the materials of the great work which has formed the principal basis of his reputation; his Dictionnaire de la Langue Française,' an immense repertory of all the words in the language, which are defined with the utmost distinctness and precision, and which even as to the exact sciences and natural philosophy, leaves nothing, or almost nothing, wanting to satisfy the inquiries of those who have occasion to consult the work. This production, to which M. de Laveaux consecrated so much laborious exertion, is far superior to all other vocabularies with which we are acquainted; not excepting even that which is cited by people in general, through habit or prejudice, with a sort of careless complaisance, which perhaps causes them to overlook the unpardonable contradictions with which it abounds. The work has passed through many editions, and just now [August 1827] a new edition of the book is in preparation, with important ameliorations, derived from the latest researches of the author, in which he was assisted by his daughter, whose talents are only equalled by her modesty. It may be affirmed that men of letters in general are by no means able to appreciate and calculate the difficulties without number which oppose the compilation of an universal vocabulary. There is nothing brilliant in the production of a work of this kind, it is true; but the knowledge which it requires, the multiplied researches which must be undertaken, in order to avoid falling into contradictions, and to escape the criticisms of those who are as ready to find fault as they are unqualified to judge, ought to secure for the lexicographer that esteem and consideration which are due to his unpresuming but useful exertions."+

Among many other testimonies which might be adduced to the value of Laveaux's philological and lexicographical labours, we select that of the author of Sketches of Parisian Society, Politics, and Literature,' published in the New Monthly Magazine' for February 1827, who, after giving an account of the election of M. Auger to the office of perpetual secretary to the French Academy, says " M. Auger has considerable merit as a grammarian, and he is preparing the definitions for the Dictionary of the Academy, which is to appear in 1827. Whenever it is absolutely impossible to flatter the Bourbons or the priests, M. Auger gives with considerable accuracy the different acceptations of the words of the French language. But he is far from possessing the merit of M. de Laveaux, formerly director of the College of Sainte Barbe. M. de Laveaux has published successively a French Dictionary, and a Dictionary of the Difficulties of the

* Laveaux's eulogist probably alludes to the Dictionary of the French Academy.

+ Revue Encyclopéd. u. a. p. 526.

French Language. The latter work may be confidently recommended to all Englishmen who wish to read our best authors, and to understand the delicacies of such works as La Bruyère's Characteristics, Voltaire's novels, and Courier's pamphlets."

After his dismissal from his public employments, on the complete re-establishment of the Bourbons on the throne of France, M. de Laveaux lived in a state of literary seclusion; and among the principal works on which his pen was employed at this period of his career, are a Dictionary of the Grammatical and Literary Difficulties of the French Language,' and a ' Dictionary of Synonymes.'—He died at Paris, March 15th, 1827.+

"Laveaux," says his eulogist," was not a member of any academy, because the peculiar kind of occupations which he had created for himself seemed to place him at a distance from societies purely literary; but he deserved to belong to the French Academy, whose labours ought to be directed almost entirely to the manifestation of the numerous imperfections of the language, the determination by invariable rules of those points which have been absurdly left in a state of arbitrary uncertainty, and finally to the enlargement of the boundaries of a science from the cultivation of which such men as Beauzée and Condillac have derived so much celebrity."

Revue Encyclopéd. tom. iii. 1827 (35o de la collection).

CATALOGUE OF THE PRINCIPAL WORKS OF M. DE LAVEAUX.

1. Euvres de Hedlinger, avec Explications. 1776, 2 vols. folio. 2. Entretiens avec les Enfans sur quelques Histoires de la Bible, trad. de l'Allem. 1782, 8vo.

3. Les Nuits Champêtres. 1783, 1784, 8vo.

4. Le Mâitre de Langue, ou Remarques Instructives sur quelques Ouvrages Françaises ecrits en Allemagne. 1783, 8vo.

5. Cours Théorique et Pratique de Langue et de Littérature Française. Berlin 1784, 8vo.

6. Dictionnaire Française - Allemand et Allemand - Française. 1784-5, 2 vols. 8vo.

7. Vie de Frederic II, Roi de Prusse. 1788-9, 7 vols. 8vo.-Three volumes of this work contain the Correspondence of the King of Prussia.

8. Dictionnaire de l'Academie Française. Nouv. edit. 1803, 2 vols. 4to. The publication of this last work occasioned a remarkable law-suit between the booksellers Bossange. and Masson, plaintiffs, and Moutardier and Leclerc, defendants.

