panting for liberty, and victorious on the field of battle, now formed the elements of progress in the French nation. But the degradation resulting from years of ignorance, misery, and oppression was but too apparent. All selfreliance was lost, and great was the need of training and guidance. The first use which the people made of political liberty was to resign it into the hands of a single man (Louis XI.), whom they invested with despotic power, and then prided themselves on their dependence. With respect to literature, we find the nation first pressing forward, then drawing back, hesitating, choosing foreign models, seeking inspiration from antiquity, from learning,-from any source, in fact, except from its own natural genius.

During this period of transition, in which the secret promise of the future was hidden amidst the ruin of a crumbling and decaying past, nothing in the course of events contributed to purify or to enrich the language; it only partook of the general decay. It could not even fall back upon its own grand poems; for the sentiments which had given them birth were no longer understood, and when the art of printing began, they were not considered worthy of reproduction. Thus the idiom of the fifteenth century lost the influence, which nothing could replace, of those treasures, so energetic in thought and so simple in language.

§ 16. Mighty agencies like the Reformation, the discovery of America, and the invention of the art of printing, wrought upon the world, and brought about that grand movement of progress called the Renaissance. Petrarch, the earliest of modern scholars, had begun the classical renaissance in Italy, and that country, then at the height of her prosperity, took the lead in the literary revival which drew all minds towards the study of antiquity.

France, brought into contact with Italy by the wars in which her kings engaged, not only joined in her passionate worship of the ancients, but also conceived a great admiration for the Italian language itself. For more than a whole century, from the time of Charles VIII. (1494) to that of

Catharine de Medicis (1589), kings, ministers, courtiers, men of letters, all contributed more or less to make the French language an imitation of the Italian. They Italianized both orthography and pronunciation; and notwithstanding the reaction which took place afterwards, this Italian mania left deep traces upon the language. (§ 30.)

§ 17. But the influence of Latin and Greek at this time was still more serious. Scholars, now in possession of the masterpieces of Greece and Rome, looked upon French as a language which had wandered from the right path. The old controversy between the literary Latin and the vulgar idiom was renewed under a different form. If the learned at last interest themselves in the popular tongue, it is that they may again lay upon it the yoke from which it had freed itself. They impose upon the French the old Latin forms cast off during the slow but sure progress of centuries. Pen in hand, we find them correcting, restraining the genius of the language by narrow and arbitrary rules, creating new words, and waging war in general with the writers of the previous century, who had shewn what the popular idiom was still capable of achieving. Imitators of classical Latin, rather than writers of French, they arrested the progress of the national language in its second stage of formation, and plunged it into a state of chaotic confusion.

§ 18. A reaction came. There arose great minds, who, in spite of their respect for antiquity, made every effort to lead the national literature and language into their own legitimate and natural channels. Rabelais, Henri Estienne, Montaigne, Amyot, Desportes, Calvin, and particularly Malherbe, passing by the followers of Greece and Rome, renewed the great national work begun by Villon, Commines, etc.

Still the end of the sixteenth century found the language in an incomplete stage of formation. There was throughout the whole of France neither king, parliament, scholar, nor literary genius powerful enough to give unity to its new idiom.

§ 19. Modern French, A.D. 1600 to present day.-France under the Valois had passed through a period of suffering and bloodshed, the dark outlines of which are but too apparent under a thin veil of civilization. Her language and literature had well nigh lost all originality, and it seemed as if the national genius would succumb under its repeated and different trials. Yet it was then that the characteristics of the Gallic race again showed themselves: their quick perception, their readiness to assimilate, and their passionate love of the beautiful. After numerous efforts, all tending towards the same goal, the literature and language attained the full expression of the true and the sublime. It was given to this race, so often enslaved and so often rising superior to all reverses, once more to rule over the literary world.

