the place of them. They supplemented what they deemed imperfect with a prefatory exordium or a prefatory conclusion, without any indication as to what were the respective ventures in this rare species of literary copartnery." p. 38. Says Cousin: * # "I defy any one to invent a method of altering the style of a great writer, to which the style of Pascal has not been subjected in the hands of Port Royal. * * There are alterations of words, alterations of expression, alterations of phrases, suppressions, substitutions, additions, arbitrary and absurd compositions, sometimes of a paragraph, sometimes of an entire chapter, by the aid of phrases and paragraphs foreign to each other, and, what is worse, decompositions still more arbitrary and truly inconceivable, of chapters which, in the manuscript of Pascal, were perfectly connected in all their parts, and profoundly elaborated." -p. 23. Such was the character of the princeps edition, and of all subsequent editions till 1776, when Condorcet took upon himself the task of editor. "But Condorcet forgot, in reprinting Pascal, a very common and simple thing, -that the first obligation of an editor is to respect the text of a writer he publishes. In order to adapt himself to the taste of his times, and perhaps convinced that he was hightening the glory of Pascal, he suppressed many of the most devout sentiments and expressions, and a multitude of passages, and the finest, especially where the author of the Thoughts shows himself most eloquently and most profoundly Christian. * * Unhappy Pascal! between his old editors and * his new, he seemed to be in the condition of the persecuted bigamist in the fable, whose elder wife would have robbed him of all his black hairs, and his younger of the gray. Under such opposite editing, it is hard to say what might not at last have disappeared." p. 19. We shall not attempt to give any account of the various editions of minor importance. It is sufficient to say here, that till within twenty years there has been no edition of the greatest work of the most profound theological writer of France, which is at all faithful to the original. It is only recently, and in consequence of the labors of M. Cousin, who demonstrated the worthlessness of all the existing editions, that another, conformable to the author's manuscript, has been undertaken and given to the world. It is this text, as thus corrected, which Mr. Wight has made the basis of an entirely new translation, and one which he claims to be the "first complete and honest translation of Pascal's Thoughts into the English language." Of the older versions, that of Mr. Edward Craig is now worthless," because the French edition from which he translated is now worthless;" while that of George Pearce, Esq., is at best only a paraphrase, and he himself says the passages which contain "either direct advocacy or tacit approval of the Romish Church are omitted." provided deserves There is an inter The critical apparatus with which this volume is special mention, as it adds very much to its value. esting sketch of the history of the various editions of the Thoughts, taken from M. Charles Louandre's preface to the most approved French edition; also an essay on the "Genius and Writings of Pascal," from the Edinburgh Review for January, 1845, written by Henry Rogers, which contains an able defense of Pascal from the charge of philosophic skepticism brought against him by M. Cousin. This is followed by an elaborate article, which has been expressly translated for this edition, bearing the title, "Pascal considered as a Philosophic Skeptic," written by M. Cousin, in which he replies at great length to those who have attacked him for bringing so grave a charge against one who has been deemed as the most devout of the Port Royalists. "These two polemies, thus brought face to face with each other, may be taken as able representatives of all that has been said on the question." We have not yet given an account of all the contents of this volume. In addition, there is a complete collection of Pascal's Letters, and also of the Opuscules, which are embraced in about a hundred pages. VOLTAIRE'S HENRIADE.*-Lord Brougham, in his sketch of the life of Voltaire, says of the Henriade-"It abounds in fine description, in brilliant passages of a noble diction, in sentiments admirable for their truth, their liberality, and their humanity. Its tendency is to make fanaticism hateful, oppression despicable, injustice unbearable; but it is the grand work of a philosopher and a rhetorician, more than the inspiration of a poet: poetry is wanting." Yet the Henriade, severely as it has always been criticised, still maintains its rank among the great epies of world-wide reputation. Founded upon one of the great events in French history, the triumph of Henry the Fourth over the arms of the League, and abounding with descriptions of some of the most memorable scenes that occurred in those eventful times, though the style may be open to the charge of prosaic flatness, and the introduction of allegorical beings may be censured, still, it will long hold an important place in any collection of the French classics. We give, as a short extract from the translation, a part of the description of the assassination of Coligny : * The Henriade, with The Battle of Fontenoy, Dissertation on Man, Law of Nature, Destruction of Lisbon, Temple of Taste, and Temple of Friendship. From the French of M. Voltaire, with Notes from all the Commentators. Edited by O. W. WIGHT, A. M. New York: Derby & Jackson. 1859. 