of the right to participate in the management of their political affairs was any disadvantage to Tocqueville; or that it involved any limiting of his influence. It only served to enlarge it. And, in this view, it is most devoutly to be wished that the tyrant had earlier struck his blow. Then our author had been sooner restored to his broad sphere of achievement; a portion of his valuable life might have been recovered, and that great work, so successfully begun and so far advanced, might not have remained unfinished, and been given over to the moles and the bats. The interest of Tocqueville in political life, and the ardor with which he clung to it, while not peculiar, is yet strange, and reminds us of the pride and zeal with which Sir Walter Scott cherished his baronial rank and local civic functions, beyond the world-wide fame procured by the magic of his pen.

On retiring to his estate in Normandy, Tocqueville commenced on his last work,—“The Old Regime and the Revolution." His object was to delineate the great social convulsion denominated the French Revolution. To accomplish this, it was necessary to explore and paint the social and political condition of the country before 1789. He entered on the immense task with all the ardor and enterprise with which, twenty years before, he had explored the society and institutions of America. He sought his materials in the great public libraries, among the archives of the old provincial administrations, and wherever else they were to be found. To prosecute these researches, he established himself at St. Cyr, near Tours, in 1854. He made a journey to Germany, in the summer of 1855, to examine traces, not yet obliterated, of the ancient feudal system; and, that he might be able to read the original documents, he acquired, at fifty years of age, a knowledge of the German tongue.

It

The first volume of this great work was published in the beginning of 1856, and at once it met with signal success, was translated into every language, and welcomed in every country. At the time of the author's decease, the second volume was far advanced, wanting only a few months' labor to finish it. The biographer informs us that this, together with the author's other studies on the subject, forms an immense arsenal of ideas, but that, with the exception of the two chap

ters now printed, it is never to see the light. This decision, on the statement of the case as presented, we unhesitatingly pronounce unwise; and to withhold the work, a wrong inflicted on humanity.

In the month of June, 1858, the malady which was to close Tocqueville's life appeared, in unequivocal form, although he harbored the illusions ordinarily attendant on pulmonary disease. He left the bleak shores of the English Channel for the salubrious coast of Provence, and arrived at Cannes in November. During the winter his strength gradually declined, until, except in his own heart, all hope was lost. He persevered in his usual habits, his projects, and his writings. He wrote many letters, read, and was read to. His thoughts dwelt constantly on public affairs; but the chief object of his meditation, and to which all his reading was directed, was the continuation of his book on the Revolution.

Madame de Tocqueville, worn out by fatigue and grief, fell ill. Among other disorders, she was attacked by a complaint of the eyes, and was ordered to remain in complete darkness. When she could no longer sit by his bed of suffering, he succeeded in dragging himself to hers. The deep gloom of her room increased his illness, for daylight was as essential to him as darkness to her; and, yielding to a sort of physical instinct, he escaped to the sunshine. In a few minutes he returned to her bedside, and said, "Dear Marie, the sunshine ceases to do me good, if to enjoy it, I must give up seeing you." The return of spring, and the warmth, did him on the whole more harm than good, having the effect only to stimulate the disease. His strength gradually failed, until, in the evening of the 16th April, 1859, he fainted and expired, at the age of fifty-four years. According to his desire, his remains were carried back to Normandy, and deposited in the cemetery of Tocqueville ;and another name was added to the roll of his country's illustrious dead.

The sketch thus given indicates the personal characteristics of Tocqueville. We are not prepared to say with the Duke de Broglie, on hearing of his death, "France produces no more such men." For however adverse the times, France is yet alive, and the nation that has yielded a Pascal, a Descartes, a

Montesquieu, and a hundred other distinguished names, in all departments of science and literature, cannot have exhausted itself in producing great men. Others, doubtless, are now springing up, to be revealed in due time, even as our author himself arose under the despotism of the former empire.

Estimating the traits of Tocqueville's character, and considering him as a product of French society, he appears to us both remarkable and admirable. For more than two generations past, the social elements in France have tended to collision rather than combination. Society has existed in an explosive, and even volcanic state. Revolution has followed revolution; and the successive upheavals of the strata have disclosed products of remarkable brilliancy and hideousness indeed, but little adapted to the wants of the era. Tocqueville's character was one of symmetry, beauty, and power. His domestic traits, we have seen, were most interesting. In social life he was attractive; in his friendships, he was high-toned, sincere, and faithful. The encomium of his biographer, that, while he had the good fortune to secure numerous excellent friends, "he had the additional happiness of never losing one," is fully explained by the delightful spirit of the correspondence given in these volumes. His refusal to publish the "Fortnight in the Wilderness," lest it should interfere with the success of the work of his travelling companion in America, and the throwing up of his official position, on his return to France, on account of an injustice done his friend, reveal the mingled chivalry and delicacy of his attachments.

