Critical Miscellanies (Vol. 3 of 3), Essay 8: France in the Eighteenth Century

by John Morley

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

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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]