sult of this mighty undertaking, and if the success had been proportionate to the talent and the zeal of most of those who were engaged in the cause, the total destruction of all social and religious principles would have been the consequence of their efforts; but fortunately for society, those efforts proved unavailing; the fallacy of the opinions broached in the work, on religion, morals, and politics became evident, when an attempt was made to reduce them into practice; the immense progress which the sciences have since made, have greatly diminished, if not totally annihilated the value of its scientific treatises, and the "Encyclopédie" (now far surpassed in point of merit and of interest by the Encyclopédie méthodique") is only referred to on account of the value of some of its literary articles, and particularly of its excellent preface, written by D'Alembert, and remarkable both for the ideas it contains, and the happy manner in which they are expressed.

"

Although this work had not all the success that its projectors expected, its appearance had a great influence upon society at large, an influence which may be considered to have lasted until, as has already been observed, experience fully proved the absurdity of the doctrines, and the danger of the principles it advocated.

As we approach nearer our own time, we find

two writers well deserving of our attention. The first of these, Buffon, claims a place by the side of Voltaire, Montesquieu, and Rousseau. Endowed with a vivid imagination, and possessing to a high degree the power of expressing his thoughts in language at once correct and animated, he has described the beauties and wonders of nature in language worthy of his subject, and combines in his descriptions, which appear as so many pictures, the minute delineations of the naturalist with the bold and spirited expositions of the poet. Never, indeed, was nature painted on so grand a scale, or with so much charm; and Buffon is alike successful when representing her in her wildest, or in her most cultivated state, when calling our attention to the minute and exquisite beauties of the humming bird, or to the sublime terrors of the stupendous volcano. Great however, as Buffon appears as a writer, he is not altogether free from reproach. On perusing his elegant and glowing pages, it is sometimes impossible not to perceive that when calling to his aid all the charms of art, he appears to forget the precept laid down by the poet, Artis est celare artem ; while on the other hand, when closing the volume, we cannot help regretting that Buffon has not given to his great work the additional

charm which it would have possessed, if he had not remained satisfied with describing what he saw, but had also spoken of what he felt; if while so powerfully describing the wonders of the creation, he had spoken of the wonderful creator, if on tracing the chain of human existence, he had placed one connecting link between earth and heaven, and raising, for one moment, his eyes from the scene he so vividly described, he had led us to look with him from "Nature's wonders up to Nature's God."

Neither of the charges here brought against Buffon, can be justly laid to Bernardin de St. Pierre, the other writer alluded to above. Possessing a sensibility inferior to that of no writer except Rousseau, of whom he was the friend, and may be considered the disciple, St. Pierre, keenly alive to all the beauties of nature, describes her with all the warmth of a lover, and in his glowing pages we frequently find descriptions equal in beauty to those of Buffon, but giving evidence of one who has felt as well as seen what he describes. His language indeed, has not always the extreme correctness of Buffon's, but the very freedom with which he writes, giving to his compositions, a more natural appearance, imparts an additional charm to his pages, while the love

of man as well as of nature, and the firm and fond belief in a wise and kind providence, which are evident throughout his works, render them calculated to please the man of sense and piety as well as the man of taste. With St. Pierre the love of man seems to have been not only an innate feeling but a ruling passion, while for the depth of his religious feelings he was indebted to a life of trials and tribulation; to the former we owe the efforts he made both in his life and works to render men happier, and from the latter arises that gentle spirit of resignation apparent in all he wrote, and which makes him speak of suffering, as accessory to the welfare of man, tell us that men are good only in proportion as they are unhappy, and lead him to compare human misery to the black mountain of Bember, at the extremity of the burning kingdom of Lahor; the ascent to which presents nothing to the eye but barren rocks, but when the summit is attained, the heavens are above your head, and the kingdom of Cachemire at your feet. It is not, however, on these accounts alone, that St. Pierre merits our attention, but as being also the founder of a new species of literature in France, and as having prepared that great change which has taken, and is still taking place, in French Literature,

Rousseau excepted, most of the writers who had preceded St. Pierre, had given expression to their thoughts rather than to their feelings; with them literature seems to have belonged to the head and not to the heart, while it is from the heart that the compositions of St. Pierre, like those of Roussean, derive their greatest charm, with this difference, however, that the feelings which Rousseau expresses and excites, all centre in himself, while those produced by the writings of St. Pierre, are not only of a gentler kind, but of a more expansive nature.

While this delightful writer was thus calling the attention of his countrymen away from the heartless compositions and pernicious doctrines of the Philosophes, and setting before their eyes enchanting pictures of happiness and purity, political agitation was at its height, the clouds that had so long hung over France, were rapidly lowering, the storm which for centuries had been collecting, was about to burst, and that great and awful change was at hand which will ever be remembered by future generations as the FRENCH REVOLUTION. It has been frequently asserted that the writings of Voltaire, Rousseau, and their associates or disciples, were instrumental in producing that memorable event. The hypothesis, though it may have