present French writers, who are not men of science, is Châteaubriand. He depends however for his notoriety principally on his Atala, the first and perhaps the best of his productions. This sweet and interesting tale has been long since translated into all the languages of Europe, and has been deservedly popular in all. But the Genie du Christianisme, the Martyrs, and the Itinéraire are hardly known to us by name.

Châteaubriand is of a good family of the ancient régime. When very young, he visited this country, and was introduced to general Washington. We have seen persons here that re member to have conversed with him and his travelling companjon at Philadelphia. While in America he was for some time among the aborigines, and obtained that accurate idea of their character and manners, which we find delineated in Atala. The grandeur of our natural scenes seems to have made much impression on his mind, and probably strengthened his original taste for the romantic and the sublime. Soon after his return from this country he visited England, and, from his writings, he seems to have travelled in most of the other states of Europe. He probably settled himself at Paris about the beginning of this century, for in a year or two after, he published Atala, which forms a part of the Genius of Christianity, but appeared before it. This circumstance, and the general aspect of Atala, remind one of Paul and Virginia, which probably suggested the idea, but did not serve as a model. Atala was received with the highest applause, and the larger work to which it appertains increased still further the reputation of Châteaubriand, and placed him at once among the most distinguished of his countrymen. This work illustrates very fully one distinguishing trait in his character, a deep, sincere, and superstitious piety. He professes and boasts of his attachment to the Roman catholic religion, and displays in defence of it the enthusiasm of warm feeling and of sincere conviction. Excited rather than satisfied by success, he now projected the plan of the Martyrs. This, he says in the preface, was intended to illustrate the idea, that the Christian theology is equally favorable to poetry with the Grecian mythology; and he adds, that being necessitated by this intention to choose a

subject, which should combine them both, he was of course directed to the period when the Christian religion began to prevail over the Grecian in the Roman empire. It may be doubted whether this was the real or at least the only motive for his writing the Martyrs. Having fixed on his plan however, from whatever motive, he pursued the execution of it with all the ardor of an enthusiast; and finding, as he says, that something was wanting to give life and identity to his descriptions, and wishing to raise still higher his own interest in the scenes of his story, he took the singular resolution of travelling through Greece, Palestine, Egypt, and Spain, for the sole purpose of acquiring materials for the improvement of his work. Since the publication of the Martyrs, he has given the public an account of this journey in his Itinerary. This is a work that belongs to the exceptionable class of sentimental journies, but is on the whole very interesting, He relates in it that he proceeded by land to Venice, and theré embarked in a Greek ship, with an engagement to be landed on the south coast of the Morea. He landed near Messene, and proceed from there to Sparta, where he was fortunate enough to settle the local situation of the city of Lacedæmon, which before was a matter of dispute among antiquarians. From Sparta he went to Athens, and in the neighbourhood of the site of old Mycena, stumbled over a subterra nean sepulchre, which he supposes to be that of Egisthus and Clytemnestra. At Athens he praises very much the hospitali ty and fine taste of the French Consul, Fauvel, who is also mentioned with similar expressions of feeling by lord Byron, in the notes to Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, and, like lord Byron, Châteaubriand dwells with grief and indignation on the Gothic ravages, lately made by lord Elgin in the venerable Parthenon. After passing a week at Athens he sailed to Constantinople, and having obtained the necessary passports, embarked for the Holy Land, glancing as he passed on the Plain of Troy and the top of woody Ida. His minute description of Palestine is highly satisfactory, As the Church of St. Sepulchre has since been burnt, he is probably the last traveller that ever saw that remarkable building. He passed a short time in Egypt, and from there, after a long and stormy passage of forty five days,

reached Africa; and at Carthage he had the singular success of fixing, for the second time, the disputed site of an ancient city. From Africa he returned through Spain, accomplishing this long and eventful journey in less than a year.

Soon after his return, having taken advantage of the materials thus collected to improve, correct, and polish his work, Châteaubriand published the Martyrs. It had been looked for with anxiety, and was received with great interest, though not with universal praise. The periodical journals however extolled it very highly, and in the general opinion it added a good deal to the reputation of the writer. The only work of his that has appeared since the publication of the Martyrs is the Itine, rary, mentioned above; and in a passage of the former work he bids farewell with all due ceremony to the Muse, and intimates that his future literary labors will be devoted to a history of the French Revolution. The writer of the present article was informed however at Paris, that notwithstanding this renunciation, he is now employed in writing a tragedy in prose, on the life of Moses. In the course of last year, a seat became vacant in the second class of the National Institute, by the death of Chénier, the famous revolutionary poet, and Châteaubriand was selected to fill it. It is customary on these occasions for the new member on his reception to deliver to the class an address, being a eulogy of his predecessor; and of course it was the duty of Châteaubriand to eulogize Chénier. His regard to truth however could not permit him to bestow✅unmixed approbation; so that the address, which he prepared, consisted of commendations and acknowledgements of his undisputed talents, tempered by many keen reflections on the exsesses and defects of his moral character. The Academy thought a performance of this kind unsuitable to the occasion, and refused to permit him to deliver it. Châteaubriand had too much independence to sacrifice his opinion, and he never took his seat in the Institute.

