ΤΟ THE REV. A. BARRY, D.D. PRINCIPAL OF king's college, London, FORMERLY PRINCIPAL OF CHELTENHAM COLLEGE AND LATE FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE This Volume IS AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED IN REMEMBRANCE OF THEIR FORMER CONNEXION WITH CHELTENHAM COLLEGE BY THE EDITOR CONTENTS PAGE 1 These books are published by Messrs. L. Hachette & Co., Paris and London, and the extracts are made with their and the Author's permission. INTRODUCTORY NOTICE IT has been very often said, that it is difficult to produce a Selection of modern French authors fit to be placed in the hands of English youth. This assertion is true, but only partially so; for it ought not to be forgotten that many literary men in France only write for a certain class of people, and are and ought only to be read by them. Still, on the whole, there is no doubt that Selections are necessary, because the range of the youthful mind does not often take so large a scope as that of the scholar of riper years; because often allusions are made which require to be explained, or difficulties present themselves which necessitate elucidation. Among the writers of the present century who have very great influence on their generation, there is none, perhaps, better known in France than the gentleman, a Selection of whose works we now present to the schools of England. Monsieur HIPPOLYTE ADOLPHE TAINE was born in 1828, at Vouziers, in the Ardennes, studied at Paris, where he obtained many prizes at the Collége Bourbon, and received at the concours général of 1848 the first prize for rhetoric. The next year he entered the École |