508 
STAEL-HOLSTEIN. 
de Stael was appointed his successor. Thus dignified, and 
with the further recommendation of being a Protestant, his 
marriage was not delayed; and the rich heiress, to the 
chagrin of many French suitors, became Baroness de Stael 
Holstein. We believe, however, that this union did not 
prove to be one of the most felicitous. The lady was weal¬ 
thy, young, and though not handsome, agreeable and attrac¬ 
tive ; she was rather under the middle size, yet graceful in 
her deportment and manners; her eyes were brilliant and 
expressive, and the whole character of her countenance 
betokened acuteness of intellect, and talent beyond the com¬ 
mon order. But she inherited to the utmost particle from 
her father his restless passion for distinction ; and derived 
from the society in which she had lived not a little of that 
pedantry and philosophical jargon which was their foible 
and bane. The Baron de Stael was a man, on the contrary, 
of remarkable simplicity of habit and singleness of heart. 
The opposite nature of their dispositions could not fail soon 
to affect connubial harmony; and though four children 
were the issue of this marriage, and what are called public 
appearances were maintained till the death of the Baron, it 
is generally understood that there was little of communica¬ 
tion between him and his lady beyond the legal ties of their 
state. 
In August 1787, Madame de Stael was delivered of her 
first daughter, and immediately after accompanied her father 
in his exile, which was of short duration. Her other child¬ 
ren were two sons and a daughter. Two only survived her. 
One of her sons lost his life in a duel. 
The year 1789 is designated as the epoch at which Ma¬ 
dame de Stael embarked upon the stormy sea of Literature, 
by the publication of her “ Letters on the Writings and 
Character of J. J. Rousseau.” But previous to this period, 
she was well known to the Parisian world by the composi¬ 
tion of several slight dramatic pieces, which were performed 
by private amateurs; by three short novels published after¬ 
wards, 1795, at Lausanne; and by a tragedy founded on 
the story of Lady Jane Grey, which obtained considerable 
circulation among her friends and admirers. Her reputation 
was therefore no secret when her first public appeal was 
made. The letters on Rousseau met with great success; 
and the budding fame of the writer was attended with all 
the eclat usual among our continental neighbours. This 
triumph was, however, abridged and embittered by the cri¬ 
tical and rapid advance of the Revolution. On the 11th of 
July, M. Necker was involved more desperately in its vortex. 
While seated at dinner with a party of friends, the Secretary 
of State for the Naval Department waited upon him to inti¬ 
mate his banishment from the territory of France. Madame 
de Stael, whose whole life has been erratic, accompanied her 
parents in their hurried exile. A new political turn recalled 
them by the time they reached Frankfort, and Necker was 
once more reinstated in the administration, in which he re¬ 
mained fifteen months, and was then driven from office for 
ever to the retirement of Copet, where he died on the 9th of 
April, 1804. 
Madame de Stael, who had gone to Copet in 1790, re¬ 
turned in the following year to Paris, and took an active 
part in the intrigues of that eventful period. At this time 
she formed or matured intimacies with Talleyrand, Sieyes, 
La Fayette, Narbonne, the Lameths, Barnave, Vergniaud, 
and other characters distinguished for the parts they 
played in the Constituent, Legislative and other bodies. 
As the wife of an ambassador, she was protected from the 
first violent shocks of revolution; but the bloody ascen¬ 
dancy of Robespierre rendered all protection vain, and in 
1793, the Baron and Baroness de Stael found it expedient to 
fly together to Copet. The duke of Sudermania, Regent of 
Sweden, having acknowledged the republic, Mons. de Stael 
was appointed ambassador, and in 1795 returned with his 
lady to Paris. About this date, she published her,“ Thoughts 
on Peace, addressed to Mr. Pitt;” and is believed to have 
exercised a powerful influence over the manoeuvres which 
distracted the governments of several ensuing years, espe¬ 
cially those connected with the Directory. Legendre, the 
butcher, who, on the 22d of June, 1795, began to declaim 
against the “ spirit of moderation” which he said was gain¬ 
ing ground, more than once denounced Madame de Stael 
and her party, as directing the political intrigues of that 
time. 