T

->He now lives at Sceaux, a village in the neighbourhood of Paris, retired from society, and depending on his literary labors for subsistence. He has not escaped the tribute of calumny and abuse, which is usually bestowed on distinguished merit of

every kind: His works have been made the objects of every form of attack. Various publications have appeared, intended to ridicule the Martyrs and the Itinerary. One in particular, taking advantage of a hill near Paris, called Mount Calvary; gives a parody on his Travels, under the name of an Itinéraire from Lutèce to Mt. Calvaire, by M. de Maisonterne, with a frontispiece representing the discovery of the tomb of Egisthus and Clytemnestra, under the similitude of the ass of M. de Maisonterne making a false step, and discovering the tomb of Cucuphin. By way of preface to the third edition of the Martyrs', the author published an essay, in which he examines the criticisms that have appeared upon the poem, and defends himself as well as he can from the charges that have been made against him.

1

The object of the work is to celebrate the triumph of the Christian religion over paganism, which is considered as effected by its establishment in the Roman empire. The name of the hero is Eudorus, descended from the family of Philopoemen, the last of the Grecians; and his partner in suffering and in merit is Cymodoce, the daughter of Demodocus, the priest and descendant of Homer. The poet begins with the proposition of his general plan, and the invocation of the Muses of sacred and fabulous poetry, and then introduces us to the hero, and heroine of the tale. He relates that Demodocus was the last de scendant of those families, formerly living in Chios, that derived their descent from Homer. He was married in his youth to Epicharis, and removed with her to Gortyna in Crete, where they resided on the banks of the river Lethe. Soon after, Cymodoce was born, and in the very grove where the three wise men of Plato discoursed on law. Epicharis died soon after, and her husband, willing to abandon a situation that was now unpleasant to him, complied with a request from the Messenians to become the priest in a temple, which they had just erected in honor of Homer. In this peaceable retreat his daughter grew apace in beauty and accomplishments, and attracted the notice of Hierocles, proconsul of Achaia, who requested her hand in marriage, and was refused. Demodocus, to relieve his daughter from the proconsul's importunity, made

her priestess of the Muses. One night, after celebrating the festival of Diana of Limna, she was returning alone over the mountains to her father's house, and more attentive to recollections of nymphs and goddesses than her way, she lost herself, and took refuge in a grotto till morning. Here she was surprised with the sight of what she thought at first a sleeping divinity, but which proved to be no other than Eudorus, the son of Lasthénès, a rich farmer of Arcadia. After mutual explanations, Eudorus conducts her home; but she neglects to invite him to come in with her. This would even now be thought uncivil, and was considered by Demodocus, in the high spirit of ancient hospitality, quite intolerable. He chides his daughter severely for the neglect, and determines to make a visit of apol ogy to Eudorus. The carriage is prepared, a cup, whose ge nealogy is traced to Homer, is placed in it for a present, and they depart for the home of Lasthénès. Thus ends the first

book.

The second book, says the author in his notes, seems to have given more satisfaction than any other. Demodocus and Cy modoce, after a prosperous journey of a day and a half, arriv ed at the house of Lasthénès, whom they found waiting at the gate to invite strangers to enter. The whole family were gathering the harvest, and a pleasant picture is drawn of the primitive simplicity of their manners, copied from the story of Ruth. Demodocus presents his cup to Eudorus, not without surprise to find the tribune and the minister in the shape of a simple laborer. He then congratulates Lasthénès on his good fortune:

"Mon hôte, dit Demodocus à Lasthénès, tu me sembles mener ici la vie du divin Nestor. Je ne me souviens pas d'avoir vu la peinture d' une scène pareille, si ce n'est sur le bouclier d' Achille. Vulcain y avoit gravé un roi au milieu des moissonneurs; ce pasteur des peuples, plein de joie tenoit en silence son sceptre levé au dessus des sillons. Il ne manque ici que le sacrifice du taureau sous le chêne de Jupiter. Quelle abondante moisson! Que d'esclaves laborieux et fidèles!-Les moissonneurs ne sont pas mes esclaves, rép liqua Lasthénès. Ma réligion me défend d'en avoir. Je leur ai donné la liberté. Lasthénès, dit alors Demodocus, je commence à comprendre, que la renommée, cette voix de Jupiter, m' avoit appris la vérité. Tu auras sans doute embrassé cette secte nouvelle, qui adore un Dieu inconnu à nos ancêtres. Lasthénès répondit, Je