464 



LITERATUEE, CONTINENTAL, IN 1874. 



"What was the character of the reforms intro- 

 duced by Augustus; how far were they suc- 

 cessful ; and to what extent did philosophy, 

 especially that of Seneca, combined with the 

 action of foreign religions, modify the old Ro- 

 man intellectual and moral world? These 

 questions are certainly full of interest ; and 

 the recent discoveries made by archaeologists 

 and epigraphists have accumulated a number 

 of documents toward their solution. M. Bois- 

 sier, in his two volumes, has made excellent 

 use of all these resources, and the result is a 

 most interesting work on the origin of Chris- 

 tianity. The author takes care to declare ex- 

 pressly that the religion of the Gospel must 

 not be considered as a development of exist- 

 ing mythologies and metaphysical systems ; it 

 was to all intents and purposes an independent 

 work, and which could not have been accom- 

 plished by other agencies. Virgil and Seneca 

 stand forth prominently in M. Boissier's notice 

 as representatives of Latin thought during the 

 early empire. Tacitus, another character who 

 comes out in bold relief, has occupied the at- 

 tention of M. A. Geffroy. Under the title of 

 "Rome et les 'Barbares, Etudes sur la Ger- 

 manie de Tacite,". the learned Professor of 

 Ancient History at the Sorbonne publishes a 

 series of lectures delivered by himself, and in 

 which he endeavors to prove, first, that Taci- 

 tus is a very trustworthy guide as to the con- 

 dition of the Teutonic world ; and, secondly, 

 that the barbarians, as they were called, really 

 conqured Gaul during the fifth century. It is 

 well known that, with respect to this latter 

 point, the Abb6 Dubos and Montesquieu rep- 

 resented with equal ability two opposite schools 

 of historians, the former denying that a con- 

 quest had occurred, while the author of the 

 " Esprit des Lois " maintained it. M. Geffroy 

 takes care to show that a, critic may indorse 

 Montesquieu's ideas without adopting the sin- 

 gular vagaries of certain democratic writers 

 who describe the French aristocracy as imme- 

 diately descended from the German conquerors, 

 whereas the proletariate are the modern rep- 

 resentatives of the oppressed Gauls. 



The history of archaeology in its various 

 forms bears a close relationship to the topics 

 I have just been discussing, and the reader 

 who studies the works of M. Beule (" Auguste 

 et sa Famille, le Sang de Germanicus," etc.) 

 and M. Ampere (" L'Histoire Romaine a" 

 Rome ") will soon find the interdependence of 

 these two branches of knowledge. Besides 

 the various livraisons' of the Revue Archeo- 

 logique for the year 1874, I shall mention two 

 works which may be considered as good speci- 

 mens of this class of publications : the one is 

 Dom Gu6ranger's " Sainte-CGcile et la Societe' 

 Romaine aux Deux Premiers Sie'cles," and the 

 other the sumptuous " Melanges d'Arche"olo- 

 gie ". of Fathers Martin and Cahier. Written 

 from the strongest Ultramontane stand-point, 

 the volume on Saint Cecilia unhesitatingly 

 adopts all the legends so thoroughly demol- 



ished two hundred years ago by Tillemont, 

 Fleury, and Mabillon. Dom Gu6ranger in- 

 veighs furiously against Jansenists as well 

 as Protestants, and looks upon the " Acta 

 Sanctorum " in the light of an unimpeachable 

 authority ; but his account of early Christian 

 society is interesting, nevertheless, and his de- 

 scription of the catacombs, profusely illus- 

 trated as it is with woodcuts, will be found very 

 valuable. The " Nouveaux Melanges d'Ar- 

 chSologie " forms two quarto volumes, which 

 treat of various questions connected with 

 Christian art, such as Bestiaries, church orna- 

 mentation, relic-cases, etc. ; the drawings in it 

 are the work of Father Martin, lately removed 

 by the hand of death from a busy and useful 

 career ; the letter-press, for which we are in- 

 debted to his collaborateur, Father Cahier, 

 gives evidence of sound scholarship and of 

 varied learning. Count Grimouard de Saint- 

 Laurent's " Guide de 1'Art Chretien " should 

 not be forgotten ; the fifth volume, lately pub- 

 lished, contains the iconography of the saints, 

 and will be perused with interest even by 

 those readers who only wish to study in the 

 company of an amiable and intelligent guide 

 some of the best specimens of painting and 

 sculpture. 



Among the attempts made to reconcile the 

 claims of science with those of revelation, I 

 must name the learned work published by M. 

 1'Abbe" Fabre d'Envieu. This gentleman starts 

 from the supposition that the narrative con- 

 tained in the first chapter of Genesis has been 

 misunderstood, and that a better interpreta- 

 tion of the text would remove all the difficul- 

 ties raised by destructive criticism. He then 

 examines in detail the evidence supplied by 

 archaeology, paleontology, and geology, and 

 endeavors to show that the theories of the 

 present day, with which the names of Messrs. 

 Huxley, Darwin, and Tyndall, are associated, 

 entirely break down, because they are derived 

 either from false data or from illogical infer- 

 ences based upon true ones. The history of 

 philosophy and of religion has suggested a cer- 

 tain number of memoirs, which prove that the 

 movement inaugurated by the late M. Cousin 

 is still going on. 



The reform of public instruction in its vari- 

 ous stages still engages the attention of thinkers 

 who are anxious t6 bring about the regeneration 

 of France. Not satisfied with writing the his- 

 tory of the Government which took office in 

 September, 1871, and of describing with all the 

 authority of an eye-witness the causes which led 

 to the downfall of Napoleon III., M. Jules Simon 

 devotes a thick octavo to educational subjects, 

 and aims at drawing the University of France 

 out of the traditional groove in which it is still 

 slowly moving. M. Jules Simon's schemes are 

 excellent, yet they strike me as impossible so 

 long as the national spirit of our neighbors 

 remains what it is. Those of your readers 

 who relish the esprit Gaulois, and are fond of 

 works of fiction, cannot do better than peruse M. 



