M. DE CHATEAUBRIAND. 277 



sign, Chateaubriand made his will towards the close of 1830. Before 

 his departure he gave the public some undoubtedly fine historical 

 discourses, *' fragments of a complete history, which death has pre- 

 vented him from terminating" Fragments d'une histoire complete que 

 la mort lui empechoit de finir) ! ! ! This he himself informs us in his 

 posthumous preface. He hoped that all France would rise to oppose 

 his departure to Switzerland, or the other world. How miserably 

 must he have been disappointed : France allowed him to ex- 

 pire quietly, and had it not been for the elegies of the Journal 

 des Debats, in which the pretended defunct wrote many excel- 

 lent articles, none would have known of his departure. In this 

 posthumous epistle he has the modesty to compare himself to Hero- 

 dotus, forgetting that Herodotus, instead of writing a preface longer 

 than an unfinished history, completed his without any preface at all. 

 But the lyric poet par excellence of our epoch par excellence^ we re- 

 peat,because, though endowed with a talent comparable to that of La 

 Fontaine, he seized upon the species of poetry most suited to his 

 anti-poetic age, Beranger we mean, admirable by his talents and 

 independence, took pity on the ennui of the noble exile, and by ad- 

 dressing to him some beautiful stanzas,* furnished him with a fair pre- 

 text for returning to his much-longed-for country, which he accord- 

 ingly seized with the most marvellous avidity. 



On his return to France, under the consulate, he published a de- 

 lightful episode, an illustration of the principles contained in his great 

 work " Seu le Genie du Christianisme,' we mean his charming 

 poem, though in prose, " Attala." French literature possessed no- 

 thing written either before or subsequently that can be compared with 

 this sublime picture, unless we except the " Paul and Virginia'' of Ber- 

 nardin de St. Pierre. Shortly afterwards Chateaubriand became the 

 minister of Bonaparte, whom he then entitled ' Vhomme envoye par 

 la Providence pour le salut de la France ; but when, at the beginning of 

 the year 1804, Bonaparte caused the Duked'Enghientobe put to death, 

 Chateaubriand testified his disapproval more nobly than by publishing 

 pamphlets he gave in his resignation. No longer hoping to accom- 

 plish any thing in politics, he again returned to his literary occupations 

 and applied himself to the composition of his favourite work, the poem 

 of " The Martyrs," a work which, though better written and more 

 highly finished than most of his other productions, was eclipsed by the 

 greater fame of the " Genie du Christianisme," and consequently did 

 not meet with its just reward of public admiration. In order to de- 

 pict more correctly the scenes that he was about to sing, he set out for 

 Palestine in 1806, passing in his way through Greece. In 1811 the 

 interesting journal of this excursion was brought before the public, 

 under the name of " Itineraire de Paris a Jerusalem,'' where we also 

 find a eulogium on Napoleon. Did Chateaubriand wish thus to pave 

 the way for his return to the favour of his great master? This 

 " Itinerary'' is a valuable work, viewed historically, and full of interest 

 for Christians, especially Catholics ; but still it is too much spun out, 

 and in some passages there are slight touches of affectation. 



* Chateaubriand pour quoi fuir ta patrie, &c. 



