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Title: Critical Miscellanies (Vol. 3 of 3)
Essay 8: France in the Eighteenth Century
Author: John Morley
Release Date: September 30, 2006 [EBook #19410]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
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CRITICAL
MISCELLANIES
BY
JOHN MORLEY
VOL. III.
Essay 8: France in the Eighteenth Century
London
MACMILLAN AND CO., Limited
NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
1904
FRANCE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.
M. Taine as a man of letters 261
Political preparation needed for the historian 262
M. Taine's conception of history 265
Its shortcomings 266
Chief thesis of his book 268
The expression of this thesis not felicitous 269
Its substance unsatisfactory 272
Cardinal reason for demurring to it 275
Adaptation of the literary teaching of the eighteenth
century to the social crisis 277
Why that teaching prevailed in France while it withered
in England 280
Social Elements. The French Court 282
The Nobility 283
M. Taine exaggerates the importance of literature 286
Historic doctrine could have saved nothing 287
Lesson of the American Revolution 288
Conclusion 289
FRANCE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.[1]
The announcement that one of the most ingenious and accomplished men
of letters in Europe was engaged upon a history of the French
Revolution, raised some doubts among those who have thought most
about the qualifications proper to the historian. M. Taine has the
qua
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