§ 20. During the last two centuries Italian, literary Latin and Greek had each had a part in moulding the language. It was now the turn of Spain. Owing to the wars of the League and the sojourn of Spanish armies in France, many Spanish words found their way into French. (§ 31.) Corneille, in borrowing from Spanish authors, only followed the fashion. of the age, but his genius soon placed him far above those whom he imitated. We find in his writings neither Spaniards nor Romans, but embodiments of nobleness, generosity, and heroism such as belong to all time. He awakes in us the noblest sentiments of which humanity is capable, and yet remains essentially French. This is true of most of the great writers of the seventeenth century; if they looked elsewhere for the framework of their subjects, they gave new life and soul to the borrowed form, and stamped it with the impress of genuine French thought.

The language of the seventeenth century proved equal to every demand made upon it. Logic, irony, religious enthusiasm, and sublimity, all found their due expression in an idiom remarkable for grace, clearness, and precision. Born in a coarse and degrading period, it became the most refined and the most justly admired of all the languages of Europe. The country long divided into dialects henceforth

owned but one language and one nationality-the language and nationality of France.

§ 21. The French of the seventeenth century owed its merits, in great measure, to a victorious and absolute monarchy, and to a court always brilliant and latterly religious. Unfortunately, its finest qualities were at last exaggerated into defects: nobility of expression merged into pomposity, and precision degenerated into stiffness. The authors of the eighteenth century cast off this oppressive majesty, this theatrical rigidity, and clothed the language with new attributes. After the death of Louis XIV., the very foundations of society seemed to crumble away, and a flood of misfortunes to pour in upon France. The people in vain sought for some authority to which they could worthily submit. A new power arose-the power of the pen. Till then it had seemed as if letters existed only for the pleasure and luxury of the rich; but the writers of the eighteenth century, no longer content to please, called all authorities to account before them, and questioned all received ideas. French became the language of politics, as well as of imagination and poetry.

The genius of Voltaire, sparkling with wit, though wanting in depth, seemed to hover over the century: philosopher, poet, historian, this active and fertile mind adapted the language to every purpose, and gave it greater ease and simplicity. But perhaps J. J. Rousseau made a still deeper impress on it than even Voltaire. Artistic feeling and poetic insight enabled him to mould the formal style of the preceding century into a vehicle for expressing his admiration of the simplest works of nature. His prose cannot be too highly valued for its delightful melody and harmonious flow.

§ 22. In our brief sketch of the French language, and its bearing upon literature, we have arrived at our own times. Now as before we can trace in it the influence of the moral and political changes which have taken place. Under the first empire, when liberty of thought was no longer possible, and the literature was but a servile imita

tion of that of the seventeenth century, the language which had expressed the boldest thoughts and aspirations of freedom, sank lifeless under the old forms to which it was made to return, and no work of genius was produced in the country.* The Restoration came, and with it France seemed to breathe again. Poets and writers arose on all sides, and made this the most brilliant period of the century. The philosophical school of the eighteenth century, in its attack upon all current tradition, had respected nothing but the national language and literature. The Romantic school of the nineteenth century tried to destroy the only remaining authority of the past, that of the classical and traditional forms of literary composition. They partially succeeded, but the struggle still goes on between the Romantists and Classicists, between movement and rest.

Various other influences have been at work on the language during this century, and need a passing notice. We have first the novels which have formed so large a part of the writings of the last fifty years. In their train follows a class whose influence is painfully real, that of mercenary writers, who to win popularity sacrifice to the corrupt tastes of the multitude, and do not disdain to reproduce the thoughts and phrases of the lowest stratum of society. These are the faithful representatives of luxury, pleasure, and all the weaknesses of our age. Happily, side by side with them are numerous talented and thoughtful men, who seek truth for its own sake, and in whose writings the first qualities of the French language, clearness and precision, are manifest. Let us hope that they may more than counteract the evil.

Two other great influences are at work on the language, that of journalism and the large influx of foreign words brought into French by international intercourse. (S$ 35, 36.)

Lastly, we have that class of men who devote themselves to philological researches. Never has the language been so carefully traced back to its original sources as in our day; never has it been made the subject of such careful investiga

* Châteaubriand, Madame de Staël, and Le Maistre wrote in exile.