irksome and inconsistent position of a ruler over men, we have no taste for it; and without wishing to appear disloyal, we confess we should prefer seeing the principle of the "right man in the right place," carried out in its integrity. It would, however, appear that, elated with the success which had attended the army of France since the advent of Joan, its generals grew bolder, and wishing to carry their victories further, they attempted too much, and, like many others, before and since their time, they failed. The maid was ultimately taken prisoner by the English, tried as a witch, condemned to death, and, according to history, burnt, May 24th, 1431, at Rouen. We notice, however, that the latter assertion is now much questioned.

There are many incidents in the life of Joan of Arc which, to some minds, might lead to the supposition that she was inspired, but we think it unnecessary to show that she was a prophet, in order to prove she was not an impostor.

The ideas with which she was regarded by the inhabitants of Orleans, when she arrived among them; by the army generally, with which she was connected, but more especially by the common soldiers; and by the English, when she appeared upon the scene, may be accounted for upon the most commonplace grounds, and in the easiest manner possible. If the word superstition be entirely expunged in the consideration of the matter, and the words gratitude, affection, and confusion, be severally substituted, we think the real facts at once become apparent. We can readily imagine how delighted would be the terror-stricken and starving people, and how their dejection would give place to joy at the sight of a deliverer; how the soldiery would summon up their courage, and resolve to make at least another effort for the sake of liberty and home; and how astonished and bewildered would be the besiegers, when they found an entire new expedition brought against them, and that expedition led on by a woman! Further, it must be borne in mind that Joan objected, upon all occasions, to the notion of inspiration, except so far as the visions and directions of the Saints Catherine and Margaret went; and with these, if we believe her, she certainly was upon most intimate terms. But, we repeat, there is no evidence whatever that she attempted at any time to impose, either by word or deed, upon those by whom she was surrounded, or endeavoured to persuade them that she was in possession of extraordinary powers, or able to do anything further for them, or more than she expressly stated at the outset of her adventures. Thus, upon the occasion of her examination by a council of theological doctors at Poitiers, nothing could make her alter her purpose, or vary in her statements. "I know neither A nor B," she said," but I am commanded by my voices, in behalf of the King of Heaven, to raise the siege of Orleans, and to crown the Dauphin at Rheims." 'And pray what language do your voices speak ?" asked Father Seguin, of Limoges, with a strong Limousin accent. "Better than yours," she answered, quickly. When the doctors asked her for a sign, she replied, that it was not at Poitiers, but at Orleans, that she was appointed to

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THE ESSAYIST.

give a sign, and that her only sign should be to lead brave men to battle.

But the best proof, in my opinion, of the strictly natural and defined character of her scheme is, that when the accomplishment of her promises had taken place, by the coronation of Charles, she requested to be permitted to depart. "I wish," she said, "that the gentle king would allow me to return towards my father and mother, keep my flocks and herds as before, and do all things as I was wont to do.' Moreover, "she refused all rewards for herself or for her family, and only asked the favour that her birthplace might hereafter be free from any kind of impost," which privilege was granted, and continued in force for more than three centuries.

In this last circumstance, we think we detect patriotism of the purest kind. The mission undertaken by Joan of Arc was no idle dream, but a momentous purpose; and, in like manner, it was not undertaken with a mercenary view, for present or remote advantage, but simply from a sense of duty. After all-what is there strange or extraordinary, above other events which might be mentioned, in this affair? Have there not been, in all ages of the world, heroes and heroines raised up to take their places when exigencies have demanded them and their services, and none else were equal to the occasion? To give one illustration only,-Who ever heard the name of Havelock, until the whole of India was one immense scene of bloodshed and disorder? And did he not perform prodigies of valour, and achieve victories, beside which that under notice sinks into utter insignificancy? What is there doubtful in the story of Joan of Arc? We consider that an ardent enthusiasm, together with no small degree of religious zeal, was the moving cause, and the results mere accidents of fortune.

