On* the 17th, Lannes arrived at Chatillon, where he attacked and defeated a corps of 5000 Austrians, who received the onset of a French division in that quarter, with about as much surprise as ift an enemy had dropped upon them from the clouds. u с VOLTAIRE. 59. Voltaire is the most extraordinary genius that France ever produced; he has written both* in verse and prose on almost every a subject, and generally with great success. From his earliest youth he showed proofs of the acutenessd of his wit and brilliant imagination: such was the precocity of his genius, that at twelve years of agee his poetical essays would have done honour to his riper age.f His tragedies are masterpieces: although belows Molière in the comic style,h his comedies are replete with wit. His histories of Charles XII. and Peter the Great are models of historical composition. His Henriade is a fine epic poem, in which all the characters are well supported, the passions skilfully laid open, the descriptions striking, and accompanied with all the enthusiasm of fine poetry. 60. His subject, however, was ill chosen;TM being too nearn our age, it shackled his creative imagination, and destroyed the illusion we indulge in when reading Tasso, Ariosto, Homer, and Virgil. The most a Autrichiens. t que si. a tous les.- preuves. la charge.. avec presque autant de. u fut tombé sur.- - ait jamais produit.Dès sa plus tendre jeunesse. -il donna des e d subtilité.- l'âge de douze ans. âge mûr. --8 quoique au-dessous de. dans le genre comique. savamment développées.1 accompagnées de. Il a cependant mal choisi son sujet.. - près de.⚫ enchaîna.P à laquelle on s'abandonne en. le Tasse. r l'Arioste.- Homère. Virgile. i soutenus. perfect of his writings" are his fugitive poetry," in which he has no rival. With so many means to bex the brightest ornament of his age, it is painful to reflect, that he obscured his glory by writings in which he sets at defiance decency and morals. He has often made use of his great talents to plead the cause of reason and humanity; but too often he has spread the principles of irreligion. As a writer, he was sometimes superficial, but always witty; he possessed the most brilliant imagination, an astonishing facility, a most elegant taste, and a great versatility of talents and knowledge.8 * ATHENS. m 61. It was a fine and pure evening ;h the burning sun descended, enveloped in a violet fog,i upon the black and narrow bark which forms the isthmus of Corinth, and glanced with his last bright rays on the turrets of the Acropolis, which appear round like the top of a tower on the wide and undulated valley, in which sleeps the silent shade of Athens. We emerged by a nameless rugged path, clambering at every moment over breaches of garden walls, of roofless houses, or of other ruins heaped on the white dust of Attica.s Ast we descended towards the bottom of the deep, deserted, and narrow valley, shaded by the Temple of Theseus," the Pnyx, the Areopagus, and the Hill of Nymphs, we traversed a much greater extent of the modern city, which unfolded itself on our left, similar in every respect to what a X c mais il a le goût le plus élégant. h C'était une belle et pure Corinthe. de. la -a sentier sans nom et sans la terre d'Attique. le Pnyx. — Aréopage,•—a à ce que. -t à mesure -se dé we had seen elsewhere; a* confused, vast, and dismallooking assemblage of portions of wall yet standing, huts in ruins, roofs fallen in,e gardens and courts ravaged, and heaps of stone barring the path, and rolling under the feet; all having the appearance of recent ruins in their grey and pallid hue, and destitute therefore even of the sacredness of times past, or the grace of venerable decay.m * 62. No vegetation, except three or four palmtrees, somewhat resembling Turkish minarets, remained around this faded city. Here and there? are a few houses of common and modern form, recently built by some Europeans orr Greeks of Constantinople, houses like those of our villages ins France and England; the roofs tastelessly constructed, numerous narrow windows, no terraces, architectural lines," or decorations. Inns built only for the term of life, as if anticipating fresh devastation; but notx a single structures such as a civilised people erects2 with confidence in itself, and with a view to generations to come. Amidst all this chaos, although rarely, some fragments of the Stadium, some black columns of the Arch of Adrian or Lazora, the dome of the Temple of the Winds,e or the Lantern of Diogenes, attract the eye, yet without fixing it. Before us rises the Temple of Theseus, appearing & detached from the grey hillock on which it stands,h isolated, strippedi in every part, yet standing1 on its pedestal of rock.