208 PHILOLOGY 



noteworthy originality, except in the case of MONT- 

 FAUCON, who endeavored to present antiquity visually 

 to the modern reader by the publication of drawings of 

 ancient monuments ("Antiquite appliquee et represented 

 en figures "). 



In the latter part of the eighteenth century Germany 

 took the lead, under the influence of WOLF, the founder 

 of modern philology. About the middle of the nine- 

 teenth century, modern philology became a possession 

 of all nations. France took her part, attaining in 

 the latter part of the century the high rank which 

 she now holds, with certain distinguished and precious 

 characteristics of her own. Her rise to eminence was 

 gradual. 



Beginning in 1837, QUICHERAT put forth work of high 

 importance in his treatise on Latin versification, his 

 lexicon of Latin poetry, and his edition of the Latin 

 lexicographer and grammarian Nonius Marcellus. The 

 middle of the century (to speak roughly) was character- 

 ized by admirable literary studies like those of NISARD 

 on the Latin poets of the decadence (1834), the first 

 important work of this peculiarly French type; of Con- 

 stant MARTHA on the moralists of the Empire (1864) and 

 on morals, religion, and science in the poem of Lucretius 

 (1869); of PATIN on Latin poetry (1869); of BOISSIER 

 (who continued his work into the present century) on 

 Cicero and his friends (1865) and on Roman religion 

 (1874); and the striking essays of TAINE on Livy (1856) 

 and SAIOTE-BEUVE on Virgil (1857). These two essays, 

 the work of men primarily engaged in other fields, ex- 

 emplify the exceptional sympathy with humanistic 

 studies with which the French literary mind is generally 

 endowed; and correspondingly the writings of profes- 

 sional Latinists in France, while marked by a pene- 

 trating precision, are characterized as a rule by an acute 