It is much to be regretted that his position in reference to religion, and its institutions, was not brought to view by his biographer. From this deficiency we are unable to form a clear opinion on some important points. In all his works, however, we find the utmost respect evinced for the Christian faith; and, in his death, he was comforted by its holy ministrations, according to the rites of his fathers.

Political life and official position added nothing to the actual dignity of Tocqueville, although they served to widen the circle of his friendships and advance his knowledge of men and nations. We regret that he should have been minister of foreign affairs under the Republic, when the intervention was made by

VOL. II. NO. X.

39

France against the freedom of Rome, and we trust there is a full vindication of his position in that affair, which is not sufficiently explained in these volumes.

The true distinction of Tocqueville rests on the contributions he made to historical science. To render these, he was specially endowed and trained. By the ties of birth, he belonged to the noblesse of the ancient regime, but he was born under the sway of the first empire, when the doctrine of equality had been fully inaugurated in France. The Revolution of '89, the Republic, the anarchy and reaction, the military despotism— these great events contributed greatly to the formation of his character. He possessed a remarkably clear and strong intellect, combined with a prevailing candor and love of truth. These enabled him to apprehend and delineate democracy in France, and to appreciate that more complete form of it which the United States exhibits to the world.

While he appears to have been devoid of humor, he possessed great sensibility to the influences of external nature and of society, and he was most happy in delineating them. Sharing the restlessness common to his countrymen, he yet placed his conduct under the control of a strong will, and harnessed his powers to perform the great tasks it enjoined.

awe.

By an induction from the events of seven hundred years, he had the sagacity to discover that democracy was inevitable in France and in Europe that all things concurred to make it certain, in the sphere of Providence, as in the general movements and the particular dispositions of irresistible corps d'armeè on a battle-field, that the cause of the people would triumph. It became to him as the voice of God, and it filled his soul with He ennobled his life by consecrating it to a noble object. He aimed to discover the laws of that stupendous social power, as Newton did the laws of the heavenly bodies, that it might be guided, if not resisted. Thus he blest America by revealing to her and to the nations anew, her great power and privilege as the advanced standard-bearer of human rights on the field of the world. He then strove to apply the principles of true democracy to regulate the great popular movement in France and on the continent. In political life, indeed, he seemed to accomplish but little, yet his testimony was decided and consistent

to the cause he had espoused. And the time for judgment is not yet come. But in the great works of his pen, he has accomplished much; and by them, we cannot doubt, he will accomplish yet more. He has sown the seed, the fruit of which the nations greatly need religion producing morality, morality fostering intelligence and the humanities; and these throwing off tyranny, securing submission to law, and guarding and perpetuating the liberties of the people. These doctrines must prevail; and, in their advancement, the name of Tocqueville will be increasingly honored.

ARTICLE VIII.

SHORT SERMONS.

"I have kept back nothing." Acts xx: 20.

PAUL is addressing the church at Ephesus through its elders for the last time. He has been with them in scenes jubilant and sorrowful, the marriage of their young men and maidens, the birth of their children, at the bedside of their sick, by the grave of their dead. These are not remembered now. Paul thinks of the great white throne and Him who sits thereon; the judgment of the last day, and the meeting he will have there with those to whom he has preached the Word. He can think of his course among them with serene satisfaction.

Mark his emphatic declaration, "I have kept back nothing." The preacher is a depositary. That which he is to give to the people has first been given to him. He must deliver it in its integrity, in all its length and breadth and fulness; its great truths, its eternal principles; its doctrines as well as its precepts; its threatenings as well as its promises; hell as well as heaven.

Why must he do this? It is "the counsel of God." Could any tell beforehand whether he would vouchsafe a revelation at all when the world should be shrouded in darkness and the shadow of death? If he does, who will dare tamper with it? An angel? It will cost him his golden harp, his crown, his place in heaven. An ignorant, sinful man? How will he answer it to God in the dreadful day of judgment?