Liberty, then, on which so many volumes have been written, reduced to its proper sense, is only the power of acting. In what sense must the expression "this man is free" be spoken? In the same sense in which we use the words health, strength, and happiness. Man is not always strong, healthy, or happy. A great passion, a great obstacle, may deprive him of his liberty, or power of action. The words liberty and free-will are, then, abstractions, general terms, like beauty, goodness, justice. These terms do not signify that all men are always handsome, good, and just, neither are they always free. Further, liberty being only the power of acting,-what is this power? It is the effect of the constitution, and the actual state of our organs. Leibnitz would solve a problem of geometry, but falls into an apoplexy: he certainly has not the liberty to solve his problem. A vigorous young man, passionately in love, who holds his willing mistress in his arms, is he free to subdue his passion? doubtless not. He has the power of enjoying, and has not the power to abstain. Locke then is very right in calling liberty, power. When can this young man abstain, notwithstanding the violence of his passion? when a stronger idea shall determine the springs of his soul and body to the contrary. ter; in both cases, we are only wheels to the machine of the world. It is a foolish common-place expression, that without this pretended fredom of will, rewards and punishments are useless. Reason, and you will conclude quite the contrary. If, when a robber is executed, his accomplice, who sees him suffer, has the liberty of not being frightened at the punishment; if his will determines of itself, he will go from the foot of the scaffold to assassinate on the high road; if struck with horror, he experiences an insurmountable terror, he will no longer thieve. The punishment of his companion will become useful to him, and moreover prove to society that his will is not free. Liberty, then, is not and cannot be anything but the power of doing what we will. That is what philosophy teaches us. But, if we consider liberty in the theological sense, it is so sublime a matter, that profane eyes may not be raised so high. FRENCH LANGUAGE. THE French language did not begin to assume a regular form until the tenth century; it sprang from the remains of the Latin and the Celtic, mixed with a few Teutonic words. This language was, in the first instance, the provincial Roman, and the Teutonic was the language But how? have other animals the same of the courts, until the time of Charles liberty, the same power? Why not? the Bald. The Teutonic remained the They have sense, memory, sentiment, and only language in Germany, after the perceptions like ourselves; they act spon- grand epoch of the division in 433. The taneously as we do. They must, also, like rustic Roman prevailed in western us, have the power of acting by virtue of France: the inhabitants of the Pays de their perception, and of the play of their Vaud, of the Valais, of the valley of Enį gadieu, and some other cantons, still preserve some manifest vestiges of this idiom. organs. We exclaim,-If it be thus, all things are machines merely; everything in the universe is subjected to the eternal laws. Well, would you have everything rendered subject to a million of blind caprices? Either all is the consequence of, the nature of things, or, all is the effect of the eternal order of an absolute mas At the commencement of the eleventh century, French began to be written; but this French retained more of romance or rustic Roman than of the language of the present day. The romane of Philomena, written in the tenth cen The French tongue acquired strength from the pen of Montaigne, but still wanted elevation and harmony. Ronsard tury, is not very different in language, a version of the elegant simplicity of from that of the laws of the Normans. Plutarch. We cannot yet trace the original Celtic, Latin, and German. The words which signify the members of the human body, or things in daily use, which have no re-injured the language, by introducing into lation to the Latin or German, are of an- French poetry the Greek compounds, cient Gallic or Celtic, as tete, jambe, derivable from the physicians. Malsabre, point, aller, parler, écouter, re- herbe partly repaired the fault of Rongarder, crier, cotume, ensemble, and sard. It became more lofty and harmomany more of the same kind. The greater nious by the establishment of the French part of the warlike phrases were French Academy, and finally in the age of Louis or German, as marche, halte, maréchal, XIV. acquired the perfection by which it bivouac, lansquenet. Almost all the rest is now distinguised. are Latin, and the Latin words have been all abridged, according to the usage and genius of the nations of the north. The genius of the French language, for every language has its genius, is clearness and order. This genius consists in the facility which a language possesses of In the twelfth century, some terms expressing itself more or less happily, were borrowed from the philosophy of and of employing or rejecting the famiAristotle; and, towards the sixteenth liar terms of other languages. The century, Greek names were found for French tongue having no declensions, and the parts of the human body, and for its being aided by articles, cannot adopt the maladies and their remedies. Although inversions of the Greek and the Latin; the language was then enriched with the words are necessarily arranged agreeGreek, and aided from the time of ably to the course of the ideas. We can Charles VIII. with considerable acces-3 only say in one way, "Plancus a pris sions from the Italian, already arrived at soin des affaires de Cæsar;" but this perfection, it did not require a regular phrase in Latin, "Res Cæsaris, Plancus form. Francis I. abolished the custom diligenter curavit," may be arranged in a of pleading and of judging in Latin, hundred and twenty different forms withwhich proved the barbarism of a lan- out injuring the sense or rules of the guage which could not be used in public language. The auxiliary verbs, which proceeding a