New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1899-04-23

| something or RicndfuSOn anu HIS SiaiiD"@'
just as there were points Of contact between
many French books and plays OF that time ana
the lteratures of Germany and England; but
the essential qualities of Rousseau. in La
| NouyeIe Heloise" as in Emile" lie Contrat
| Social" and Les Confessions" were all drawn
from that curious individuality which we can
discern beneath his every printed line. In otber
| words he was not communicating the spirit or
! English literature to French literature when ne
wrote La Nouvelle HeloIse' one-tenth as much
! as he was communicating to 1t the spirit OF
| Rousseau. In reading the book NJ. Texte seems
to have been looking more for Richardson thah
for the true author. hence he finds in II aDun-
dant support FIR the theory underlying his whole
! "causere" the theory that France. which has
given so much to English literature. was her
self largely in the debt OF that literature lie
does not make his theory good. He has been
lured to the elaboration of IL, plainly Dy
fondness for the same hypothesis that has APP
pealed to M Brunetiere. to whom. by the way
this work is dedicated. 1T is incumbent upon
the historian Of literatures," he says ana OF
modern literatures in particular. to treat each
one Of them, not as entirely distinct and
self-contaiped history but as branch OF Euro
pean literature in general" This he admits.
runs counter to the theory Of the racial origins
of literature which is glanced at In sentence
he quotes from Nine. de Stael There exist
| two entirely distinct hteratures," she wro,e'
that which springs from the South ana tua'
| which springs from the North. NJ Texte mas
not despaired of finding a link between the two;
he believes that the voice of the North. as ex-
pressed in English literature. was in the last
century blended to some extent with the voice
of the South. az expressed in the literature OF
| France True enough, we may say, out ID 50
| slight an extent that we can only regarn the
movement to which Rousseau and Richardson
contributed as something less than movement
and something more than a fashion.
| In abiding to lie Pour ct Contre" M. Textc
quotes the biograpber of Provost as saying that
n "bore M resemblance to the journals OF the
| neriod and he adds accordingly 1t acnleVed
| a great success" The note is apt. though not
| perhaps In the way intended by NJ Texte lie
Pour ct Contre' a novelty. so was English
literature and both had their vogue in france
without achieving any enduring results. Ihere
was all of the intellectual curiosity In france
that ~ Texte describes, there were all or the
TRANSACTIONS. pamphlets. stage performances ana
so on but we cannot believe that survey or
French literature in its intrinsic character re-
veas to-day any substantial relics or the lively
propaganda which our author has studied with
so much sympathy and patience. The expla-
nation iS simple. The genius OF fFench HIet-
allure and the genius Of English literature have
BEEN and probably always will be. two diner
ent things The English fiction of to-day may
be traced easily enough to Fieldng-whom n.
Texte shows that he appreciates. We may Oh
serve by speaking of the valiant and healthy
realism of his great and candid mind'-but to
say that Fielding or Richardson prefigured
| Flaubert for example who is one of the most
characteristic figures in French literature.
would be to darken counsel with a vengeance.
To come back to Rousseau. Also we may say
that whatever his influence has been in French
literature 1t has been expressive of his own
peculiar temperament and mind. not of anything
that he owed to a perusal Of "Clarssa' or Of
any other English books. Thus NJ. Texte leaves
bis subject where he found il, failing to lift the
enthusiasts of a period into the realm of last
ing things If France has borrowed from Eng
land in the past she has not left any eternal
monument of her obligation. Because Rousseau
! happened to be in sympathy with some OF his
contemporaries in England it does not follow
that he emulated them in any really deep man
ner He would have written La Nouvelie
HeoIse" IL he had never heard of "Clarissa
Possibly the form would have been different
but the spirit would have been the same. ard IL
is the spirit that counts. While regarding NJ
Texte's chapters in this way we still value the
learning disclosed in his pages. and his happy
treatment of hundred different authors,
French and English. Among the latter ne IS
Unexpectedly sympathetic. The lucid reference
to Fielding which we have cited is only one
Of a large number of similarly just expressions
Though he does not convince us Of his main
contention he is readable throughout