ality striking out their own way and saying their own say in
the manner not that is fashionable but that seems best to them. During
this time, therefore, and especially during that brilliant age of French
literature, the sixteenth century, I shall proceed by authors, taking
the most remarkable individually, and grouping their followers around
them.

From the time of Malherbe the system of schools begins, divided
according to subjects. The poet, the dramatist, the historian, have
their predecessors, and either intentionally copy them or intentionally
innovate upon them. Malherbe and Delille, Corneille and Lemercier,
Sarrasin and Rulhiere, whatever the difference of merit, stand to one
another in a definite relation, and the later writers represent more or
less the accepted traditions each of his school. In this part,
therefore, I shall proceed by subjects, taking historians, poets,
dramatists, etc., together. One difference will be noticed between the
third and fourth Books, dealing respectively with the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries. It has seemed unnecessary to allot a special
chapter to theological and ecclesiastical writing in the latter, or to
scientific writing in the former.

Almost all writers who have attempted literary histories in a small
compass have recognised the difficulty, or rather impossibility, of
treating contemporary or recent work on the same scale as older authors.
In treating, therefore, of literature subsequent to the appearance of
the Romantic movement, I shall content myself with giving a rapid sketch
of the principal literary developments and their exponents.

There are doubtless objections to this quadripartite arrangement; but it
appears to me better suited for the purpose of laying the foundations of
an acquaintance with French literature than a more uniform plan.

The space at my disposal does not admit of combining full information as
to the literature with elaborate literary comment upon its
characteristics, and there can be no doubt that in such a book as this,
destined for purposes of education chiefly, the latter must be
sacrificed to the former. As an instance of the sacrifice I may refer
to Bk. I. Ch. II. There are some forty or fifty Chansons de Gestes in
print, all of which save two or three I have read, and almost every one
of which presents points on which it would be most interesting to me to
comment. But to do this in the limits would be impossible. Nor is it
easy t