This revolution, prepared by Royer-Collard, Maine de Biran, and others, has been accomplished by Victor Cousin and his disciples, who, under the name of eclecticism, unfurled the banner of spiritualism. The eloquent lectures which Cousin delivered at the Sorbonne exercised a powerful influence over the rising generation; they have been printed, with corrections and considerable additions, under the title of Cours de philosophic, Fragments de philosophic, and Du vrai, du beau et du bien. Jouffroy and Damiron, who acknowledged him as their master, contributed to the progress of the same doctrines, which were advocated by Cousin's younger disciples, Emile Saisset, Amedee Jacques, Vacherot, Paul Janet, Adolphe Frank, and Jules Simon. The books of the last named, Du devoir, De la liberte de conscience, and De la liberte, are among the most meritorious performances for healthfulness of tone, honesty of purpose, and generosity of mind. Besides the eclectic school, four philosophers of great originality and uncommon power have shone each in his own sphere, viz.: Joseph de Mais-tre, the zealous apologist of absolute power, in his treatise Du pape, and the eccentric author of the Soirees de St. Petersbourg; Bonald, who in his Legislation primitive, as well as his other philosophical writings, upheld the cause of monarchy and the church; Ballanche, the mystic dreamer, who in his Palingenesie sociale attempted to represent through a series of symbolical narratives couched in a poetical style the various phases of the history of mankind; and Lamennais, who, at first a bold and independent defender of the papal power, was gradually led to become the advocate of pure democracy.

His Essai sur l'indifference en matiere de religion, Les paroles d' un croy-ant, Le livre du peuple, Une voix de prison, and Esquisse d'une philosophic show the various steps of this transformation, while they are placed among the masterpieces of French eloquence. The Coin's de philosophic positive of Auguste Comte offers a system of philosophy which has found many disciples in other countries, especially in England and America. Among the writers on social science, Saint-Simon and Fourier are incontrovertibly the most conspicuous; and although their doctrines have been rejected as a whole, they have exercised a powerful influence over the age. Pierre Leroux, Louis Blanc, and Proud-hon may be mentioned as in some sort their disciples. The historian Michelet and Edgar Quinet take rank among fanciful philosophers by a number of publications.-The various branches of natural science boast of many original and powerful writers, at the head of whom we must place Georges Cuvier, author of Le regne animal distribue d'apres son organisation, and Recherches sur les ossements fos-siles, with an admirable introduction entitled Discours sur les revolutions du globe.

Cuvier's great contemporaries Lamarck, Jussieu, De Can-dolle, Lacepede, and Latreille, and rival, Etienne Geoffroy Saint-IIilaire, must be mentioned with him. The son of the latter, Isidore, is worthy of his father, and many disciples of these great men, among whom are Dumeril, Jussieu, and Alcide d'Orbigny, have published brilliant scientific works. Mineralogy boasts of Elie de Beaumont, Beudant, and Dufrenoy; chemistry especially of Lavoisier; and chemistry and physics of Thenard and Dumas, Gay-Lussac, Berthollet, Despretz, Pasteur, Berthelot, Che-vreuil, and Dumas. French medical literature is particularly rich, from the contributions of Bichat, Broussais, Corvisart, Magendie, Trousseau, Claude Bernard, and many others. Mathematical sciences have distinguished representatives in Lagrange, Laplace, Ampere, Biot, Le-verrier, and especially Arago, who has no equal for clearness of exposition and perspicuity of style. Among the travellers of this century whose writings have been of most service to science or who have attracted particular attention are Bonpland, Freycinet, Duperrey, Dumont d'Urville, Rene Caille, Victor Jacque-mont, Fontanier, Father Hue, Dubois de Montpireux, Saint-Martin, Marcoy, D'Abbadie, and De Beauvoir.-Many able pens have been devoted to political economy and philosophy: Michel Chevalier, whose Lettressur l'Amerique have made him known in the United States, Leon Faucher, Rossi, Adolphe Blanqui, Frederic Bastiat, Andre Cochut, De Beaumont, and De Tocqueville. The last is well known in America by his singularly philosophic treatise De la democratic en Amerique. The admirable historical essays of Laferriere upon French jurisprudence must not be forgotten.

The political writers who deserve to be named, even after the interest of the daily questions they treated is gone, are numerous. Among them are Armand Carrel, the model journalist Courier, and Cormenin, his imitator, perhaps his equal in point of pungency and wit, though far from possessing the same classical perfection. The French essayists and literary critics are a legion. Among the most prominent we may mention Sylvestre de Sacyand Saint-Marc Girardin, who were admitted to the French academy, the former merely as a iournalist, the latter on account of his versatile talents as a political writer, able critic, and elegant lecturer; Philarete Chasles, Prevost-Paradol, Cuvillier - Fleury, Ernest Kenan, Hippolyte Rigaud, Henri Taine, Edmond Scherer, Caro, and Jules Janin, the feuilletonist. Gustave Planche and Sainte-Beuve are entitled to a prominent place in this class of writers; the former was a sound and unsparing critic, in the fine arts as well as literature; the latter excelled in the delineation of literary characters, and also published a Tableau de la poesie francaise au 16e siecle and a history of the Port-Royalists. Charles de Remusat and Albert de Broglie have treated historical matters from a philosophical or religious point of view.

Theophile Gautier, Edmond About, Paul de Saint-Victor, Leon Delaborde, Vitet, and I)e-lecluze have particularly devoted themselves to fine-art criticism; Delecluze, Fetis, Hector Berlioz, Fiorentino, and Scudo, to musical matters. Of recent writers, Ernest Renan by his Vie de Jesus, Les apotres, Saint Paul, and V Anti-christe, and Hippolyte Taine by his Histoire de la litterature anglaise and works on art, have attracted much attention throughout the civilized world. Of late years public affairs and political questions have so much occupied the mind of France that literature has languished; and although there has probably been no falling off in intellectual activity, the rising generation of writers do not seem on the whole to equal their predecessors.-See Histoire litteraire de la France, by Dom Rivet and other Benedictine monks, continued by members of the institute (22 vols. 4to, 1733-1858); La France litteraire (1826-'42), and La litterature francaise contemporaine (1837-'44), by J. M. Querard; Histoire litteraire de la France avant le 12e siecle, by Ampere (3 vols., 1838-'40); Tableau de la litterature au moyen age, by Villemain (2 vols. 12mo, last ed., 1857); Essais sur l'histoire litteraire du 16e siecle, by Saint-Marc Girardin and Philarete Chasles (1827); Tableau de la poesie francaise au 16e siecle, by Sainte-Beuve (1828); Histoire de la litterature francaise, by Demo-geot (new ed., 1857); Histoire de la litterature francaise, by D. Nisard (last ed., 18(57); Catalogue general de la librairie francaise, from 1840 to 1865, by Otto Lorenz (1871); and Etudes sur la litterature contemporaine, by Edmond Scherer (1872-3).