$J(i THE STUDY OF FRENCH IX FOREIGN UNIVERSITIES. 



be forgetful of the fact that the study of French literature is at 

 the same time an art. a most delicate and exquisite art. because 

 its object is one of the most artistic languages that have ever been 

 spoken. Language is made up of music as well as of thought, and 

 if it is true that there is nothing to equal French thought in clear- 

 ness and limpidity, there is scarcely anything to match the music 

 of the tongue of France for harmony and mellow sweetness. 

 Indeed, artistic study of the French language amply deserves a 

 place alongside of its philological study; for no student will be 

 able to properly realise its full range and depth that has not 

 become keenly alive to its matchless lucidity and exquisite ele- 

 gance ; to that simple and natural diction which is so entirely its 

 own, and which, though scorning declamatory pomposity, does 

 in no way exclude either eloquence or lofty elevation — in short, 

 to all those characteristic properties of thought and form, of 

 timbre, modulation and tone, of rapid elocution and accentuation 

 which make French the language par excellence of diplomacy 

 and of confidential disclosure, an uproarious music in the mouth 

 of the mob, and a reserved tremulous strain between lovers : a 

 murmur in intimate privacy, a frank peal of laughter in the 

 drawing-room, a thunder from the public platform. Nor can a 

 man forget the powerfully developed artistic temperament of the 

 French, when he has to teach their literature. What a galaxy of 

 masterpieces ! Down from the metrical romances of Chrestien de 

 Troyes, which the whole European literary world of the 12th and 

 13th centuries vied to possess and enjoy, up to the most modern 

 novels, with which the contemporary world is flooded ; from the 

 dramatic gems of the 17th century, which have graced all foreign 

 si ages, up to the plays of the present day. which form an inex- 

 haustible stock for all the theatres of the world to borrow from ; 

 from the sermons of Bossuet to the speech of Jules Favre and 

 the political addresses of Gambetta ; from the thrilling and 

 spirited prose of that hopeless sceptic Pascal to the delightful, 

 captivating, philosophical and yet so mundane prose of that 

 amiable sceptic Renan ; from the ballads of that Paris ragamuffin 

 Villon up to the latest chord from the lyre of Victor Hugo, there 

 is one uninterrupted flow of masterpieces.* 



But I feel that I must now come to a close. As what it has 

 been my pleasure and privilege to say is but a feeble echo of what 

 my masters taught me, especially that one, whose name adorns 

 some of these pages. I lay no claim to originality. The time and 

 space granted to me did not allow of much amplification, however 

 gladly I would have seized the opportunitv of expanding in some 

 of my chapters. But if I may have succeeded in giving some 

 notion of the ideal a professor of French ought to keep before his 

 mind's eve, and of the comprehensive task he has to accomplish. 

 I shall feel sufficiently rewarded for the time I spent on this 

 modest little piece of work and the trouble I took to compile it on 

 behalf of our Association for the advancement of learning. 



* Van Hamel. 