We have passed over her imprisonment and death without remark, neither have we said anything as to the character of the monarch whose subject she was; but, in conclusion, we may add that the name of Joan of Arc, the Maid of Orleans, is but one among the many benefactors of their species, who have sealed the cause they fought for with their lives; and in regard to Charles VII., it should never be forgotten "that, in the hour of misfortune, he abandoned to her fate the woman who had saved his kingdom." G. A. H. E.

The Essayist.

LAMARTINE.

THE main purpose of our present essay--which will appear in the sequel is not only consistent with, but provocative of brevity. The time has not yet come when the life and works of Lamartine—

poet, historian, biographer, politician, novelist, essayist, &c.-can be fully discussed; yet at the present time there seems to be-as we shall show-good ground for bringing his name before readers of an essentially thinking class; and this, we imagine, can be best done by throwing together, in agreeable mixture, a notice of the events, the doings, and the productions quorum magna pars fuit.

In October of the year of Mirabeau's death (1791), in the ancient town of Mason, of an old and illustrious family who had suffered by and in the excesses of the Revolution, Alphonse De Lamartine, founder of the modern French romantic school, was born. His father was a Bourbonist cavalry officer, and his mother had been a governess in the Orleans family. His childhood was spent in Milly, and he was educated at the College of the Fathers of the Faith, in Lyons. In his twenty-second year he made a hurried tour through Italy, with Madame de Stäel's "Corinne" as his guide-book. The picturesque descriptions, and the beautiful composition of this story, combined with the grand scenery and glowing memories that rose continually before him, awoke the poet in him, and made him yearn to take his rank among the bands whose magic genius rules men's spirits from the silent yet speaking pages of a book. The exigencies of life compelled the adoption of a profession, and he chose the army. But he did not long continue to wield the sword, and he revisited Italy in 1818. Under the poetic nurture of its grandeurs and beauties he produced his first work, "Poetic Meditations" (1820)-a series of detached pieces, glowing with religious extasy, lofty and hallowed thought, pure and exquisite composition. He rose famous; but mindful of the uses of fame, he made his reputation a stepping-stone to a diplomatic appointment to the birth-city of Dante, Florence. In 1823, his "New Poetic Meditations," though scarcely so pure and characteristic as the former, attained an almost equal success; but the "Death of Socrates," published in the same year, was flatter, and obtained less favour. In 1825, he published "Helléniennes," a series of elegies on Greece, and "The Last Canto of Childe Harold," an unsuccessful and unlucky attempt to continue Byron's chef d'œuvre, which suggested "odious comparisons" between the French and the English poet. In the same year he was made secretary to the Embassy at London, and his "Byronic" muse procured for him the hand of one of our fair countrywomen, with a large fortune. An opulent uncle, too, bequeathed his wealth to the gay gentleman, but serious poet, who had thrown the beauty of poesy over the beauty of holiness, and had made both lovelier by the union; and so he became possessed of ample resources. Passing from London to Florence, he composed his "Poetic Harmonies," a work of loftier reach, but more mystical and exaggerated than his former attempts, and less compact, though more symphonious.

His Alpine experiences are finely employed in his next effort, "Jocelyn," an epic, in Alexandrine verse, intended to show "the phases the human mind must pass through, to reach the accom

plishment of its destiny in God." It has neither the verse of Byron, the flow of Scott, the solemn musicality of Wordsworth, nor the practicality and pathos of Crabbe; yet the plot is well laid, and carefully managed. His name now became highest among the famous ones of France, and hence, though he was on a tour through the Holy Land, he was chosen a member of the Chamber of Deputies. He returned to France; his friends augured great things from him as a politician, but they have been somewhat disappointed. For a time he adhered to the party of the Legitimists, and attached himself to the constitutional conservatism of Guizot; but he became gradually estranged from them, and for a time held himself aloof from the parties who divided the state. At a later period, however, he flung himself, with all his might, into the advocacy of liberalism, and used the tribune and the press with equal vehemence in opposition to the staid and yet unsteady policy of the government of Louis Philippe. His success as an orator disappointed himself and his friends, and his devotion to politics injured his poetic powers. His singular egotism has had a damaging influence upon him as a leader, in whom especially overt self-assertion is regarded as unpardonable. The suave method of leading men is to make them believe that they are the motive powers, and that their leaders are their instruments.

