After these quotations, it is needless to say what the merits of M. De Tocqueville's work are. He possesses the abstract thought, the philosophic temperament, the reflecting mind, which enable him to follow, with a correct and discerning eye, the _general_ course of events. He does not attach himself to individual men,--he is no hero-worshipper. His narrative has not the interest of biography, or of histories framed on its model. It has not the dramatic air of Thierry, the genius of Chateaubriand, or the pictorial powers of Michelet. It is, on that account, not likely to be so generally popular as the works of any of these eminent writers. It resembles more nearly the admirable "Sketches of the Progress of Society," to be found in the works of Guizot and Sismondi. As such, it possesses very high merit, and will doubtless take its place among the standard works of French history. Perhaps his work is more worthy of study, and more likely to be esteemed by thinking men in other countries than his own: for France has gone through the convulsions consequent on the social and moral evils which he has so well portrayed; but other nations are only in their commencement. What to the one is history, to the other, if not averted, may be prophecy. FOOTNOTES: [1] _Histoire Philosophique du Regne de Louis XV._ Par M. Le Comte DE TOCQUEVILLE. 2 Vols. Paris, 1847. [2] _Histoire Philosophique du Regne de Louis XV._ [3] The Duchess de Berri was an apt scholar in the lessons which her father taught her. One evening, after copious libations, a fancy seized them to represent the Judgment of Paris. The Princess played the part of Venus; two of the Regent's mistresses those of Minerva and Juno. "_The three Goddesses appeared in the costume in which those in the tale displayed themselves to the son of Priam._" DE TOCQUEVILLE. Vol. i. p. 26--note. [4] Alluding to the sublime words of the Father Edgeworth to Louis XVI., at the foot of the scaffold:--"Fils de St Louis, montez au ciel!" LETTERS ON THE TRUTHS CONTAINED IN POPULAR SUPERSTITIONS. IV.--REAL GHOSTS, AND SECOND-SIGHT. Dear Archy,--You will not expect, after my last letter, that under the title of real ghosts, I am going to introduce to your acquaintance a set of personages resembling Madame Tussaud's wax-work, done in air--filmy gentlemen, in spectral blue coats, gray trousers, Wellingtons; and semi-transparent ladies clad from the looms of the other world. No, Nicolai's case, has extinguished that delusion. The visitant and his dress are figments of the imagination _always_. They are as unreal and subjective as the figures we see in our dreams. They are fancy's progeny, having under pressing circumstances acting rank, as realities. But, Archy, do dreams never come true? Let them plead their own cause. Enter Dream.