to an attack on the Marquis Orsi, the "Giornale de'
Letterati d'Italia" accused the "Journal de Trevoux" of _menzogna_ and
_impostura_, and in Germany the "Acta Eruditorum Lipsiensium" poured out
even more violent invectives against the Jesuitical critics. It is
wonderful how well Latin seems to lend itself to the expression of angry
abuse. Few modern writers have excelled the following tirade, either in
Latin or in German:--

"Quae mentis stupiditas! At si qua est, Jesuitarum est.... Res est
intoleranda, Trevoltianos Jesuitas, toties contusos, iniquissimum
in suis diariis tribunal erexisse, in eoque non ratione duce, sed
animi impotentia, non aequitatis legibus, sed praejudiciis, non
veritatis lance, sed affectus aut odi pondere, optimis
exquisitissimisque operibus detrahere, pessima ad coelum usque
laudibus efferre: ignaris auctoribus, modo secum sentiant, aut
sibi faveant, ubique blandiri, doctissimos sibi non plane pleneque
deditos plus quam canino dente mordere."

What has been said of other journals was said of the "Journal de
Trevoux:"--

"Les auteurs de ce journal, qui a son merite, sont constants a
louer tous les ouvrages de ceux qu'ils affectionnent, et pour
eviter une froide monotonie, ils exercent quelquefois la critique
sur les ecrivans a qui rien ne les oblige de faire grace."

It took some time before authors became at all reconciled to these new
tribunals of literary justice. Even a writer like Voltaire, who braved
public opinion more than anybody, looked upon journals, and the influence
which they soon gained in France and abroad, as a great evil. "Rien n'a
plus nui a la litterature," he writes, "plus repandu le mauvais gout, et
plus confondu le vrai avec le faux." Before the establishment of literary
journals, a learned writer had indeed little to fear. For a few years, at
all events, he was allowed to enjoy the reputation of having published a
book; and this by itself was considered a great distinction by the world
at large. Perhaps his book was never noticed at all, or, if it was, it was
only criticised in one of those elaborate letters which the learned men of
the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries used to write to each other, which
might be forwarded indeed to one or two other professors, but which never
influenced public opinion. Only in extreme cases a book would be answered
by another book, but this would necessarily require a long