9. Nouveau Dictionnaire de la Langue Française. Paris, 1820, 2 vols. 4to.

10. Dictionnaire Raisonné des Difficultés Grammaticales et Littéraires de la Langue Française. Paris, 1822, 2 vols. 8vo.

11. Dictionnaire de la Langue Française, extrait du Nouveau Dictionnaire. 1823, 2 vols. 8vo.

12. Nouveau Dictionnaire Portatif de la Langue Française. 1825, 16mo.

13. Dictionnaire Synonymique de la Langue Française. 1826, 8vo.

MADAME GUIZOT.

As a writer of works destined for the instruction of youth, MADAME GUIZOT has long been advantageously known in her native country; and she possessed abilities and acquirements entitling her to more extended celebrity. Her personal character and disposition were highly estimable, and her history altogether presents a pleasing example of the useful employment of cultivated talents. The family name of this lady was (Elizabeth Charlotte Pauline) de Meulan, and she was born November 2, 1773. Her father held an important office under government in the financial department, and her mother, Jeanne de Saint Chamans, availed herself of the fortune of her husband, to secure for herself the pleasure of agreeable and select company. The house of Madame de Meulan was one of those in which predominated those refined tastes which distinguished good society towards the close of the last century. The new ideas then in circulation were adopted with confidence, yet with moderation; and this was one of the families in which M. Necker was regarded as an oracle.

The education of Mademoiselle de Meulan was carefully conducted; and, as she was quick of apprehension and acquired knowledge with facility, her progress might have been rapid, but her studies neither excited in her mind curiosity nor interest. At that period she displayed more intelligence than spirit, for nothing had occurred to awaken her faculties. The feeble state of her health, and indulgence in the reveries of imagination, produced a disposition to give way to solitude and mental inactivity. She comprehended everything readily, but she reflected on nothing. She was destitute of self-knowledge; and her mind continued long in a state of infancy.

Åt length the revolution took place, and in its progress occasioned the ruin of multitudes. M. de Meulan suffered the destruction of his fortune, in the general wreck of individual property which took place; and he died shortly after, in 1790. His daughter saw private misery succeeded by public misfortunes, the most appalling of which was the terrible prevalence of crime. It was then that her moral education commenced; and sorrow and

indignation were the feelings which contributed to render effective the mental discipline of which she became the subject. The sufferings of her relatives and friends, of those whom she loved and honoured, inspired her breast with pity and distress; and yet more strongly she felt and lamented the injustice and cruelty which disgraced one of the noblest enterprises in which any nation had ever been engaged. At no period of her life did she ever stifle the voice of compassion or of conscience. That cold resignation to the course of evil which arises from cowardice, that tolerance of crime which selfish motives alone can excite, never dwelt in her bosom, or influenced her conduct. Thus it was that, thirty years after the revolutionary storms had subsided, she could not speak of them without emotion; and it required all the authority of reason over her mind to enable her to judge the period when they occurred with historical impartiality. Yet with rare and praiseworthy resolution she preserved her judgment uninfluenced by the feelings which her recollections might have excited.

Under the dominion of an emotion thus continued, the powers of her mind were rapidly developed. The situation of her family was difficult, distressing, and sometimes perilous. The young Pauline exercised then over those around her the influence of mind not less remarkable for strength than sensibility. Amidst occurrences so formidable, she learned at the same time to will and to think, and it may be affirmed that she discovered her own nature and destination. It gave her pleasure to relate, that in 1794, being in the country, at a small village in the vicinity of Paris, whither the revolutionary laws had banished her family, one morning, while she was drawing, she perceived all at once the number of ideas and the energy of the faculties which had been excited in her mind; and for the first time, as she said, she thought she might perhaps possess some abilities.

That moment fixed her destiny, and thenceforward she became irrevocably devoted to a state of moral activity. Exercised in the school of misfortune and retirement, she relied on her own resources for strength and for happiness. Reflection was her constant refuge from the annoyance of vexation and dulness. Determined to resist with energy all difficulties, whether arising from opinions or circumstances, she made it her unalterable rule to give way to nothing but reason; and to its government alone was she willing to subject her imagination so lively, her heart so impassioned, and her character so determined. Thus on every point which did not interfere with her duty she asserted her independence; and a spirit of resistance to wrong from that time determined all her opinions. What she hated in the revolution was its tyranny. Her good wishes accompanied those who com