pernicious custom to the lengthen and weaken phrases in the monatives, whose fortunes were regulated dern tongues, render that of France still in a language which they could not un- less adapted to the lapidary style. Its } derstand. It then became necessary to auxiliary verbs, its pronouns, its articles, cultivate the French, but the language its deficiency of declinable participles, was neither noble nor regular, and its and lastly, its uniformity of position, presyntax was altogether capricious. The clude the exhibition of much enthusiasm genius of its conversation being turned in poetry; it possesses fewer capabilities of towards pleasantry, the language became this nature than the Italian and the Engfertile in smart and lively expressions, lish; but this constraint and slavery renbut exceedingly barren in dignified and der it more proper for tragedy and harmonious phrases; whence it arises comedy than any language in Europe. that in the dictionaries of rhymes, The natural order in which the French twenty suitable words are found for people are obliged to express their comic poetry for one of poetry of a more thoughts and construct their phrases, inelevated nature. This was the cause that fuses into their speech a facility and Marot never succeeded in the serious amenity which please everybody; and style, and that Amyot was unable to give the genius of the nation suiting with the } genius of the language, has produced a greater number of books agreeably written than are to be found among any other people. Social freedom and politeness having been for a long time established in France, the language has acquired a delicacy of expression, and a natural refinement, which are seldom to be found out of it. This refinement has occasionally been carried too far: but men of taste have always known how to reduce it within due bounds. Many persons have maintained that the French language has been impoverished since the days of Montaigne and Amyot, because expressions abound in these authors which are no longer employed; but these are for the most part terms for which equivalents have been found. It has been enriched with a number of noble and energetic expressions, and, without adverting to the eloquence of matter, has certainly that of speech. It was during the reign of Louis XIV., as already observed, that the language was fixed. Whatever changes time and caprice may have in store, the good authors of the seventeenth and eighteenth ccnturies will always serve for models. FRIENDSHIP. THE temple of friendship has long been known by name, but it is well known that it has been very little frequented: as the following verses pleasantly observe Orestes, Pylades, Pirithous, Achates, and the tender Nisus, were all genuine friends and great heroes; but, alas ! existent only { in fable. En vieux langage on voit sur la façade, Friendship commands more than love and esteem. Love thy neighbour signifies assist thy neighbour, but not-enjoy his conversation with pleasure, if he be tiresome; confide to him thy secrets, if he be a tatler; or lend him thy money, if he be a spendthrift. Friendship is the marriage of the soul, and this marriage is liable to divorce. It is a tacit contract between two sensible and virtuous persons. I say sensible, for a monk or a hermit cannot be so, who lives without knowing friendship-I say virtuous, for the wicked have only accomplices, the voluptuous companions, the interested associates; politicians assemble factions, the generality of idle men have connexions, princes courtiersvirtuous men alone possess friends Circumstances created no right to expect that France would be distinguished in philosophy. A Gothic government extinguished all kind of illumination during more than twelve centuries; and Cethegus was the accomplice of Catiprofessors of error, paid for brutalising line, and Mæcenas the courtier of Octahuman nature, more increased the dark-vius; but Cicero was the friend of Atticus. ness. Nevertheless, there is more philo- What is caused by this contract between sophy in Paris than in any town on earth, two tender honest minds? Its obligations and possibly than in all the towns putare stronger or weaker, according to the together, excepting London. The spirit degrees of sensibility, and the number of of reason has even penetrated into the services rendered. provinces. In a word, the French genius is probably at present equal to that of England in philosophy; while for the last fourscore years France has been superior to all other nations in literature; and has undeniably taken the lead in the courtesies of society, and in that easy and natural politeness, which is improperly termed urbanity. The enthusiasm of friendship has been stronger among the Greeks and Arabs than among us. The tales that these people have imagined on the subject of friendship, are admirable: we have none to compare to them. We are rather dry and reserved in everything. I see no great trait of friendship either in our histories, romances, or theatre. The only friendship spoken of among the very place which, it is said, was the Jews, was that which subsisted be- strewed with the dead and dying bodies tween Jonathan and David. It is said of two thousand young gentlemen, murthat David loved him with a love stronger dered near the Faubourg St. Antoine, than that of women; but it is also said { because one man in a red cassock disthat David, after the death of his friend, { pleased some others in black ones! dispossessed Mephibosheth his son, and} caused him to be put to death. Friendship was a point of religion and legislation among the Greeks. The Thebans had a regiment of lovers-a fine regiment! some have taken it for a regiment of nonconformists. They are deceived it is taking a shameful accident for a noble principle. Friendship, among the Greeks, was prescribed by the laws and religion. Manners countenanced abuses, but not the laws. FRIVOLITY. Who could pass the Rue de la Féronerie without shedding tears and fallin g into paroxysms of rage against the holy and abominable principles which plunged the sword into the heart of the best of men, and of the greatest of kings? We