'there is more vanity concentrated in its first ten lines, than in the whole contents of any other book in the world.'" - Encyclopædia Metropolitana, vol. 1. Introductory Chapter on

History, p. 7.

SEGUR (M. le Comte de).

Euvres complètes. Paris, 1825, 8vo.

"M. de Segur, more than any one, is enabled to give a just idea of the events immediately preceding the Revolution. Invested with high dignities, witness of all the arts of the Court and the government; admitted into the councils of the different powers of Europe, an observer of the movements which agitated the political world; a participator in those movements; and finally emerging from the midst of them into the calm which succeeded, M. de Segur resembles a mariner, who after innumerable dangers, finds himself safe in port at last; and calls to mind and relates the hurricanes he has encountered, and the breakers and rocks he has escaped. * * Count Segur was in the service of Louis XV, and in that of his sucHe was honored by the friendship of Washington, of Frederick, Catherine, Joseph II, and of Gustavus. He received encomiums from Voltaire, Diderot, and D'Alembert; he was a soldier in the United States; an Ambassador to Russia : one of Napoleon's homme d'état; an associate of Kosciusko and of Lafayette, an historian, dramatist, senator, Academician, Deputy, Newspaper Editor, and Peer of France. The first volume of his Memoirs contains a recital of the principal historical events which occurred from the commencement of the reign of Louis XVI, until the year 1783.” — Revue Ency, vol. 25, p. 690.

cessor.

SOUZA (Madame de).

Œuvres complètes; revues, corrigées, augmentées, etc. Paris, 1821-22, 6 vols. 8vo.

*

"Who that ever read Adéle de Sénange or Eugénie et Mathilde, and did not wish to know Madame de Souza? Madame de Souza is known to fame as the author of some of the prettiest novels in the French language."-Lady Morgan's France, vol. 2, p. 393.

STAEL (Madame la Baronne de).

Œuvres complètes, publiées par son fils. Paris, 1820-21, 17 vols. 8vo.

"The genius of Madame de Staël belongs to the day and age in which it dawned, and by which it was nurtured. It partakes of their boldness and their aspirations, their freedom and their force. Fostered amidst philosophical enquiries and political fermentation, its objects are naturally grand, its scope vast, its efforts vigorous. It has the energy of inspiration and its disorder. There is in the character of Madame de Staël's compositions, something of the Delphic priestess."-Lady Morgan's France, vol. 2, p. 382.

Euvres inédites, publiées par son fils; précédées d'une Notice sur le caractère et les écrits de Madame de Stael, par Madame Necker Saussure. London, 1820, 3 vols.

"This posthumous publication makes us better acquainted with its illustrious author than any of the works which she has herself given to the world, and lets us more into her personal character than all that has yet been written about her. Nor do we say this so much with reference to the prefatory Memoir, or Eloge rather, which stands at the beginning, as to those

productions of Madame de Staël herself, which now make their first appearance. These consist of her first and her last writings of the plays and poems in which she indulged her genius before she imbibed the spirit of her age, or aspired either to rival or to replace its models and of the pieces with which she amused her later retirement, with scarcely any view to publication, or what she did not survive to revise, with that deference to public opinion which always lowers the relief, and weakens the originality of the most intrepid of experienced writers."-Edinburgh Review, vol. 36, p. 54.

VAUVENARGUES (M.)

Euvres complètes. Paris, 1806, 2 vols. 8vo. "Of the works which this interesting writer has left to us, those of the greatest merit are his Introduction to the Knowledge of the Human Mind, his Critical Reflections on certain French Poets, his Characters, and his Maxims and Reflections."Monthly Review, vol. 51, p. 507.

VERTOT (R. A. de).

Euvres choisies. Paris, 1819, 12 vols. 8vo.

"Vertot knew both how to write and how to narrate in a style at once elegant and fascinating. His works are still read, and his Révolutions romaines are much esteemed. Yet I should prefer his Révolutions de Portugal, although he has not always drawn from authentic Memoirs; and above all, the Révolutions de Suède, if he had in writing them been as careful in delineating the manners and the government of the people, as he was in adorning his style with all the charms of a finished composition.

"His Histoire de Malte savours somewhat of the Romance,

both from the long and poetical descriptions of battles and sieges it contains, and from the embellishments, purely imaginative, which he has introduced with so little scruple, that having, when the work was composed, received very authentic Memoirs on the siege of Malta, he did not make use of them, but satisfied himself with replying: C'est trop tard, mon siège est fait !"-La Harpe, Cours de Littérature, vol. 7, p. 117. VOLTAIRE (M. de)

Ses Euvres, avec des Avertissemens et des Notes, par Condorcet, &c. Kehl, de l'Imprimerie de la Société littéraire et typographique, 1785-89, 70 vols. 8vo.

"This famous edition of Beaumarchais eclipsed every thing of its kind, on a similar scale of magnitude; but for intrinsic worth, if not for extrinsic splendour, it has been surpassed by the recent impression of Renouard.

"Beaumarchais began with buying the whole of Baskerville's types, punches, and matrices. He re-established ruined paper mills in the Vosges, about 15 miles from Kehl; was nice to excess in the paper to be manufactured, and employed the most knowing workmen engaged in the manufactory of Dutch paper. His printing-office and establishment at Kehl were immense. Many millions of livres were expended, and the ultimate loss of a million was the result of his vast projects, and incessant activity and solicitude. But the proof-sheets (especially of the duodecimo edition) were carelessly revised; and Beaumarchais, in an evil hour, exalted Voltaire, at the expense of Racine. In short, the impression betrayed the absence of a correct editorial tact; and La Harpe tells us that those of Didot are very much superior in accuracy and utflity."

"I now come to the last and best edition of the entire works of Voltaire, by Renouard, just completed in 60 octavo volumes,

with 113 vignettes, and 47 portraits. The designs of Moreau le Jeune embellish this splendid and estimable production; but of designs and graphic embellishments to Voltaire, there is no end."-Dibdin's Library Companion, p. 770.

"In less than six years (says Brunet,) under the article Voltaire, there have been seven editions (up to 1820) of one of the most voluminous writers in the French language, and this even, when more than 30,000 copies were already in the hands of the public. The great name of Voltaire presents the only solution to what may truly be called a literary wonder."

Peignot gives the following list of editions of Voltaire, with the number printed, since 1748:

Euvres de Voltaire, Dresde, 1748-54, 10 vols. 8vo.

-Genève, 1756, et suiv. at first 17 vols. 8vo. the number of which was at length carried to 40 vols.

4,500.

Genève, 1768, et suiv. 45 vols. 4to. Number printed,

-Genève, 1775, 4 vols. 8vo. Number printed, 6000. -Kehl, (Beaumarchais edition,) 1784 et suiv. 70 vols. 8vo. Number printed, 28,000.

- Kehl, 1785, 92 vols. 12mo. Number printed, 15,000.

-

Basle and Gotha, 1784 et suiv. 71 vols. 8vo. Number

printed, 6000.

Lyon, La Mollière, 1791, 100 vols. 12mo.

Basle and Deux Ponts, 1792, 100 vols. 12mo.

Paris, (Palissot's edition,) 1792, 55 vols. 8vo. Number printed, 500.

Euvres choisies. Paris, Servière, 1798, 40 vols. 8vo.

Paris (stereotype) 1800 et suiv. 54 vols. 18mo. and 12mo.

Number printed, 2,500.

-Paris, Nicole, 1810, 21 vols. 8vo. and 12mo.

The editions complete, with Notes, Additions, Corrections, &c. since 1817, are as follow: