Feuilles d'Automne," entitled "Lorsque l'enfant paraît," which I am inclined to regard as one of his lyrical masterpieces.

Very touching also are many of the poems in the fourth book of "Les Contemplations," devoted to the memory of his beloved daughter, whose early death cast so dark a shadow over his life. From these tender reminiscences, I select the following picture of her infancy.

"Elle avait pris ce pli dans son age enfantin

De venir dans ma chambre un peu chaque matin;
Je l'attendais ainsi qu'un rayon qu'on espère;
Elle entrait et disait: Bonjour, mon petit père ;'
Prenait ma plume, ouvrait mes livres, s'asseyait
Sur mon lit, derangeait mes papiers, et riait,
Puis soudain s'en allait comme un oiseau qui passe.
Alors, je reprenais, la tête un peu moins lasse,
Mon œuvre interrompue, et, tout en écrivant,
Parmi mes manuscrits je rencontrais souvent
Quelque arabesque folle et qu'elle avait tracée,
Et maintes pages blanches entre ses mains froissées,
Où, je ne sais comment, venaient mes plus doux vers.
Elle aimait Dieu, les fleurs, les astres, les près verts,
Et c'était un esprit avant d'être une femme.
Son regard reflétait le clarté de son âme.

C'était ma fée,

Et le doux astre de mes yeux."

It is, however, in one of his later works, "L'art d' être grand pére," that his worship of childhood and babyhood finds its most perfect embodiment. There is something inexpressibly touching in the aspect of the venerable poet, after the wreck of his fondly cherished hopes for his beloved country, after the terrible calamity which had overshadowed his home, a proscript and an exile-finding solace in the sweet companionship of his almost infant grandchildren, George and La Petite Jeanne, whom he has immortalized in song.

Among the numerous charming poems in the volume, I am tempted to select for special notice the following: "Jeanne fait son entré;" 66 L'autre ; 'La mise en liberté;" the three poems entitled "Jeanne Endormie '

66

and "Georges et Jeanne;" which contains the following delightful description of their infantine prattle.

"Ce n'est pas la parole, ô ciel bleu, c'est la verbe ;
C'est la langue infinie, innocente et superbe,
Que soupirent les vents, les forêts et les flots:

Ces mots mystérieux que Jeanne dit à George,
C'est l'idylle du cygne avec le rouge-gorge,
Ce sont les questions que les abeilles font,
Et que le lys naïf pose au moineau profond.

O Jeanne! Georges! Voix dont j'ai le cœur saisi !
Si les astres chantaient ils bégaieraient ainsi."

Regret has been expressed that the prevailing quietude pervading the sanctuary dedicated to La petite Jeanne and Georges, seldom broken except by the sweet voices and the joyous laughter of the little ones, should occasionally be disturbed by harsh and discordant notes, as when the poet's intense hatred of priestly bigotry and intolerance finds expression in such poems as "L'immaculée conception," "Le Syllabus," and "A propos de la loi dite liberté de l'enseignment," etc.

It must, nevertheless, be confessed that these poems contain passages of great beauty, and eminently characteristic of the author. As illustrating this remark, I am tempted to quote the following stanzas from "Le Syllabus: "

"Les prêtres vont criant: Anathème! Anathème!
Mais la nature dit de toutes parts: Je t'aime!

Venez enfants; le jour

Est partout, et partout on voit la joie éclore;
Et l'infini n'a pas plus d'azur et d'aurore

Que l'âme n'a d'amour.

“J'ai fait la grosse voix contre ces noirs pygmées;
Mais ne me craignez pas; les fleurs sont embaumées,
Les bois sont triomphants;

Le printemps est la fête immense, et nous en sommes;
Venez, j'ai quelquefois fait peur aux petits hommes,
Non aux petits enfants."

In his passionate denunciations of tyranny and oppression, under all their forms; in his recognition of the inherent dignity of human nature, together with the sacredness of its primal affections; and in his anticipation of a higher social ideal, based upon truth, justice, faith, and love,—a true kingdom of heaven upon earth, as humanity's final goal, Victor Hugo must be regarded, in conjunction with other poet-seers, as an important factor in carrying on the great work of social amelioration.

To him, moreover, belongs the honour of being the first poet to experience the deep sense of mystery which broods over childhood, apart from Wordsworth's theory of its anti-natal dreams, and the poems in which he gives such felicitous expression to the various emotions awakened by its subtle and ineffable charm, appear to me to be his unique and most original contribution to the poetry of the nineteenth century.

ENGLAND.

ARTHUR HUGH CLOUGH. 1819-1861.

MATTHEW ARNOLD.

1822-1888.

It is interesting to compare, under some of their more salient features, the epoch of the French Revolution and the beginning of the nineteenth century, with the later decades of the latter, and to note their points of analogy and contrast.

We have seen how the intense sympathy which greeted the Revolution, with its enthusiasm of Humanity and its passion for liberty, was succeeded by a prolonged period of reaction, and how, eventually, its underlying principles, especially that of universal brotherhood, were proclaimed anew, first by Shelley and subsequently by Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

The passing of the Reform_Bill in 1832 may be regarded as inaugurating in England that bloodless revolution of which Shelley had been the evangelist, and which, by successive extensions of the suffrage, has culminated in placing supreme power in the hands of the people; thus realizing the prophecy of Lord Byron, that the people would eventually triumph; fortunately, however, without the blood and tears which, in accordance with his prediction, were to accompany that result.

Simultaneously with the extension of political power to the millions, efforts have been made to meet their requirements, moral and intellectual, as well as physical, and thus to realize those aspirations after social regeneration which had their birth with the Revolution. Accordingly, one of the most striking features of the

latter half of the nineteenth century is the spirit of practical philanthropy, which has called into the field an army of workers, striving to remove all obstacles to social progress; to raise the masses to a higher level; to introduce a state of society which shall secure to all its members the rights inherent to our common humanity, and who, by their example, are enforcing the great principle that “the highest political watchword is not Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, nor yet Solidarity, but Service."

The higher education of women, the wider spheres of usefulness open to them, and the important part taken by them in the great work of social amelioration, are all features of the age in harmony with the fervent aspirations of which, early in the century, Shelley had been the mouthpiece. With what joy would he have listened to the words in which our great living bard has given expression to the principle, the recognition of which he had himself with fervid eloquence proclaimed, as an essential condition of man's highest well-being.

"The woman's cause is man's: they rise or sink
Together, dwarf'd or godlike, bond or free."

To carry social Reform into the arena of politics, and to endeavour, through the medium of legislation, to realize the vision of a regenerated society which fired men's minds at the outbreak of the Revolution is in some quarters regarded as the great problem of the present day. Accordingly, when viewed under their social and political aspects, a certain continuity may be traced between the Revolutionary epoch and the later decades of the nineteenth century. Striking, however, is the contrast when viewed under their intellectual and spiritual aspects. In England, the Revolutionary spirit, during its earlier manifestations, had been directed almost exclusively against social and political grievances, leaving unassailed the religious belief of the age as embodied in the popular theology.

A certain amount of scepticism had, it is true, prevailed in the eighteenth century; it had, however, been