The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1874-03-02
LIT E r A T U r g.
NEW FRENCH BOOKS.
Octave Feuillet-George sand-Beaumont Nasy-
Count de Remusat-Princs Joseph Lubo-
mirski-F. de Boisgobey-countess do
Mirabeau-H. NJ stanley-Bret Harte.
PARIS, Feb. IL, 1874.

IN Paris since We new Year, for authors generally
put oyt their strength for che Christmas season.
And the months Of January and February are slack
ones. In March, however. we shall have Victor
i Hugo's long promised ''Ninety-three," and
. novel, which. to many will be more welcome than
this revolutionary tsle namely, ''Up Marriage dams
lie monde" by NJ. octave Feuillet. M. Feuiilet Is
one of those too lew authors Of merit who decline
to write for mere money. He composes his novels
! at leisure, hurrying his pace for no man,
and as consequence produces only good works.
! There are no French novels which can compare
for light grace OF style. simple interest and pol
| ished humor with ale Roman dun Jeune Homme
Pauvre" '.Sibylie" and monsieur de Camors;'
and there is no reason to apprehend that "Un
Marriage dams lie Monde" will fall short OF these
Justly popular stories. The browning quality In
NJ Feuillet Is his morality. quality rare at alt
times in French writers Of. fiction, but almost
miraculous in an author who was court favOrite
under the Second Empire indeed, one may say to
writer who passed through imperial drawing
rooms without losing his morality. as somebody
did TO a man who came out from Communist
meeting with his watch stln In his pocket:-"0.
creature favored by PrOvidence!r In uDdelect-
able contrast to M. FeuIller Is Nine. George
Sand, who has begun in the Reuue des Deasr Mondes
serial "Ad SPur Jeanne" There Ia nothing to
distinguish this work from others by the same au-
thoress We find the usual early indications OF
orande passion between two French people within
the prohibited degrees OF affinity, the same i'm
maculate young man, VINO Is learned as q Heidel
berg prig and lives IN low company because he Is
too fine fellow to wear social Jokes, and the same
depressing young woman Of strong mind, who
would attend female rights conventions II she were
in America, but who, being French, exerts the ir-
Iepressble female right of talking nonsense until
she sets her lover and the reader yawning. There
authoresses, require to be sent to the schoolroom
again, like too forward boys, who, having
hausted all the lore of the top class put back
to the second to restudy what they once learned III
hurry and, consequently, forgot as soon. We
| have heard all we care to hear about young women
imbued with all the sentiments Of prosy men; and
! Nine. George Sand would do well to con over the
! maxim that governed literature in her earlier
| days when novests wrote to amuse the public
not to lecture them. Reserving fuller notice OF
INA SHur jeanne" till the serial is terminated,
pass on such other OF the few recent books that
deserve notice.
MEMORIES SECRETS DU DixNEUvIEME Steele"
| Under this rather too ambitious title M. De
| Beaumont Vassy has collected number OF letters
! and anecdotes, some OF them curious. Others how
ever, scarcely deserve the honor Of figuring in 'se
cret memoirs" Nothing can be less secret, for
instance, than the story OF the noble French ref
ugee who earned his living by mixing salads in the
houses OF English noblemen. Brat Savarin told
/ the story long ago in his 'Physlologle du Go0t"
Among the really interesting documents may be
cited some relating to the French revolutiOnIst
Camille Desmoulins; letter from the Count of
Provence (afterward Louis XVIII, written
during his exile in England and stat.
! ing his opinions about NapoleOn; and
some notes on the Revolution OF July, $780,
which tell one by what bOudor's Intrigues that
! great event was prepared. The pages respecting
the Second Empire comprise only few anecdotes,
more scandalous than authentic, and which, as
they were already well known. 1t was unnecessary
to repeat. Altogether this book is readable.
"LIPE OF LORD HERBERT OF CHERBURY By COUNT
CHARLES DE REMUsAT"
NJ. Theirs late Foreign Secretary has followed in
this life or "the eccentric Lord Herbert" the plan
he adopted in his preceding works on Abelard, st.
Anseim of Canterbury ana Bacon. He begins by
relating the life of his hero, then aha1yzes and
discusses his doctrines. Ia his preface NJ de
Remusat bewas the growing decline and dis.
repute OF what he calls the natural religion
OF which Lord Herbert was the earliest English
expounder in the seventeenth century BY means
Of his treatise, ION Truth" and he is especially
shocked to this natural religion" so reved
by the Postivsts. Even Auguste Comte, the
founder OF Positivsm, ''speaks with much greater
harshness OF the metaphysical age OF humanity
than of the theological age that went before it,
So says Count Remusat; but cannot help thinking
that his amazement argues want OF reflection, for
the Postivists are the radicals OF philosophy
while the metaphyslcians are the liberals and the
theologians the high tories. Now radicals always
speak more kindly Of tories, whom they despise,
than OF liberals, whose good sense and moderation
they dread. The metaphysicians sought to place
I Christianity ON solid basis of reason instead OF
fbo hot
the faith of their hearers and the Postviss lind it
easier to abuse the metaphy sicians than TO reute
them.
Lord Herbert OF Cherbury, was, according to NJ.
de Remusat, San honest disagreeabe man. who
had little OF apostolic sanctity In him. His lie
rather resembles that OF Don Quixote or Cyrano
de Berger9 than those OF either Plato or st.
Augustine. He was swashbuckling philosopher
with sword always ready TO fly out Of Its scabbard,
and lips ALLOW with oaths. The greater part
of an autobiography which he left behind rebounds
with accounts Of numerous dues, interpreted
here and there by gallant intrigues. He was Eng
lish Ambassador In France during few years OF
Louis KILLS monarchy, and wrote his work ION
Truth at Versailles and Paris, in the intervals Of
more frivolous business. He takes care to let know
that few OF the French ladies IN the Court remained
insensbe to the graces OF his person but, in despite
OF his loose morals, he asserts that he was i'm
PEELED to write his treatise OF religious philosophy
"by = loud yet mufned noise which earth could not
have rendered and which consequently could have
come only from heaven" Englshmen have long
ago rated Lord Herbert OF Cherbury as an amiably
original character, madden than Bolingbroke and
ess clever; and It may be doubted whether such
a person deserved eruditc notice as this
which the French biographer OF Bacon has be-
stow ed on him.
"UN NoNADE," BY PRINCE JOSEPH LyBoMIRsKI.
Five years ago Prince Lubomirski published
very entertaining volume in which he recounted
his experiences as page OF the En-
peror Nicholas :" afterwards ne gave us his
'ocenes OF Military Lie in Russia" and
now we have novel which excels these two
books, excellent as they we're. in interest. In
"Un Nomade" = rnce Lnbomirsk lays his scenes
On the extreme confines OF the Russian frontier