Page:The Library, volume 5, series 3.djvu/288

276 RECENT FOREIGN LITERATURE. up by the conviftion that they loved God better than others did, and by their affedlion for their leader. There is much in Fenelon's letters to attract, but perhaps the letter of condolence sent to the Due de Chevreuse when his son, a young man at the beginning of his career, was killed in battle, is one of the most characteristic. The father dreads the boy's fate in the other world, for he fears c that few die well who die in a battle.' But Fenelon consoles him by assuring him that a young man is less culpable than he would most likely be when older, and he had learnt to dis- guise certain vices as virtues. God understands the clay of which he has formed His creatures, and when faith and religion merely sleep, they suddenly awake in the moment of danger, and the dying man has no need c de temps ni de discours pour se faire entendre et sentir ' by God, who requires but an instant to accomplish everything. A book that gives food for thought is the * His- toire generate de 1'influence fran9aise en Allemagne,' by L. Reynaud. The volume is really intended as an introduction to the same author's c Les origines de 1'influence fran9aise en Allemagne.' The sub- je6t of the part played by French civilization in the world at large has almost been ignored by French historians, and Reynaud claims to be the first to treat it in a comprehensive manner. "His first volume, to which this forms the introduction only, deals with the years 850-1 150. The author points out that until the present time, when her influence seems to be waning, France has been the idealist