NEW SCHOOL OF HISTORY IN FRANCE. 381 



And canst thou not with others' misery sport ? 



Yet distant shores were long since taught by fame 



T'abhor thy clime and execrate thy name ; 



And trembling matrons shudder to relate 



What hideous crimes are coupled with thy fate. 



E'en now with awe I tread the gory strand ; 



A fitting girdle for thy murd'rous land 



Ye scenes where nought, save havoc ever trod 



Alas ! abhorrent both to man and God, 



Still are ye red with Ichor's lasting stain, 



To point, where Vulcan felt unwonted pain 



Still do ye blush with guilt of cheaper blood, 



Which here from kindred enmity has flowed ! 



Mark ye the spots, where never-sated strife 



With hurried deaths embittered doubtful life ! 



Where dying groans yet murmur in the gale 



And howling wrath attests the bitter tale, 



That one alone, Hypsipyle was found 



To tremble at the parricidal wound * 



Where'er I search for emblems of delight, 



Grief spreads the veil of ever-clouded night, 



That nought may cheer the exile, which my fate 



Unjustly grants to false Ulysses' hate. O. S. T. 



THE NEW SCHOOL OF HISTORY IN FRANCE.No. I. 



MR. Henry Lytton Bulwer, in his work on France, has expressed 

 a highly favourable opinion on the merits of the authors belonging 1 to 

 the new school of history in that country. It is in consequence of this 

 impartial eulogy that we undertake, without diffidence, to make our 

 readers acquainted with the most distinguished members of this 

 school, among whom are to be numbered BARANTE, GUIZOT, THIERS, 



MlGNET, MlCHAUD, CHATEAUBRIAND, THIERRY, and SlSMONDI. 



It is our intention to begin these critiques in the chronological 

 order, with a notice of the works of M. de Barante, because he may, 

 we think, be justly considered as the father of the new school of his- 

 tory in France. 



M. de Barante's work known, perhaps, to some of our readers 

 is entitled " Considerations sur 1'histoire des dues de Bourgogne ;" 

 and in France his name carries with itself its own eulogy. The au- 

 thor's talent and taste alike proved to him that the true method of 

 encouraging historical studies would be by writing in a style gene- 

 rally engaging to the public ; and, the better to accomplish his pur- 

 pose, he determined to give to his history, whenever the authenticity 

 of its facts allowed such a liberty, an epic, and even, occasionally, a 

 dramatic feature, in order to warm the reader's imagination, at the 

 same time that the fact strengthened his judgment. M. de Barante 

 has not only recommended such a method of historical instruction : 

 he has proved its efficacy by his own bright example, not by writing 

 long and dogmatizing theories with the forbidding motto " nee plus 

 ultra," not by indulging, like so many others, in a kind of poetical 



* See Apollori ; Rhod. Argon. Lib.i. Valer. Place, ii. 78. And Dante Infern' 

 Canto xviii. 



