With Grammatical, Historical and Explanatory Notes, VICTOR OGER, AUTHOR OF THE "OXFORD AND CAMBRIDGE LOCAL FRENCH EXAMINERS," HACHETTE & CO. 18, KING WILLIAM STREET, CHARING CROSS. 1882. [All Rights reserved.] 237 д 270. PREFACE. THE book selected this year by the Syndicate of the University of Cambridge for their Local Examinations, imposes upon teachers the duty of adding, to the reading of the text, historical information sufficient to render it really valuable; for Madame de Staël is not always accurate, and her book is not an historical work. To quote only one instance, taken from her best production, and to which she devoted far more research than to the one before us, she persistently confounded in Corinne, Leonardo Bruni, surnamed Aretino, the oldest and most prominent scholar who enjoyed the favour of Cosmo de Medici, and who was buried in the Church of Santa Croce in 1444, with the depraved and licentious Pietro Aretino, surnamed the Italian Aristophanes, who lived one hundred years later (see Hallam); neither can Madame de Staël be accepted as a guide in historical controversies; see for instance her utterly groundless assertion that Napoleon urged the Directory to seize upon the Berne treasury; the fact is that she is often carried away by the warmth of her imagination, and, as Fontanes justly said: "What she feels is always more true than that which she thinks;" her written works are almost as admirable as her conversation was, but what she said of the latter may be applied to the former: "L'esprit de conversation a quelquefois l'inconvénient d'altérer la sincérité du caractère ce n'est pas une tromperie combinée, mais improvisée, si l'on peut s'exprimer ainsi; " and lastly the Considérations were published after Madame de Staël's death by her son and sonin-law, aided by Mr. A. W. Schlegel, so that they have not received Madame de Staël's final Imprimatur. The Notes added to this volume will therefore be found |