tolled the tender humanity of the Russian romance and the Norwegian drama — does it not prove that we ourselves possess the same quality, and that in them we have only recognized it? ... These exchanges this give-and-take of ideas between nations have existed in all times, more especially since the closeness of commercial relations has involved that of intellectual relations as well. At times we have borrowed from other peoples, and have impressed upon that which we took a European character. Such are the appropriations of Corneille or Le Sage from the Spaniards. At times, and oftener, being inquisitive and kindly, we have taken from them unconsciously that which we ourselves had previously loaned them. Thus, in the eighteenth century we discovered the novels of Richardson, who had imitated Marivaux. Thus we have found again in Lessing that which was in Diderot, and in Goethe much that was in Jean Jacques; and we have believed that we owed to the Germans and English the romanticism which we ourselves had originated. For is not romanticism more than mediæval decoration, or in the drama more than the suppression of the three unities, or the mingling of tragedy and comedy? It is the feeling for nature, the recognition of the rights of passion; it is the spirit of revolt, the exaltation of the individual: all, things of which the germs and more than the germs were in the "Nouvelle Héloise," in the "Confessions," and in the "Lettres de la Montagne."

In this constant circulation of ideas, we are less and less certain to whom they belong. Each nation imposes upon them its own character, and each of the characters seems necessarily the most original and the best.

It is only of the present moment that I write, and who knows how fleeting that may be? This restless septentriomania - how long will it endure? Does it not already begin to languish? And as to the rest, to come to the regulating of this debit and credit account opened between races, does it not remain to be seen whether the pietism of George Eliot, the contradictory and rebellious idealism of Ibsen, the mystic fatalism of Tolstoï, are necessarily superior to the humanitarianism or the realism of French authors? Who can affirm that the ardor of our scientific faith and revolutionizing charity, moderately subjective as they are and inclined rather to social reform, do not compensate in the sight of God for the greater aptitude of the Northern races for meditation and subjective perfection?

Who will swear that largely and humanly understood, the positive philosophy, to call it by its name, the philosophy of Taine, that which is held to be responsible for the brutalities and aridities of naturalistic literature, does not represent a more advanced moment in human development than Protestant and septentrional religiosity? Do not books like those of J. H. Rosny, to cite no others, presage the reconciliation of two sorts of intelligence which among us have been too often separated? And do we not recognize in them both the enthusiasm for science and the enthusiasm for moral beauty, and see already how these two religions accord and become fruitful? Who lives shall see! Meantime, make haste to enjoy these writers from regions of snows and fogs; enjoy them while they are in favor, while they are believed in, and while they can still influence you, as it is best to avail one's self of the methods in vogue, so long as they can cure.

For it may be that a reaction of the Latin spirit is at hand.

ALAIN RENÉ LE SAGE.

ALAIN RENÉ LE SAGE, a noted French novelist and dramatist, born at Sarzeau, Brittany, May 8, 1668; died at Boulogne, Nov. 17, 1747. He was educated at the Jesuits' College at Vannes, went to Paris in 1692, married in 1694, and adopted literature as his profession in preference to law. In 1707 he won his first successes by a play, "Crispin Rival de son Maître," and a romance, "Le Diable Boiteux," known in English translations as "The Devil on Two Sticks," and "Asmodeus." In another play, "Turcaret," he attacked the farmers of the revenue. Vols. I. and II. of the famous "Gil Blas de Santillane " appeared in 1715, Vol. III. in 1724, Vol. IV. not till 1735. The later works of Le Sage (besides over 100 comic operas) are: "Roland l'Amoureux" (1717-1721), an imitation of Boiardo; an abridged translation of Aleman's "Guzman de Alfarache; ""Aventures de Robert, dit le Chevalier de Beauchesne (1732); "Histoire d'Estévanille Gonzales" (1734), from the Spanish; "Une Journée des Parques" (1735); "Le Bachelier Salamanque " (1736), and "Mélange amusant" (1743).

GIL BLAS ENTERS THE SERVICE OF DR. Sangrado.

(From "Gil Blas.")

I DETERMINED to throw myself in the way of Signor Arias de Londona, and to look out for a new berth in his register; but as I was on my way to No Thoroughfare, who should come across me but Dr. Sangrado, whom I had not seen since the day of my master's death. I took the liberty of touching my hat. He kenned me in a twinkling, though I had changed my dress; and with as much warmth as his temperament would allow him, "Heyday!" said he, "the very lad I wanted to see; you have never been out of my thought. I have occasion for a clever fellow about me, and pitched upon you as the very thing, if you can read and write." require, I am your man." need look no further.

Sir," replied I, "if that is all you "In that case," rejoined he, "we Come home with me: it will be all com