Coastwise—cross-seas—round the world and back again,
Where the flaw shall fail us or the trades drive down:
Plain-sail—storm-sail—lay your board and tack again—
And all to bring a cargo into London Town!
MONSIEUR DE BLOWITZ.
By W. Morton Fullerton.
When Taine died, people whom his books had interested felt a sudden longing to say all that they had been thinking about his famous theory of the “milieu.” Taine had been, with Renan, the chief literary medium of thought in France; but while Renan was altogether useful, caring as he did more for his method than for its results, Taine, with his imperative and beautiful consistency, imposed on the younger generation a habit of applying the principle of environment which was somewhat lacking in criticism. No one but an artist of his surprising agility and perceptions could have made such a method so universal. The French wilfully attain clearness by defect of vision, but this is the same thing as saying that they attain plausibility at the expense of truth. Taine died, and the thing we lacked courage to say to his face we have all been saying now that he is safe and irresponsible, as well as unresponsive, in the earth.