of the fine arts. The works, and especially the historical works, of
the French, are universally diffused. Popular histories, so-called
editions for the people, are here entirely unknown; everything that
is published is in a popular edition, and if as great and various care
were taken for the education of the people as in Germany, France would
in this respect be the first country in the world.

"With the increasing influence of monarchical ideas in certain
circles, the women seem to be returning to the traditions of monarchy,
and are throwing themselves into the business of making memoirs.
Hardly have George Sand's Confessions been announced, and already new
enterprises in the same line are set on foot. The European dancer,
who is perhaps more famous for making others dance to her music,
and who has enjoyed a monopoly of cultivated scandal, Lola Montes,
also intends to publish her memoirs. They will of course contain
an interesting fragment of German federal politics, and form a
contribution to German revolutionary literature. Lola herself is still
too beautiful to devote her own time to the writing. Accordingly, she
has resorted to the pen of M. Balzac. If Madame Balzac has nothing to
say against the necessary intimacy with the dangerous Spanish or Irish
or whatever woman--for Lola Montes is a second Homer--the reading
world may anticipate an interesting, chapter of life. No writer is
better fitted for such a work than so profound a man of the world, and
so keen a painter of character, as Balzac.

"The well-known actress, Mlle. Georges, who was in her prime during
the most remarkable epoch of the century, and was in relations
with the most prominent persons of the Empire, is also preparing a
narrative of her richly varied experiences. Perhaps these attractive
examples may induce Madame Girardin also to bestow her memoirs upon