"The vocation of the Muse is a religious mission; she loses not her spiritual prerogative, though shorn of her stately pageantry and despoiled of her festive robes. Her power to convert and to enlighten, to purify and to raise, depends not on the splendor of her appearance, but on the truths that she proclaims."

AUTHOR'S ADVERTISEMENT.

IN writing from memory these Lectures, delivered during two years at the Faculty of Letters in Paris, upon the employment of the passions in the drama, I did not intend to make a book; I only wished to fix the remembrance of some of those meetings which the kindness of my hearers, for nearly fifteen years, rendered so agreeable to me.

I endeavored in these Lectures to show how the ancient authors, and especially those of the seventeenth century, expressed the sentiments and passions most natural to the human heart, such as paternal and maternal tenderness, love, honor, jealousy, and the like; and how these sentiments and these passions are expressed in our own days.

On such a subject, moral reflections naturally succeed to literary ones; and I have desired to show as well as I could the union which exists between good taste and good morals. I certainly ought not to fail in this duty, which is the noblest part of the functions of a Professor. May I take the liberty to add that, in speaking thus, I have reason to believe that I do not offend my young friends, and that the best way to obtain their applause is always to merit their esteem!

TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE.

THE following Lectures, delivered at the Sorbonne, were first published in the Journal des Debats, and were so much admired that, at the earnest request of his hearers, the learned Professor consented to revise them for publication, in the form of a book. In presenting them to the American public, the translator claims for himself no other credit, as he has had no other object, but that of faithfully representing the thoughts of the original.

A foreign journal* of high reputation, soon after its appearance, passed such deserved eulogy upon the author, as well as his work, that it is deemed unnecessary to say more in its recommendation than simply to extract a few of its critical remarks:

"M. Saint-Mark Girardin is an honor to the literature, an honor to the journalism of France. Learned without pedantry, and acute without flippancy, he possesses all the qualities which make a writer estimable. He has keen insight, sound judgment, healthy morality, varied acquirements, and an eloquent style. We have not read a work for some time which has given us so much pleasure, as the 'Cours de Littérature Dramatique.' The subject is interesting, the execution brilliant. It is a work which awakens all kinds of pleasant recollections, and rouses attention to some of the

* Foreign Quarterly Review.

most beautiful passages of ancient and modern art. It is a work eminently suggestive. It not only gives new views, but suggests others in abundance; and this, perhaps, is the most valuable quality a book can possess.

"M. Saint-Mark Girardin's object is to examine the manner in which the ancient poets, and those of the seventeenth century, expressed the natural sentiments of mankind, such as love, parental love, love of life, jealousy, honor, &c., and the manner in which they are expressed by the moderns. The rules of good taste and sound healthy feeling, are exemplified in the one; the excesses of caprice and falsehood, are developed in the other. The work is an invaluable guide to the young poet, because it not only lays down general principles, but illustrates them fully."

After such a graphic and clear statement of the merits and character of the work, nothing is left for the translator to add, but to express his hopes that this undertaking will not be entirely devoid of interest and instruction.