A domestic calamity varied the public tenor of her exist¬ 
ence. She was summoned to attend the death-bed of her 
mother, to soothe whose affliction, it is stated, she was play¬ 
ing on a musical instrument a few moments only before she 
expired. On this melancholy occasion, Madame de Stael 
flew to her pen for consolation; a resource to which she 
appears always to have applied when pressed by care or 
grief, or smarting under the charges which party did not fail 
to heap upon her, or soured by the animadversions of critics, 
to which she was uncommonly sensitive. At Lausanne, she 
composed the first part of the Essay “ On the Influence erf 
the Passions upon the Happiness of Individuals and Nations,” 
which was published at Paris, in 1796, and the second part 
in 1797.—This production is reckoned one of her best, and 
was translated in 1798 into English; a language in which 
the writer was well versed, as, indeed, she was in English 
literature generally. 
Madame de Stael was with her father when the French 
troops invaded Switzerland; and though he had been placed 
on the Emigrant list by Robespierre, and consequently ex¬ 
posed to death wherever the troops came, his daughter’s in¬ 
fluence with the Directory was sufficient to secure him, not 
only safety, but respect, and the erasure of his name from 
this sanguinary roll. She then returned to Paris and to her 
husband; but in a few months, either tired by the persecu¬ 
tions to which she was exposed, or prompted by some other 
motive, hastened back to the repose of Copet. In 1798, the 
dangerous illness of the Baron de Stael recalled her to Paris, 
where she received his last sigh, and soon left the metropolis 
for Switzerland. After this period, she published an essay 
“ On the Influence of Literature upon Society,” which may 
be considered as a continuation of the two last-mentioned 
works. In 1800, Buonaparte, in passing through Geneva, 
had the curiosity to visit M. Necker; and, according to 
rumour, Madame de Stael took this opportunity to read him 
a long dissertation on the course he ought to pursue for the 
prosperity of France. The First Consul, who did not relish 
the political plans of ladies, listened to her very impa¬ 
tiently. 
The well-known novel of “ Delphine,” written during 
this retirement, was printed at Geneva, in 1802, and excited 
great attention in England, France, and Germany, where it 
has been translated, attacked, criticised, and praised, accord^ 
ing to the humour of the parties. The author published a 
defence of her work. 
In 1803 she revisited Paris, and formed that connexion 
with M. Benjamin Constant, a Swiss of considerable literary 
attainments, which lasted to the day of her death. Whe¬ 
ther for past or present offences is not easy to tell, but Na¬ 
poleon was not slow in banishing her to the distance of 
40 leagues from the capital. In company with her daugh¬ 
ter, and her protector, M. Constant, she journeyed to Frank¬ 
fort, and thence to Prussia, where she applied herself to the 
cultivation of German literature. From Berlin, in 1804, she 
hastened to Copet, on receiving intelligence of her father’s 
danger. At Geneva, in the year 1805, issued the “Manu T 
scripts of M. Necker, published by his daughter.” 
Still further to divert her mind, she next travelled into 
Italy, and collected materials for her celebrated work, 
“ Corinna, or Italy,” which has been translated into many 
languages. Having returned to Geneva, Madame de Stael 
amused herself with appearing upon the stage in 1806, 
and performed in tragedy with considerable skill. There is 
a drama from her pen called “ Secret Sentiment.” Madame 
de Stael also wrote a famous work, entitled “ Germany,” 
which is replete with profound reflections, and betrays an 
extensive acquaintance with the literature of that country, 
and a power of abstruse cogitation quite without a parallel 
in the annals of woman. “ Letters and Reflections of the 
Prince de Ligne,” an “ Essay on Suicide,” and a posthu¬ 
mous. 
