The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1881-06-15
Literary Notes.

authoritative life of Madame De Stael has ever
baen written. until this complete one prepared
NV DR. Stevens appeared for it is over sixty
1,ears since her death When we consider that
for manv wears she filled the public eye of Eu-
rope as no woman of merely private character
aver filed it,-that she was the most steadfast
foe of the tyranny of Napoleon that he ever
had, and had the gaze of half the civilized world
fixed on herself as being through ten years OF
exile the target for the bitterest prosecutions OF
this Caesar. who. as Lamartine said, "wss afraid
to DESTROY her, and could not .abase her; it is
matter of surprise that we have no cotempora-
neous record of her. When we recall that By
ron marked her as the greatest woman in litera-
+nre-tbat Macaulay wrote of her as possessing
She superbest female intellect of her times.-that
Schiller put her over all others,-that Goethe
did her homage,-it is singular that some later
biographer has not supplied the omission of the
past. 1t has been left to an American pen to
do complete, if tardy. justice. to so fine charac
ter. We give the title of this most handsome
and attractive work in full:
Madame De Stael: A Study of her Life and
Times, the First Revolution and the FIRST En-
pire. By AocL Stevens, LII. ID. In too col
umes. Harper &c Brothers. Neo York.
DR.. Stevens has had peculiar advantages and
aids in preparing this most charming memoir
Residing in Switzerland in the close neighbor-
hood of Coppet, made historically famous by the
united names of Necker and De Stael he was
led by his warm interest in his theme, and the
fact of demand for such life, to write it dur
ing an interval of enforced cessation from his
ordinary professional labors. Looking at the
large volumes of nearly 400 pages each, SO full
of evidence on every leaf, of the most thorough
and scholarly investigation of all the literature
of the period covered by Madame De Staels
life one is fain to ask-If this is the outcome of
DR.. Stevens's invalid leisure, what must be the
result of the labors of his healthful hours? His
History. of Methodism, no doubt would be the
answer, in part.
The sympathy of the biographer with his SUBJ
ject is as complete as possible: perhaps it may
be urged that there is a degree of partizanship
not wholly admissible, which is careful to soften
all shadows. The only instance in which we
detect positive injustice, is when Madame
D'Arblay Fanny Burney) says some damaging
things about Madame De Stael, which DR.. Ste
vens resents by calling in question the reabili-
ty of the witness. He very lightly passes over
the womanly foibles of the remarkable daughter
Of Necker-such her little vanities and ego
tisms which were obvious enough even to her
best friends but they even, in truth, sopetty as
compared with her grand characteristics, that it !
is we'll to let them sink out of sight. From first
to last she was a heroic parsonage: her genius |
was of masculine order; her education by her
wise and judicious father, was of the most virile
sort. From her childhood, she was accustomed
- Al A. II
of Europe, and her political training was of an
extraordinary cast. Few men could get the
better of argument with her, on the abstru-
sest topics of government or metaphysics or
questions of Christian morals Like her father,
she was an intense Protestant all her life: her
revolt against the tyranny and superstition of
the Romish Church was passionate in its strength.
She attributed all Frances troubles to her false
religion, which she considered the bitterest foe
Of human liberty and progress that civilized men
ever had. She plead for open Bible-laid |
great stress upon prayer, and believed that
Christian education was the only safe basis of
good government and true liberty. Whether,
personally, her religion was of a saving kind, is
a delicate question DR. Stevens thinks it was.
Madame De Stae was woman of the nSoblest |
PI!uclPleS, anu the most heroic courage. Dur |
ing the first terrors of the French Revolution, |
she saved, by risking her own life the lives of
more than twenty men of note. She had an in
tense horror of the tyranny of Napoleon, and
never could be induced to countenance the EN-
pire. That she should write her AIlemagne, and |
never allow the Emperors name to stain its
pages, insult he never forgave and
nothing we have ever read of him shows his |
character in such petty and contemplate light, |
as his persistent and cruel persecution of her
through the long years he condemned her to an
exile from her beloved France.
During her whole life, Madame De Strael was
an object of attraction to all the great men and
distinguished women of her time. Coppet was
the refuge of the brightest spirits of Europe dur
ing many troublous years. The marvellous
conversational powers, the acute wit, the over
mastering genius, the capacity for friendship
the true heart kindliness, and the superb hospi
tality of its mistress, made it the intellectual
Mecca Of the day. The first marriage of
Madame De StaGl was not happy one; and
the only very positive weakness on which we
can lay finger, as we follow her remarkable
career, is her second marriage to man twenty
years younger than herself, which she never
had the courage so far openly to admit. as to as
sumo his name. But even this weakness DIR
Stevens has tender auoIooias Al r