CONTENTS. PAGE I. FRENCH LITERATURE 5 II. FROISSART 22 III. RABELAIS 29 IV. MONTAIGNE 40 V. LA ROCHEFOUCAULD (LA BRUYERE; VAUVENARGUES) 55 VI. LA FONTAINE 66 VII. MOLIERE 76 VIII. PASCAL 91 IX. MADAME DE SEVIGNE 105 X. CORNEILLE 117 XI. RACINE 127 XII. BOSSUET, BOURDALOUE, MASSILLON, SAURIN 137 XIII. FENELON 158 XIV. LE SAGE 174 XV. MONTESQUIEU, TOCQUEVILLE 184 XVI. VOLTAIRE 199 XVII. ROUSSEAU (ST. PIERRE) 212 XVIII. THE ENCYCLOPAEDISTS 235 XIX. MADAME DE STAEL 239 XX. CHATEAUBRIAND 248 XXI. BERANGER 256 XXII. LAMARTINE 263 XXIII. THE GROUP OF 1830 274 XXIV. JOUBERT (SWETCHINE; AMIEL) 307 XXV. EPILOGUE 318 INDEX 319 FRENCH CLASSICS IN ENGLISH I. FRENCH LITERATURE. Of French literature, taken as a whole, it may boldly be said that it is, not the wisest, not the weightiest, not certainly the purest and loftiest, but by odds the most brilliant and the most interesting, literature in the world. Strong at many points, at some points triumphantly strong, it is conspicuously weak at only one point,--the important point of poetry. In eloquence, in philosophy, even in theology; in history, in fiction, in criticism, in epistolary writing, in what may be called the pamphlet; in another species of composition, characteristically, peculiarly, almost uniquely, French--the Thought and the Maxim; by eminence in comedy, and in all those related modes of written expression for which there is scarcely any name but a French name--the _jeu d'esprit_, the _bon mot_, _persiflage_, the _phrase_; in social and political speculation; last, but not least, in scientific exposition elegant enough in form and in style to rise to the rank of literature proper--the French language has abundant achievement to show, that puts it, upon the whole, hardly second in wealth of letters to any other language whatever, either ancient or modern.