volume one

BIOGKAPHICAL KOTICE. XVll
arclis and academies could not put off the fatal liour, and
he died at the elegant village of Passy on the 30th of September,
1839. On this occasion was exhibited an instance
of what our poet calls " the ruling passion, strong in death."
Eew authors had reccLved more adulation, and no one could
be more covetous of it. Extraordinary instances are told
of the copious draughts of this intoxicating beverage that
were offered to him, and of the greediness with which he
swallowed them. " J^ever," says his biographer, " although
he loved to be called the La Fontaine of journalism, did he
think of the second fable of the good man." * One of the
most extravagant of his flatterers said to a friend, admitted
for a last interview,— " With all his weakness, not the least
trace of decline of intellect ; still the same facility of expression,
still the same lucidity."—This aroused Michaud, upon
whom the affectionate words of a sincere friend had just
before produced no effect. He started, and sitting upright
in his bed, exclaimed, in a tremulous voice,—
" Yes ! yes !
still the same ! still " and he sunk exhausted and dying
on his pillow : these were his last words
To criticise the works of Michaud properly would require
a volume ; we can therefore only lay before our readers a list
of such as from their merit and celebrity are ever likely to
fall under the eye of English readers. His greatest claim to
the attention of posterity is doubtless the one before us, "The
History of the Crusades," of which his biographer, who is
certainly less of an eulogist than any one we ever saw assume
a similar task, very justly says,—
" It may be said, without
exaggeration, that it is one of the most valuable historical
works that our age has produced. To its completion he sacri-
ficed almost every moment of twenty of the best years of his
life." No reader requires to be told that it was a labour of
love.—He was the founder of, and a considerable contributor
to, *' La Biographic XJniverselle," a work which England may
envy Erance the conception and execution of ; and if to these
we add his beautiful poem of " Le Printemps d'un Proscrit,"
we think we name all that he wrote that would be interesting
at the present day : the other historical works are feeble,
and the political squibs of a journalist after a lapse of half
* Le Corbeau et le Renard.
!