12mo. pp. 407. For sale by Judd, 146 Chapel street, New Haven. (See Advertisement, pp. 9, 10.) "Awful and sage he stood; his gracious form He in the midst, like some loved monarch rose, Theme of his subject's pride, and idol of their vows." The volume contains, besides the Henriade, a number of the minor poems of Voltaire. LA FONTAINE'S FABLES.*-No one has ever succeeded so admirably as La Fontaine, in rendering fable into the language of poetry. He is acknowledged to be the Prince of Fabulists. He seizes, as if by instinct, the characteristics of the whole animal world, and uses them with a master's hand to illustrate all the passions, hopes, fears, and weaknesses of man. His insight into the human heart has never been surpassed. He makes his animal speakers always preserve perfectly their animal characters, and the moral he draws always commends itself to the conscience. This edition, the translation of Mr. Elizur Wright, Jr., is already well and favorably known to the American public. Mr. Wright seems to have entered fully into the genius of La Fontaine, and he is admitted to have reproduced, as nearly as possible in an English version, all the wit and humor of the original. The copyright of the American version has been purchased by Messrs. Derby & Jackson, and they have given it a place in their series of French classics, to which it will be considered by all a valuable addition. The editor has added to it in the present volume, a life of La Fontaine, taken from the Biographie Nouvelle, and an estimate of La Fontaine's literary character, translated from M. Nisard's "History of French Literature." * Fables of La Fontaine. Translated from the French by ELIZUR Wright, Jr. Two volumes. 12mo. pp. 347, 351. 1859. Derby & Jackson. For sale by Judd, New Haven, Conn. (See Advertisement in N. E. Advertiser, pp. 9, 10.) CHATEAUBRIAND'S MARTYRS.*—The work of M. Chateaubriand, which is best known in this country, is the one entitled Genius of Christianity, which was intended to serve as a kind of defense of the Christian religion. The object of the author was to counteract as far as possible the effect of some of his earlier writings, in which he had spoken disrespectfully of religion. The book had an influence upon public feeling in France which has been rarely if ever equaled, and contributed very much to the revival of respect for Christianity among the people. The Martyrs is a prose poem, which was written subsequently, with a somewhat similar design. Chateaubriand had contended that even from an esthetical point of view, "Christianity was more favorable than Paganism for the development of characters and the play of passions in an epic," and that "the marvelous of Christianity would contend for the palm of interest with the marvelous borrowed from mythology." So, in illustration, he chose a subject which, as he said, "would include upon the same canvas the predominant features of the two religions; the ethics, the sacrifices, the ceremonies of both systems of worship; a subject wherein the language of Genesis might be blended with that of the Odyssey; wherein the Jupiter of Homer might be placed by the side. of the Jehovah of Milton, without giving offense to piety, to taste, or to probability of manners." He made the scene to open "toward the close of the third century, at the moment when the persecution of the Christians commenced under Diocletian, and when Christianity had not yet become the predominating religion of the Roman empire, and when its altars arose near the altars of idols." The characters are taken from the two religions, and the catastrophe is connected with the general massacre of the Christians. The Martyrs was considered a less fortunate effort than its predecessor, but its reputation is established as one of the most brilliant works in the French language. CORINNE.-The many admirers of this well known novel, the most popular of all the works of Madame de Staël, will be pleased to find that it has already received a place in the series of French Classics. Its delineations of character, its descriptions of scenery, and "its eloquent *The Martyrs. By M. DE CHATEAUBRIAND. A Revised Translation. Edited by O. W. WIGHT, A. M. New York: Derby & Jackson. 1859. 12mo. pp. 451. For sale at Judd's Bookstore, New Haven. (See Advertisement in N. E. Advertiser, pp. 9, 10.) Corinne. By MADAME DE STAEL. New York: Derby & Jackson. 12mo. 1859. pp. 396. For sale by Judd, Chapel street, New Haven. rhapsodies upon love, religion, virtue, nature, history, and poetry, have long since given it an enduring place in the literature of the world." THE THREE WAKINGS.-This unpretending little 18mo., with its two hundred pages, in plain black cloth binding, lay upon our table for a month unopened. A book of poems from a nameless author does not usually make a very strong appeal to our curiosity. At last, from a sense of duty, we took it up, in its turn, and our interest was immediately awakened by the little ode bearing the title "Eureka," upon which our eye first rested, a part of which we quote below. Upon further examination, we found a collection of Odes and Hymns marked by no ordinary ability. It is true they do not reveal the power or the polish which we expect in the masters of song; but there is a quiet grace and beauty about them all that is very attractive; and they breathe so invariably and so thoroughly the sentiments of a truly Christian heart, that for ourselves we do not hesitate to prefer many of them to what has been written by poets whose fame has been long established. We quote a few lines of the ode "Eureka," not because they are better than many others, but because they first drew our attention to the book: tian Life in Song." New York: Robert Carter & Brothers, 1860. 18mo. pp. 228. |