Project Gutenberg's Critical Miscellanies (Vol. 3 of 3), by John Morley

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Title: Critical Miscellanies (Vol. 3 of 3)
Essay 8: France in the Eighteenth Century

Author: John Morley

Release Date: September 30, 2006 [EBook #19410]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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CRITICAL
MISCELLANIES

BY
JOHN MORLEY

VOL. III.

Essay 8: France in the Eighteenth Century

London
MACMILLAN AND CO., Limited
NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
1904

FRANCE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.

M. Taine as a man of letters 261

Political preparation needed for the historian 262

M. Taine's conception of history 265

Its shortcomings 266

Chief thesis of his book 268

The expression of this thesis not felicitous 269

Its substance unsatisfactory 272

Cardinal reason for demurring to it 275

Adaptation of the literary teaching of the eighteenth
century to the social crisis 277

Why that teaching prevailed in France while it withered
in England 280

Social Elements. The French Court 282

The Nobility 283

M. Taine exaggerates the importance of literature 286

Historic doctrine could have saved nothing 287

Lesson of the American Revolution 288

Conclusion 289

FRANCE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.[1]

The announcement that one of the most ingenious and accomplished men
of letters in Europe was engaged upon a history of the French
Revolution, raised some doubts among those who have thought most
about the qualifications proper to the historian. M. Taine has the
qua