reminiscences
and those analyses which the French term _appreciations_ rained in from
various quarters. The latest of these that deserves attention was an
outline of Saint-Beuve's life and literary career by the Vicomte
d'Haussonville, in which, with an affectation of impartiality and
fairness, every page was streaked with malice; imperfect justice was
done to Sainte-Beuve's intellect; his influence and reputation were
understated; and a picture was given of him as a man which could not but
be disagreeable and disappointing to the vast number who admired him as
a writer. In regard to the first two points, ill-nature and inaccuracy
can do no harm: Sainte-Beuve's fame and ability are perfectly well known
to the reading public of to-day, and the opinion of posterity will rest
upon his own merits rather than on the statements of any biographer, as
he is one of the authors whose writings are sure to be more read than
what other people write about them. The unpleasant personal impression
is not so easily dismissed: however exaggerated we may be disposed to
think it, the reflection occurs, "How this man was feared!" The
appearance of the notice several years after Sainte-Beuve's death
strengthens this conviction: M. d'Haussonville waited until his subject
should be quite cold before he ventured to touch him.

The causes of this dread and dislike are not to be found in
Sainte-Beuve's voluminous works, nor have I met with any evidence of it
in the writings of his literary contemporaries. He obviously held that
it is a critic's duty to be just before he is generous, and there may be
a lack of geniality in his praise, though it is not given grudgingly;
but I cannot recall an instance of literary spite in the large
proportion of his writings with which I am familiar. His judgments are
often severe, never harsh: he frequently dealt in satire, rarely, as far
as my memory serves, in sarcasm, and he condemns irony as one of the
least intelligent dispositions of the mind. The only case in which I
remember having suspected Sainte-Beuve of ill-nature was in a notice of
J. J. Ampere printed in the _Revue des Deux Mondes_ shortly after the
latter's death; but a person who had known Ampere long and well, and on
the friendliest terms, declared that it gave an entirely fair
description of the man, who, full of talent and amiability as he was,
had many weaknesses. Two pleas only can justify disinterring and
gibbeting an author's private life--e