een possible with the
tedious, disagreeable, and expensive voyage around Cape Horn.... It is
absolutely indispensable for the United States to effect a passage from
the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific Ocean, and I am certain that they will
do it. Would that I might live to see it!"[34]

"Eckermann's book," wrote Sainte-Beuve, "is the best biography of
Goethe; that of Lewes, for the facts; that of Eckermann, for the
portrait from the inside and the physiognomy. The soul of a great man
breathes in it."[35]

I have had frequent occasion to speak of Sainte-Beuve and I cannot
recommend our student too strongly to read from time to time some of his
critical essays. His best work is contained in the fifteen volumes of
"Causeries du Lundi" and in the thirteen volumes of "Nouveaux Lundis"
which were articles written for the daily newspapers, the
_Constitutionnel_, the _Moniteur_, and the _Temps_, when, between the
ages of forty-five and sixty-five, he was at the maturity of his powers.
Considering the very high quality of the work, the quantity is enormous,
and makes us call to mind the remark of Goethe that "genius and
fecundity are very closely allied." Excluding Goethe, we may safely, I
think, call Sainte-Beuve the greatest of modern critics, and there is
enough of resemblance between historical and literary criticism to
warrant a study by the historian of these remarkable essays. "The root
of everything in his criticism," wrote Matthew Arnold, "is his
single-hearted devotion to truth. What he called 'fictions' in
literature, in politics, in religion, were not allowed to influence
him." And Sainte-Beuve himself has said, "I am accustomed incessantly to
call my judgments in question anew and to recast my opinions the moment
I suspect them to be without validity."[36] The writer who conforms to
such a high standard is an excellent guide for the historian and no one
who has made a study of these Causeries can help feeling their spirit of
candor and being inspired to the attempt to realize so high an ideal.

Sainte-Beuve's essays deal almost entirely with French literature and
history, which were the subjects he knew best. It is very desirable for
us Anglo-Saxons to broaden our minds and soften our prejudices by
excursions outside of our own literature and history, and with Goethe
for our guide in Germany, we can do no better than to accept
Sainte-Beuve for France. Brunetiere wrote that the four literary men of
France in the nin