and other well-known reviewers.

I afterwards read the articles by Sainte-Beuve, perhaps the finest
critic of French literature, on the life and history of Jasmin, in his
'Portraits Contemporains' as well as his admirable article on the same
subject, in the 'Causeries du Lundi.'

While Jasmin was still alive, a translation was published by the
American poet Longfellow, of 'The Blind Girl of Castel-Cuille,' perhaps
the best of Jasmin's poems. In his note to the translation, Longfellow
said that "Jasmin, the author of this beautiful poem, is to the South of
France what Burns is to the South of Scotland, the representative of the
heart of the people; one of those happy bards who are born with their
mouths full of birds (la bouco pleno d'aouvelous). He has written his
own biography in a poetic form, and the simple narrative of his poverty,
his struggles, and his triumphs, is very touching. He still lives at
Agen, on the Garonne; and long may he live there to delight his native
land with native songs."

I had some difficulty in obtaining Jasmin's poems; but at length I
received them from his native town of Agen. They consisted of four
volumes octavo, though they were still incomplete. But a new edition
has since been published, in 1889, which was heralded by an interesting
article in the Paris Figaro.

While at Royat, in 1888, I went across the country to Agen, the town in
which Jasmin was born, lived, and died. I saw the little room in which
he was born, the banks of the Garonne which sounded so sweetly in his
ears, the heights of the Hermitage where he played when a boy, the
Petite Seminaire in which he was partly educated, the coiffeur's shop
in which he carried on his business as a barber and hair-dresser,
and finally his tomb in the cemetery where he was buried with all the
honours that his towns-fellows could bestow upon him.

From Agen I went south to Toulouse, where I saw the large room in the
Museum in which Jasmin first recited his poem of 'Franconnette'; and the
hall in the Capitol, where the poet was hailed as The Troubadour, and
enrolled member of the Academy of Jeux Floraux--perhaps the crowning
event of his life.

In the Appendix to this memoir I have endeavoured to give translations
from some of Jasmin's poems. Longfellow's translation of 'The Blind Girl
of Castel-Cuille' has not been given, as it has already been published
in his poems, which are in nearly every library. In those which have
been given