MONTALBMBBBT, COUNT DK. 



MONTALBMBERT, MARQUIS DE. 



103 



Bb body was burled at Bordeaux in the church of the FeuilUna, 

 bre hi widow erected monument to I im. 



Montaigne* *!* hav ben the subject of much conaictinjt 

 oritieira. If we consider the *ft and the intellectual condition of 

 UK coantry in which the author lived, w* must oontidrr them a very 

 ri.tr i.-rdinary production, not o roach on account of the learning 

 contained in the work, although that U vary considerable, as fur the 

 dear food sense, philosophical spirit, aod frank lil*ral tone which 

 parade* it* page*, aa well a* for the attractive simplicity cf the 

 laBguag'r. Literature wu then at a very low ebb in Franrp, the 

 lancuage wae hardly formed, the country WM distracted by feudal 

 turbulence, ignorant fanaticism, deadly intolerance, aod civil factious, 

 and ytt in the mhlat { ll this a country gentleman living in a 

 mnote province, blmealf belonging to tho then rude, furce, feudal 

 aristocracy, oompoaed a work full of moral maxima nnd precepts, 

 conceived in the tpirit of the aucient philosopher* of Greece and 

 Rome, and founded on a ayatem of natural ethic*, on the beauty of 

 virtue and of justice, and on the lesson* of hiitory ; and this book 

 waa rrad with avidity amidit the turmoil of faction*, the din of civil 

 war, and the eriea of penecution and murder. 



The morality of the ' Ear aia ' baa been called, and not unreasonably 

 though not correctly in the eiprewion, a pagan morality : it is not 

 founded on the faith and the hopes of Christianity, and its principle* 

 are in many respeota widely different from those of the Go-pel 

 Montaigne wae a sceptic, but not a determined infidel ; his philosophy 

 U in a prat measure that of Seneca and other ancient writers, whoso 

 books were the first that were put into his hands when a child. 

 Accordingly. Pascal, Nicole, and other Christian moralist*, while they 

 do justice to Montaigne's talents anil the many good sentiments con- 

 tained in his work, are very severe upon his ethic* taken as a system. 

 A living moralist of our own time, Profeesor Yinct of Basel, has given 

 a fair analysis of the spirit of Montaigne's ethics. (' Essaia do Philo- 

 sophic Morale Keligicuse auivis de quelqucs Eseaia de Critique 

 Littcraire, par A. Vinet, Paris 1828.) lu the 54th chapter of the 1st 

 book of the 'Baaia,' Montaigne, sifter distinguishing two sorts of 

 ignorance, the one which precedes all instruction, and the other which 

 follows partial instruction, goes on to say, "that men of simple 

 minds, devoid of curiosity and of learning, are Christians through 

 reverence and obedience; that minds of middle growth utij moderate 

 capacities are molt prone to doubt and error; but that higher intel- 

 lects, more clear-sighted and better grounded in science, form a 

 up-iior class of believers, who, through long and religious invent Ra- 

 tion*, arrive at the fountalu of light of the Scriptures, and feel tho 

 mysterious and divine meaning of our ecclesiastical doctrines. And 

 we aee some who reach thu hut stage through the second, with 

 marvellous fruit and confirmation, and who, having attained the 

 extreme boundary of Christian intelligence, enjoy their success with 

 modesty and thanksgiving ; unlike those men of another stomp, who, 

 in order to clear themselves of the suspicions sri-ing from their post 

 errors, become violent, indiscreet, unjust, and throw discredit on the 

 cause which they pretend to serve." And a few lines after, he 

 modestly places himself in the second abas, namely, of those who, 

 disdaining the first state of uninformed simplicity, have not yet 

 attained the third and last exalted stage, "and who," he says, " are 

 thereby rendered inept, importunate, and troublesome to society. 

 But I. for my part, endeavour, at much as I can, to fall back upon my 

 first and natural condition, from which I have idly attempted to 

 depart.'* In his chapter on prayers (b. i., 66), he recommends the use 

 of the Ijord' prayer in terms evidently sincere ; and in the 'Journal 

 of hi* Travel*,' which wu not intended for publication, he manifests 

 Cbmtiui sentiment* in aeveral place*. 



Montaigne has bean censured for several licentious and some cynical 

 P*aate* in hi* ' Esaais.' This licentiousness however appear* to be 

 rather in the expression* than in the meaning of tho author. II- 

 spoke plainly of tilings which are not alluded to in a more refined 

 state of society, bat he did so evidently without bad intentions, and 

 ouly followed the common usage of his time. Montaigne combat* 

 earnestly the malignant feelings frequent in man injustice, oppree- 

 sioo. inhumanity, nocharitableoeaa. His chapters on pedantry, on 

 the education of children, and on the admiuUtration of justice, are 

 renarkably good. He also throw* much light on the stt of 

 manner a and society in France in hi* time. 



The ' Eseti* ' have gone through very many editions and been trans- 

 lated into most European language* : the edition of Part*, 8 vols, 4to., 

 1715, i* perhaps the most complete. Cotton's, the bo-t Kn^lisli trans- 

 lation Is somewhat coarse, though characteristic. Vernier publi.hed. 

 in 1810, Notice* et Obeervatioo* pour fadUter la Lecture dee Eaaais 

 d* Montaigne.' 2 VoU. Svo.. Pan*. It is a u-eful commentary. 



MOXTALK)! lAULl.S- FORKED COUNT DK, is 



deeceoded from one of the most ancient families of Poitou 'MM 

 father, the bead of the (amity, who was raised in 1819 to the dignity 

 of a peer of Prance, and was for eorne time minister of Charle* X. at 

 the court of Sweden, married a Scotch lady of strong character and 

 remarkable ability. Of this marriage Charle* w.s the eldest child 

 he was bom in April 1810, and spent a oon.Merabl* poition of hi* 

 youth in Swede* He was also the eleve of the University of Pan.. 

