= 
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BARONESS STAEL ON ANCIENT AND MODERN LITERATURE. 
The chapter upon the philosophy of 
the Greeks, is a most astonishing speci- 
men of female effrontery. 
«© The minds of the Greeks were entirely 
engrossed by the study of the different sys- 
tems of the world; the smaller the progress 
they had made-in science, the less they were 
uainted with the extent of the human un- 
derstanding; that of the philosophers must 
be pronounced very confined in what was 
considered deep, and at all inexplicadle. Py- 
thagoras declared, “‘ that there was nothing 
real but what was spiritual, and that the ma- 
terial had no existence.’ Plato, whose ima- 
gination was so brilliant, ever returns to 
whimsical metaphysics, relative to men and 
to love, where the physical laws of the uni- 
verse, and the verification of sentiments are 
never observed. There is nothing more irk- 
some and fatiguing than the study of that 
species of metaphysics, which has neither 
facts for its: foundation, nor method for its 
guide 5 and it is surely impossible not to be 
convinced cf this truth, in reading the philo- 
sophical writings of the Greeks, notwith- 
standing we fully admit the beauty of their 
language.” “) 
ee 
. «© The Greek philosophers were very li- 
mited in numbers, and being unable to obtain 
any assistance from the light of former ages, 
they were compelled to make their studies 
universal; it was therefore impossible for 
them to proceed to a great length in any one 
of them, and they wanted that method which 
can only be acquired by an accurate know- 
ledge ot the sciences. 
«* Plato could not have arranged in his 
memory, that which the aid of method en- 
ables the young men of modera times to do 
with the greatest facility.” 
Reader! it is a Frenchwoman who 
tells us this of the Greek philosophers, 
who assures us that Aristotle was truly 
t, considering the age in which he lived ; 
1. €. considering that he had the misfor- 
tuneto be born anAthenian, not a French- 
man! and who informs us that the Greek 
historians never connected their ideas 
with causes. “ You area very simpli- 
645 
city ?oman! ’Oman art thou lunatics? 
For shame ’oman.” 
Of the dark ages, Madame Stael of 
course knows nothing; of Italian litera- 
ture she knows little ; of Spanish less. 
Concerning the literature of the North, 
she shall deliver her own hypothesis, : 
«« There appears to be two distinct kinds 
of literature still extant, one derived from the 
east, the other from the north; the origin of 
' the first may be traced to Homer, that of the 
last to Ossian.* The Greeks, the Latins, 
the lialians, the Spanish, and the French of 
the century of Louis XLV. belong to that 
style of literature which I shall calf the eas- 
tern. The works of the English and Ger- 
man, with some of the Danish and Swedish 
writings, may be classed as’the literature of 
the north. But before Lattempt to charac- 
terise the English and,German writers, I 
think it necessary, in a, general manner, to 
cousider the principal difference of the two 
hemispheres of their literature. 
= The English, as well as the Germans, 
have, without doubt, often imitated the an-- 
cients, and drawn very useful lessons from 
that fruitful study, but their original beau- 
ties, carrying the stamp of northern mytho- 
logy, have a certain resemblance to that po- 
etic grandeur, of which Ossian is the most 
splendid example. 
«« It may; perhaps, be remarked, that the 
English poets are celebrated for the spirit of 
philosophy which appears in all their works, 
and that the ideas of Ossian are not the ideas 
of reflection, but a series ofevents aud impres- 
sions. I answer to this objection, that the 
most habitual images and ideas of Ossian are 
those which recall the shortness of life, the 
respect for the dead. the superstition connect- 
ed with their memory, and the duty that re- 
mains towards those who are no more. If 
the poet has not united to those sentiments, 
morals, maxims, or philosophical reflections, 
it was because the human understanding at 
that period was not yet capable of the ab- 
straction necessary to draw philosophical in- 
ferences; but the emotion caused by the 
songs of Ossian, disposed the mind to the 
most profound meditations. . 
** Melancholy poetry is that which accards 
__* «T here repeat what I have before said in the preface to the second edition. The songs 
of Ossian (a bard who lived in the fourth century) were known to the Scots, and even to 
some Englishmen, before they were formed inta a collection by Macpherson. _ In tracing the 
origin of the northern literature to Ossian, I have only intended, as will be seen by the se- 
a of this chapter, to point him out as the first poet to whom we can ascribe the pecu 
liar 
ter of the northern poetry. The fables of the islanders, the Seandinavian poetry of the 
_ Binth century, the common origin of the English and German literature, bear the strongest 
ence to the striking characteristics of the Erse, 
and of the poem of Fingal. Many 
men have written upon the Rhunic literature, and the poetry and antiquities of the 
morth. These researches are resumed by Mallet, and nothing more is nx 
translation of some of the odes of the ninth century which he has giv 
n to read 
h as Regner 
rog, Harold the Valiant, and others, to convince ourselves that these Scandinavian poets 
the same religious ideas, the same warlike images, and paid the same respect {9 women 
we find in Ossian, who lived nearly five centuries before them.” 
ah ak 