could not walk a step in the streets of Paris on St. Bartholomew's day, without saying, It was here that one of my ancestors was murdered for the love of God: it was here that one of my mother's family was dragged bleeding and mangled; it was here that one half of my countrymen murdered the other. Happily, men are so light, so frivolous, so struck with the present and insensible to the past, that in ten thousand there are not above two or three who make these reflections. WHAT persuades me still more of the existence of providence, said the profound author of "Bacha Billeboquet," is, that to console us for our innumerable miseries, nature has made us frivolous. We are sometimes ruminating oxen, overcome How many boon companions have I by the weight of our yoke; sometimes seen, who, after the loss of children, dispersed doves, tremblingly endeavour- {wives, mistresses, fortune, and even health ing to avoid the claws of the vulture, itself, have eagerly resorted to a party to stained with the blood of our companions; { retail a piece of scandal, or to a supper foxes, pursued by dogs; and tigers, who devour one another. Then we suddenly become butterflies; and forget, in our volatile winnowings, all the horrors that we have experienced. If we were not frivolous, what man without shuddering could live in a town in which the wife of a Marshal of France, a lady of honour to the queen, was burnt, under the pretext that she had killed a white cock by moonlight; or in the same town in which Marshal Marillac was assassinated according to form, pursuant to a sentence passed by judicial murderers appointed by a priest in his own country-house, in which he embraced Marion de Lorme while these robed wretches executed his sanguinary wishes? Could a man say to himself, without trembling in every nerve, and having his heart frozen with horror, Here I am, in to tell humorous stories. Solidity con{sists chiefly in a uniformity of ideas. It has been said, that a man of sense should invariably think in the same way: reduced to such an alternative, it would be better not to have been born. The ancients never invented a finer fable than that which bestowed a cup of the water of Lethe { on all who entered the Elysian fields. Would you tolerate life, mortals, forget yourselves, and enjoy it. GARAGANTUA. If ever a reputation was fixed on a solid basis, it is that of Garagantua. Yet in the present age of philosophy and criticism, some rash and daring minds have started forward, who have ventured to deny the prodigies believed respecting this extraordinary man- persons who have carried their scepticism so far, as even to doubt his very existence. It is probable that the gala of the Ita- of Venus: thus, to talk gallantries, to lians, and the galan of the Spaniards, give gallantries, to have gallantries, to are derived from the word gal, which contract a gallantry, express very differseems to be originally Celtic: hence, was ent meanings. Nearly all the terms insensibly formed galiant, which signifies which occur frequently in conversation a man forward, or eager to please. The acquire, in the same manner, various term received an improved and more shades of meaning, which it is difficult to noble signification in the times of chivalry, discriminate: the meaning of terms of when the desire to please manifested it-art is more precise and less arbitrary. self in feats of arms, and personal conflict. To conduct himself gallantly, to extricate himself from an affair gallantly, implies, even at present, a man's conducting himself conformably to principle and honour. A gallant man, among the English, signifies a man of courage; in France it means more-a man of noble general demeanour. A gallant (un homme galant), is totally different from a gallant man, (un galant homme); the latter means a man of respectable and How is it possible, they ask, that there honourable feeling the former, some- should have existed in the sixteenth centhing nearer the character of a petit tury a distinguished hero, never mentioned maitre, a man successfully addicted to by a single contemporary, by St. Ignaintrigue. Being gallant (être galant), in tius, Cardinal Capitan, Galileo, or Guicgeneral implies an assiduity to please byciardini, and respecting whom the regisstudious attentions, and flattering defer- ters of the Sorbonne do not contain the ence. "He was exceedingly gallant to slightest notice? those ladies," means merely, he behaved more than politely to them; but being the gallant of a lady, is an expression of stronger meaning, it signifies being her lover; the word is scarcely any longer in use in this sense, except in low or familiar poetry. A gallant is not merely a His mother, Gargamelle, was delivered man devoted to and successful in intrigue, of him from the left ear. Almost at the but the term implies, moreover, some-instant of his birth he called out for drink, what of impudence and effrontery, in with a voice that was heard even in the which sense Fontaine uses it in the fol-districts of Beauce and Vivarais. Sixteen lowing verse, Mais un galant, chercheur des pucelages. Thus are various meanings attached to the same word. The case is similar with the term gallantry, which sometimes signifies a disposition to coquetry, and a habit of flattery; sometimes a present of some elegant toy, or piece of jewelry; sometimes intrigue, with one woman or with many; and latterly, it has even been applied to signify ironically the favours Investigate the histories of France, of Germany, of England, Spain, and other countries, and you find not a single word about Garagantua. His whole life, from his birth to his death, is a tissue of in{conceivable prodigies. ells of cloth were required to make him breeches, and a hundred hides of brown cows were used in his shoes. He had not attained the age of twelve years before he gained a great battle, and founded the abbey of Théléme. Madame Badebec was given to him in marriage, and Badebec is proved to be a Syrian name. He is represented to have devoured six pilgrims in a mere sallad, and the river Seine is stated to have flowed entirely from his person, so that the Parisians are |