a more expressive form of beauty. The history of our ancient poetry,
traced in a few lines by Boileau, clearly shows to what degree he either
ignored or misrepresented it. The singular, confused architecture of
Gothic cathedrals gave those who saw beauty in symmetry of line and
purity of form but further evidence of the clumsiness and perverted taste
of our ancestors. All remembrances of the great poetic works of the
Middle Ages is completely effaced. No one supposes in those barbarous
times the existence of ages classical also in their way; no one imagines
either their heroic songs or romances of adventure, either the rich
bounty of lyrical styles or the naïve, touching crudity of the Christian
drama. The seventeenth century turned disdainfully away from the
monuments of national genius discovered by it; finding them sometimes
shocking in their rudeness, sometimes puerile in their refinements.
These unfortunate exhumations, indeed, only serve to strengthen its cult
for a simple, correct beauty, the models of which are found in Greece and
Rome. Why dream of penetrating the darkness of our origin? Contemporary
society is far too self-satisfied to seek distraction in the study of a
past which it does not comprehend. The subjects and heroes of domestic
history are also prohibited. Corneille is Latin, Racine is Greek; the
very name of Childebrande suffices to cover an epopee with
ridicule.--_Pellissier_, pp. 7-8.

[3] "Epistle to Augustus."

[4] "Epistle of Augustus."

[5] _I.e._, learning.

[6] "Life of Dryden."