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CHAPTER XXIV.

DEVELOPMENT OF THE SENSE OF THE GREAT AND BEAUTIFUL BY THE STUDY OF GREAT MODELS.

"Donnons à l'empire des femmes une sublime direction, que cette puissance enchanteresse dont elles disposent reçoive de nos propres mains une impulsion salutaire vers les grandes et les belles choses, et qu'elles nous guident ensuite elles mêmes vers cette amélioration morale si inutilement cherchée par les philosophes."

RAYMOND, Essai sur l'Emulation.

A PHENOMENON takes place in the intellectual world which it appears to us has not been sufficiently considered, viz. the fall of all that is false, and the triumph of all that is true. Whatever may be the enthusiasm with which evil is received, and the indifference to the good, the termination is inevitable, the great of every kind must always regain its place, which is the first in nature as well as the first in the human soul.

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This is the reason why the soul in its transports, that is say, in its highest aspirations, harmonises with nature in her most ideal perfections. The consequence is that chefs-d'œuvre of every kind alone survive.

Universal consciousness, stronger than all the bad passions which a vitiated taste engenders, marks with a fatal stroke in human works that which is to live, and that which is to be forgotten. The grand never dies; the indifferent (mediocre) never lives; and this immense selection, this work of every day, performed by the hand of time beneath the influence of great souls, is not liable to

oblivion and error. Thus Homer, Plato, Sophocles, Euripides, have come down to us through the dust of ages, with the appearance of an eternal freshness. Thus Tasso, Milton, Shakspeare, Molière, Corneille, Racine, Fénelon, form, with the geniuses of Greece and Rome, the magnetic chain which unites the past to the present, and which likewise carries the present into the future. By the Iliad we are linked with the heroic ages; with the earliest periods of the world by the Old Testament; and by the New Testament with the futurity of the human race.

There is then in the works of man a something immutable, which partakes of eternal beauty, and which constantly escapes from all the revolutions of thought. To verify this phenomenon, is to reply beforehand to those who might be tempted to make exceptions to the great models, that is say, the works of all kinds which have descended to us amidst the admiration of men, and with the consent of ages. We should there find the source of a multitude of delightful sentiments, and of the exquisite taste which originates from the knowledge of the beautiful and of the consciousness of our morality.

The education of women is so superficial, they are so little accustomed to serious thoughts, that all reading, I do not say of instruction, but of meditation, becomes insupportable to them. This painful impression is difficult to overcome. The soul having been long silent, seems to revenge itself by disgust for the oblivion in which it has been left. But when surmounting its first repugnance you pursue the studies which awaken and appeal to it, with what transport does it not respond to the call! what an abundance of enjoyment does it not yield! All the thoughts of the most lofty minds become your thoughts; you penetrate with them into the treasures of the beautiful and the

infinite which they have disclosed, and which without their inspirations would have been for ever hidden from you. You feel yourself strong by their strength, virtuous by their virtue, pious by their piety; they transport you, ordinary beings, with the emotion of great souls, and in these delightful studies of intellect and sentiment it is permitted to you to live at the same time with the thoughts of Homer and Tasso, of Fénelon and Socrates, of Montesquieu and Descartes; to see nature with the eyes of Linneus, and the greatness of God with the eyes of Newton.

This power of illuminating our souls by the light of the greatest minds, of superadding them to our own, if we may so speak, is one of the transcendental laws of our nature; it causes the age which is passing not to pass uselessly for the age which is coming; it constitutes our perfectibility. And further, it establishes the only equality which is possible between the intellects; for, not being able to raise us up either to inspiration or to invention,— which are privileges of the few,—it bestows upon us the enjoyment, the admiration, and the possession of them. In these delightful studies we borrow from genius all that genius receives from nature.

If, unfortunately, all these divine voices should leave your soul languid and listless, do not be discouraged; above all, do not condemn these magnificent works, because they only cause you fatigue or ennui. One thing of which it is indispensable you should be convinced, is, that the weakness is in yourselves, not in them. Persevere, make efforts to feel and to appreciate them; the greater the aptitude which you possess, the more you will approach perfection: and your love for these divine models will become the measure of your intelligence and progress.

Then only will you feel the justness of that verse of Boileau, an eternal epigraph of all that is good and great in the arts and in literature

“C'est avoir profité que de savoir s'y plaire.”

To take pleasure in the perusal of good models, to persevere in their study, is to give to oneself that which all the treasures of the world cannot give us-delicacy of taste, peace of mind, contentment, and the joys of a pure conscience; for the knowledge of the beautiful always leads us to the enjoyment of virtue. Let us, then, conclude this chapter as we commenced it, by saying that knowledge and eloquence are a divine harmony, and that all that is most elevated in our souls unceasingly responds to all that is most elevated in nature.

CHAPTER XXV.

OF THE HARMONY BETWEEN THE INTELLECTUAL AND MORAL FACULTIES.

"Ainsi sont exclus de la nouvelle science les stoiciens qui veulent la mort des sens, et les epicuriens qui font des sens la règle de l'homme." VICO. Science Nouvelle.

"L'homme n'est ni ange ni bête; et le malheur est, que qui veut faire l'ange, fait la bête."

PASCAL.

Ar the first glance there is something alarming in the part which nature accords to matter. Foresight, intelligence, animal volition, all the instincts, all the passions,

appertain to it. Animals think, remember, will, love, hate; but these faculties have no other aim than the conservation of the species. Matter, being satiated, sleeps or rests; man still desires, always desires; his passions are without repose; after the satisfactions derived from earth, they dream of satisfactions from heaven. There is, then, in man something else than matter, an infinity which aspires to eternity.

The principles being thus defined, the alarm ceases, for the noblest part belongs to the soul. The soul is the delight in good, it is the virtuous, the immortal being. What animal passion, what earthly pleasure can we regret in the contemplations of the beau ideal, and of the infinite? And yet we must be careful not to disunite on earth these two halves of our being. Death alone has this right: it kills the animal in order to set the god free; but man cannot destroy the one nor the other without disturbing the wellbeing of the world. If he attempt to make himself an angel, his animal passions draw him forcibly back earthwards; if he attempt to become an animal, his celestial passions torment him with remorse. He is not free to alter his nature, but only to regulate it. Whenever he abandons the rule, he mistakes his position: he is no longer anything, for he cannot attain, in the two extremes, either to the perfection of a god, nor to the usefulness of a beast, and he will have ceased to be a man.

Education ought to apply itself to develope simultaneously these two halves of our being; it is applied, on the contrary, to separate them. This is the cause of all the evils which afflict humanity. world? intellects which strive to will have gold in order to have pleasures; this is all that is desired; they are taught only for this object; it is the avowed aim of our studies and of our labours; all comes

What do we see in the acquire fortune. People