ith illuminating ideas, of his notes. Almost
every eminent writer of the eighteenth century was a debtor to Bayle's
Dictionary. He kept his contemporaries informed of all that was added
to knowledge in his periodical publication, _Nouvelles de la
Republique des Lettres_ (begun in 1684). He called himself a
cloud-compeller: "My gift is to create doubts; but they are no more
than doubts." Yet there is light, if not warmth, in such a genius
for criticism as his; and it was light not only for France, but for
Europe.

BOOK THE FOURTH
_THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY_

CHAPTER I
MEMOIRS AND HISTORY--POETRY--THE THEATRE--THE NOVEL

I

The literature of the second half of the seventeenth century was
monarchical, Christian, classical. The eighteenth century was to
lose the spirit of classical art while retaining many of its forms,
to overthrow the domination of the Church, to destroy the monarchy.
It was an age not of great art but of militant ideas, which more and
more came to utilise art as their vehicle. Political speculation,
criticism, science, sceptical philosophy invaded literature. The
influence of England--of English free-thinkers, political writers,
men of science, essayists, novelists, poets--replaced the influence
of Italy and Spain, and for long that of the models of ancient Greece
and Rome. The century of the philosophers was eminently social and
mundane; the _salons_ revived; a new preciosity came into fashion;
but as time went on the _salons_ became rather the mart of ideas
philosophical and scientific than of the daintinesses of letters and
of art. Journalism developed, and thought tended to action, applied
itself directly to public life. While the work of destructive
criticism proceeded, the bases of a moral reconstruction were laid;
the free play of intellect was succeeded by a great enfranchisement
of the passions; the work of Voltaire was followed by the work of
Rousseau.

Before the close of the reign of Louis XIV. the old order of things
had suffered a decline. War, famine, public debt, oppressive taxation
had discredited the monarchy. A dull hypocrisy hardly disguised the
gross licentiousness of the times. The revocation of the edict of
Nantes had exiled those Protestants who formed a substantial part
of the moral conscience of France. The bitter feud of brother-bishops,
Bossuet and Fenelon, hurling defiance against each other for the love
of God, had made religion a theme for mockery. Port-