LITERATURE, CONTINENTAL, IN 1878. 



485 



of 1789 in Belgium and Liege. MM. Feys and 

 Vande Casteele have completed their excellent 

 "Histoire d'Oudenbourg." M. Alp. Vanden- 

 peereboorn has issued documents concerning 

 Ypres. M. Cam. van Dessel has revised M. 

 Schayes's " La Belgique et les Pays Bas avant et 

 pendant la Domination Romaine." M. Nap. de 

 Pauw has published the " Conspiration d'Aude- 

 narde en 1342." M. Ch. Potvin has compiled a 

 biography of Ghilbert de Lannoy, a traveler, 

 naturalist, and diplomatist in the service of 

 Philip the Good and Charles the Bold. M. Edm. 

 Poullet has commenced publishing the " Corre- 

 spondance du Cardinal Granvelle (1565-1585)." 

 In the domain of ancient history, u Le S6nat 

 sous la Republique Romaine," by Prof. P. 

 "Willems, of Louvain, has been well received in 

 Germany. M. G. de Harlez has produced the 

 third volume of his translation of the " Zend- 

 Avesta." 



The volumes of French verse worthy of men- 

 tion are "Aux Champs et dans 1'Atelier," 

 by an artisan, M. Felix Frenay, poems full of 

 feeling and inspiration, and the "Romania" 

 of Mile. Marie Nizet. A noteworthy novel is 

 " Le Directeur Montaque," by D. Keiffer. M. F. 

 Laurent has just finished his celebrated " Prin- 

 cipes du Droit Civil." In philology may be 

 mentioned the " Grammaire Pratique de la 

 Langue Sanscrite," by C. de Harlez, and the 

 "Dictionnaire fitymologique des Langues Ro- 

 manes," by Diez, revised by Aug. Scheler. 

 "Les Banques Populaires et les Societes de 

 Credit en Belgique," by M. Julien Schaar, is a 

 useful memoir on those institutions. 



Flemish literature counts a new prose writer, 

 who uses the pseudonym of " Wazenaar " ; his 

 first book, called "Een Ylaamsche Jongen," 

 is truly original, containing most successful 

 sketches of Flemish manners. 



MM. Max. Rooses and J. Vanden Brande 

 have this year begun publishing their prize es- 

 says on the " History of the Antwerp School 

 of Painters." 



BOHEMIA. The publications of 1878 em- 

 brace several works of poetry by Verchlicky 

 and others, which are not without grandeur 

 and fire, and a number of interesting collec- 

 tions of folk-lore. A new history of Prague is a 

 valuable work ; also worthy of note is the rela- 

 tion of J. Holecek, who fought against the 

 Turks in the recent war. 



DENMARK. There has appeared an attrac- 

 tive collection of Hans Christian Andersen's 

 letters, written during a long series of years to 

 all sorts of people. Holger Drachmann has 

 issued this year " Paa Somands Tro og Love," 

 a series of sketches of the life of Danish fish- 

 ermen, remarkable for fidelity to nature and 

 artistic finish ; and "Sange ved Havet," original 

 descriptions, partly of the Danish coast scenery 

 and partly of Venice, in bold and yet melodious 

 rhythms. Drachmann's " Derovre fra Grasnd- 

 sen " was the first attempt to deal poetically 

 with the Schleswig-Holstein war. One of the 

 most remarkable novels is Schandorph's " Uden 



Midtpunkt," picturing the opposition between 

 new and old ideas. Two successful dramas 

 are " Ambrosius," by Professor Molbech, a 

 pleasant picture of the manners of the last 

 century, and the opera "Drot og Marsk," pre- 

 senting the tragic story of King Erik Clipping, 

 by Chr. Richard, which owes its success to the 

 fine music of P. Heise. Kr. Arentzen has fin- 

 ished his exhaustive treatise upon the poets 

 Baggesen and Oehlenschlager. The literary 

 and political life of the fourth decade of this 

 century has been dealt with by Otto Borch- 

 senius, under the title of "From the Forties" 

 (of this century). Georg Brandes takes Esaias 

 Tegner for the theme of a notable book, in 

 which this critic displays his usual insight and 

 power of exposition. A book by the same 

 author about Lord Beaconsfield has just ap- 

 peared. Johannes Steenstrup has written a 

 treatise on " The Expeditions of the Danes 

 against "Western Europe in the Ninth Cen- 

 tury." In philosophy and religion the most 

 important production is the " Christian Eth- 

 ics " of Bishop Martensen, in which he en- 

 deavors to effect some sort of reconciliation 

 between the spirit and demands of orthodox 

 Christianity and of purely secular culture and 

 the movements which arise out of it. It has 

 called forth several answers, the most impor- 

 tant of which is a comprehensive work, " Foes 

 of the Talmud," by the Copenhagen Rabbi 

 Wolff, a defense of Judaism against the asser- 

 tions of Martensen and other clergymen, which 

 has in its turn given rise to a hot controversy 

 that is still raging. 



FEANCE. In the French literature of the past 

 year philosophy, history, philology, natural sci- 

 ence, have all a rich harvest of excellent works. 

 The only representatives of eclectic spiritual- 

 ism are M. Caro, M. Fouillee, M. Martin, and M. 

 Janet. The "Revue des Deux Mondes" opens 

 its pages equally to M. Jules Soury's bold dec- 

 lamations against religion, and to M. Caro's 

 searching critique of modern freethinkers, "Le 

 Pessimisme au XIX e Siecle." M. Fouillee had 

 devoted a remarkable volume to an inquiry in- 

 to the principles of determinism; he now takes 

 up the question from the historical rather than 

 from the theoretical point of view, and after 

 explaining ("L'Id6e Moderne du Droit en Alle- 

 magne, en Angleterre et en France") how the 

 leading nations of Europe understand the no- 

 tion of right, he endeavors to show that, by 

 harmonizing and blending together three one- 

 sided theories, a satisfactory corpus doctrina 

 might easily be obtained. M. Joly's work, 

 "Psychologie Compared, 1'Homme et 1'Ani- 

 mal," is more especially written from the stand* 

 point of metaphysics ; Dr. Clauffard's " La Vie. 

 fitudes et Problemes de Biologie Generale' 

 starts from physiology, but is even more de 

 cidedly antagonist to evolutionist views. OtL 

 er remarkable books are M. Magy's " La Rai 

 son et FAme " and Dr. Fournie's " La Bete- 

 et THomme." M. Lefevre, in " La Philosophic,' 

 inveighs against Malebranche and all metaphy 