Lamartine published his "Pilgrimage to the Holy Land" shortly after his return. It is an elaborate and highly-finished piece of workmanship, and is singularly captivating in style, manner, and matter, as well as exceedingly grateful to refined and thoughtful minds. The affecting passage relating to the death of his daughter is exquisite and touching; but there are some political disquisitions intermixed with the graver and happier matter, which seem misplaced and injudicious.

The "History of the Girondists" is a work of considerable research and great power of reproductive exposition. It is the very kernel of the story of the Revolution. It commences with the event of the author's own birth-year-the flight to Varennes ; includes the history of the Legislative Assembly; the emigration; the war of La Vendée; the insurrections and massacres of the South; the insurrection of St. Domingo; the loss of the French Indies; the abolition of slavery; the Reign of Terror; the appalling struggle of one nation-torn, too, by civil contention, anarchical disputes, and disputing factions-against the whole leagued powers of Europe; the rise and fall of Robespierre; and the immense defeat to which France was ultimately subjected. It is a thrilling story, dramatically told, dazzling, striking, glowing, sympathetic. It belongs, the author says, "to an intermediate class between history and memoirs. Events occupy in it less space than men and ideas." It breathes with reality, is earnest, rapid, impassioned, and yet well subordinated to historic truth. It makes the heart throb, the nerves tingle, and the eye dilate. It is rich in original matter, and brings to light documents and sources of information

not hitherto accessible. It is just such a book as France will value, when she begins "to gather from her past wisdom and counsel for the present and the future." The 22nd of February, 1848, brought the Revolution, and amid the mob-law of that time the voice of Lamartine rose as one of power and pith. He was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Provisional Government. In the face of the drunken, infuriated rabble in the Place du Gréve, he stood unawed and resistent, while the populace shouted for blood and a renewal of the scenes of the Reign of Terror. He persisted, though at the bayonet's point, and succeeded in calming the angry and turbulent passions of the terrible mass. But moderate counsels could not be maintained, and the whirlwind of outrageous excitement was too mighty to be guided by the forceless power of eloquence alone. Repressive measures were necessary, and were taken, and the popularity of Lamartine was gone.

His

In France, it has been with some truth affirmed, “there exists no attachment to any individual, and no respect for any institution." This has been over and over again illustrated in fact, but scarcely has it ever been more strikingly shown than in the fate of Lamartine, who now exists in a state of total political eclipse. The justice and the generosity of France have of late been appealed to, in vain, to make up, in some measure, the losses and the debts incurred by her noble, though perhaps not politic and astute, son for his country's good in the hour of her dire necessity; and they have responded with a subscription of £10,000, or about 10 per cent. of the whole liabilities incurred. With resolute heart, Lamartine has been working off this immense debt, and in two years managed by labour, and the kindly encouragement of willing hearts throughout the world, to liquidate about £150,000. "Cours de Littérature" has been extensively patronized to this end, but his friends fancy that a bolder and more successful effort might be made, to secure a few years' rest for the sorrow-grey head of the septuagenarian man of thought, action, and suffering. The proprietors of the various copyrights of his numerous works have recently agreed to let him have the right to republish them in a complete and uniform set, and to allow that right to exist for ten years, should he die. The series of works, originally extending to about 100 volumes, comprising lyric, epic, and didactic poetry, novels, history, biographies, orations, voyages, political treatises, critical papers, &c., is to be published with the title of "Euvres Completes de Lamartine," in forty volumes, in large octavo, of about 600 finely printed pages each, price eight francs per volume. Ten volumes are to be issued annually to subscribers at this price, so that the whole will be completed in four years.

With this very month of May, 1860, this interesting experiment of the gratitude and right feeling of France, and on the appreciation and kindly spirit of readers of French throughout the world, is to be inaugurated; and our chief purpose in preceding this announcement by these few simply-stated biographical and critical