 At biocteen yvar* of in he published a brochure on Sweden, which 

 him for the Ant time into intimsry with M. Uuiiot, ai 



we learn from an interesting passage in the reply of the Utter to 

 Montalembert on his reception into the French Academy . Il 

 first came into public notice early in the year 1881, when he was 

 scarcely twenty one years of age. Under a charter recently given, 

 which pron.i'e I libert) of iulnu lion, though the government dei.iyed 

 to grant it. Count Montalembert joined with M. <le (.Vux and the Abbtf 

 Lacordaire in opening a free-school for Roman Catholic iuat nation in 

 Paris ; the school however was closed by the interference of the police, 

 and a* the ordinary tribunals were not competent to sit in judgment 

 upon the case, the matter waa carried before the Chamber of Peer*. 

 Hi* father'* death, which had happened a abort time previouly, gave 

 him a seat in the Chamber of Peers the last instance, we Li-lieve, of 

 an acceation to an her. ilitary title in France. On this occasion he 

 made hi* firat ipeech, and pleaded with extraordinary eloquence the 

 cause of the Church under the circumstance* mentioned above. Ilia 

 speech produced a great sensation on the Chamber, and the police 

 were fined for their interference. In the course of the next t.-ii years 

 be gained himrelf a considerable literary reputation l.y his ' i.i: 

 Klixabeth of Hungary,' a work on ' Mediioval Art,' and hi* ' Lite and 

 Times of St Anselm.' In 1843 he again, threw himself aiv. ly into 

 the debates in the Chamber of Peers, in which he delivered route 

 masttrly speeches on such general questions as the liberty of the 

 Church, instruction and education, the theory and constitution of the 

 Monastic Orders, and the affairs of Poland, in which he always took a 

 deep interest. Towards the close of the same year, while Maying at 

 Madeira for the fake of his health, he published ' I)u Devoir de* 

 Catholiques dans la Question cie la Libertd ii'Knseicuetneut' This waa 

 followed by his celebrated ' Letter to the Cambridge Cuuiden Society,' 

 designed to disprove the attempt* mada by that society to identify 

 the reformed Church of England with that of the middle age* and of 

 continental Europe. 



Since that period, Count Montalembert ha* been the champion of 

 the Roman Catholic Church, aiding and extending its cause in Fiance 

 by his powerful pen and itill more powerful oratory. lu 1847 he 

 delivers! his celebrated speech on the affairs of Switzerland, in which 

 he distinctly foretold the revolution which broke out among the con- 

 tinental nations in the year following, and his brilliant ' Uincours sur les 

 affaires de Rome,' delivered shortly after the popular outbreak, was 

 received \\iih u triple i-alvo of applauso by on audience which sympa- 

 thised but coldly with his views. After the revolution of February 

 1848 the department of Uoubs, in which he poaeeyaed some property, 

 elected Count Moutalembirt as it* representative in the National 

 Assembly, from which he posstd into the Legislative Assembly, in 

 which he has uniformly acted as the exponent of the visws and 

 interest* of the Roman Catholic Church. 



Count Montalembert's name ban been made more generally known 

 in England by his essay on ' Catholic Interests in the 

 Century,' and his ' Political Future of England.' The former of these 

 gives a rapid and brilliant, though one-sided, review of Catholicism 

 thnm :).out the whole of Europe in the present day as compared with 

 what it was some fifty years ago, maintaining that upon the whole the 

 progress made is deep, sound, and likely to be lasting : in the same 

 work he expresses himself strongly on the political changes that had 

 taken plica iu France, and on the language of the French press in 

 their regard. The object of the latter work U to show that the future 

 prospects of England would be improved by a resumption of inter- 

 course with Rome ; and this leading idea he pursues through an infinity 

 of digressions and speculations, interspersed with various particulars 

 of English life, aa exhibited in its schools, its journalism, and its 

 political institutions. These two work* have been translated into 

 English, and published in 1855 and 1856. Ue has since republished 

 two articles from the ' Correspondent,' to which periodical he is a con- 

 tributorone entitled ' Pie IX. et Lord Pulmerston,' the other, ' La 

 Paix et la Pairie.' 



MONTALEMBERT. MARC-RENf;, MARQUISDE, a distinguished 

 military engineer of tho Ibtli century, was born on the 16th of July 

 1714 at Angoulome, department of Chareuto, France. He was 

 descended from an aucient and noble family ; and, having received an 

 education in which both literature and science were judiciously 

 conjoined, he entered the army at eighteen yean of age. 



In the course of bis lint campaign (in 1733), ho wa< present at the 

 siege of Kehl, and in the following year ha distinguished himself at 

 tho siege of Puilipsburg. He served afterward* with considerable 

 reputation in Boh. mia, when a French army under Manual* Hroglio 

 Jeisle waa in that country ; and on the retirement of the nrmy 

 thence he returned to Paris, where he devoted himself to the study of 

 subject* which have relation to the military art. He was admitted a 

 member of the Academic de* Science* in 1747 ; and he wrote several 

 ' Memoire.*,' which were inserted in the volumes published by that 

 body. About the some time he mtiibliahed a foundry at Perigord for 

 the purpone of casting heavy ordnance, which was then much wanted 

 for tho French navy. During the Seven Yean' War, Montaleiubert 

 waa attached as an agent for the French government to the staff of 

 the Swedish and Russian armies; aud he appears to have been con- 

 sulted by the allied generals respecting the arrangem. nts of the plans 

 for the different campaigns. In 1777 he publwhed a small work 

 rreapandaoM pendant la Guerre de 1767,' hich contains 

 much interesting matter relating to that war. In 1779 he was 



