French poetry was all _esprit_, eloquence, reason, raillery.

In her treatise on the drama, she was the first in French literature
to use the term "romantic" and to define it; but she had not invented
the word, Wieland having used it to designate the country in which the
ancient Roman literature flourished. Her definition was: "The classic
word is sometimes taken as a synonym of perfection. I use it in
another acceptance by considering classic poetry that of the ancients
and romantic poetry that which holds in some way to the chivalresque
traditions. The literature of the ancients is a transplanted
literature with us; but romantic or chivalresque literature is
indigenous. An imitation of works coming from a political, social,
and religious midst different from ours means a literature which is
no longer in relation with us, which has never been popular, and
which will become less so every day. On the contrary, the romantic
literature is the only one which is susceptible of being perfected,
because it bears its roots from our soil and is, consequently, the
only one which can be revived and increased. It expresses our religion
and recalls our history." This opinion alone was enough to create a
revolt among her contemporaries. Almost all other interpretations of
_Faust_ were based on her conception.

At the time of its publication, her book was considered to have been
written in a political spirit, but her motive was far from that; it
was the action of a generous heart, a book as true and loyal to
the French as was ever a book written by a Frenchman. In her work
_Considerations sur la Revolution Francaise_ she expressed the most
advanced ideas on politics and government. The Revolution freed France
and made it prosper; "every absolute monarch enslaves his country, and
freedom reigns not in politics nor in the arts and sciences. Local and
provincial liberties have formed nations, but royalty has deformed the
nation by turning it to profit." Mme. de Stael found nothing to admire
in Louis XIV., and to Richelieu she attributed the destruction of
the originality of the French character, of its loyalty, candor,
and independence. In that work she advocated education, which she
considered a duty of the government to the people. "Schools must be
established for the education of the poor, universities for the study
of all languages, literatures, and sciences;" these ideas took root
after her death.

Mme. de Stael was a finished w