-LAMARTINE. d g b с morne. I pans de mur encore debout.- d de huttes. f cours ravagés.- - tout cela ayant. e enfoncés. h teinte. 1 de la. i par conséquent dépourvu.. -kla sainteté. m ruines. semblables à.- • restés debout sur. -P çà et là.- -a quelques.— ou quelques." de. * d'Angleterre.—" absence de terrasses, de lignes architecturales. Auberges.. -en attendant une dévastation nouvelle. édifice.- - élève.- a avec confiance pour lui. -cà naître.—d stade. Vents.- 's'élève. -8 paraissant.parts. et debout. e -1 est placé.—' découvert. kde toutes * JEANNE D'ARC, Commonly called the Maid of Orleans. 63. This extraordinary person, whose exploits form one of the most brilliant adventures in° modern history, was the daughter of Jacques d'Arc, a* peasant residing in the village of Domremy, then situated on the territory of Lorraine, but now comprehended within the department of the Meuse, in the north-eastern corners of France. Here she was born,t in 1410. She was one of a family" of three sons and two daughters, all of whom were bred to the humble or menial occupations suitable toy the condition of their parents. Jeanne, whose2 education did not enable her even toa write her own name, adopted at first the business of a seamstress and spinster; but after some time she left her father's house and hired herself as servant ate an innf in the neighbouring town of Neufchâteau. Here shes remained forh five years. Fromi her childhood she had been of a remarkably ardent and imaginative cast of mind. Possessed of1 great beauty, and formed, both* by her personal attractions and by the gentleness of her disposition and manners, to be the delight of all with whom she associated," she yet took but littles interest in the amusements of those of her own * age. Her first and fort many years the all-absorbing passion was religion. Before she left her native village, most of her leisure hours were spent in the recesses of a a de la. m La Pucelle.-"dont les.- ..de.. Pqui habitait.-compris maintenant dans.-la partie nord-est. C'est là qu'elle naquit.- "Elle fesait partie d'une élevés dans. famille composée. formes à. Y qui tous. - con z dont.- a n'allait pas même jusqu'à.-- b d'abord l'état de.. C f auberge.- 8 Elle y.d'esprit. vivait. D'une. edans. k hpendant. Dès. trempe "attraits.° douceur. faite. P de ses mœurs. pour être. de tous ceux avec qui elle t -elle prenait cependant peu de. pendant. - se passaient. dominante.- — la plupart de ses. forest in the neighbourhood. Here she conversed not only with her own spirit, but in imagination also with the saints and the angels, till the dreams of her excited fancy assumede the distinctness of reality. She believed that she heard with her ears voices from 8 heaven; the archangel Michael,h the angel Gabriel, Saint Catherine, and Saint Margaret,i-all seemed at different times to address her1 audibly. In all this there is nothing" inexplicable, or even uncommon." The state of mind described has been in every age a frequent result of devotional enthusiasm. 64. After some time, another strong sentiment came to share her affections with religion-that of s patriotism. The state of France, with which Lorraine, though not" incorporated, was intimately connected,▾ was at this period deplorable in the extreme. A foreign power, England, claimed the sovereignty of the kingdom; was in a actual possession of the greater part of it; and had garrisons established in nearly all the considerable towns. The Duke of Bedford, one of the uncles of Henry VI., the king of England, resided ind Paris, and theree governed the country asf regent in the name of his young nephew. The Duke of Burgundy,h the most powerful vassal of the crown, had become the ally and supporterk of this foreign domination. Charles VII., the legitimate heir of the throne, and decidedly1 the object of the national attachment, was confined to a narrow cornerm of the kingdom, and losing every day some portion of his remaining resources.o These * du. *Là rêves. d exaltée. b avec elle-même. C de. Marguerite.- à différentes fois. n'y a rien. .—" ni même d'extraordinaire. jusqu'à ce que les s du. Michel. 1 lui parler. mil - décrit ci-dessus. -P de tout temps. - Quelque temps après.* partager. celui du. - à laquelle." non.unie. époque.- - des plus déplorables. b de son territoire.- C qualité de. 8 au. défenseur. presque. Bourgogne. assurément.- m confiné - des ressources qui lui restaient. l'Angleterre. e y. x à cette en. en s'était fait.-kle dans un coin retiré. |