history OF the Revolution. but an essay upon its
origin showing it in its embryo state, as it were;
the surprise Of most readers prob
ably, but conelgsively showing-ihat the Reyolu.
lion was far advanced before 50 and even that
many of the institutions that are commonly at !
ributtd to SO sc 10 their origin existed in spirit
I'D sometimes even in form, under the Ancient r..
,ime Admiui.tratve centralization for instance. !
was nearly as thorough in its organization eighty
lesrs ago as il is to-day. This is but one instance
n many. But cannot give in few words bet |
er idea OF the peculiar merits of NJ. de ToeIg |
lilies book than by quoting few lines from his |
,reface, which is a siDgularly honest one:
"Jn l7s9 the F.cbch made superhunan effort, III.
Gused in the srrals Of soy other people, 10 cut ia
NO. a. it were their destiny, sod TO separate by an
YES What they rad been from what they wished /
CDct forth TO D.. To this end they took all possible
c9uions to bring nothing OF The past INTO t6e ney
cDdiiiop. Jley strove 70 al vsys 10 fashion them
YES otherwise than their fathers, s1d % ispdes thes
t1 appearance 20 df-ien. 1om tte cd 50 10 eec.ce
seogshiln. K hss Swsys seemed 20 me t..St Ley
'Hr less .ucosssal IL The ,iogs.AI s..emp, .asa ,s
ap9ose3 seJcsd, and ban acS a tr. hs5e7ed tseIs-