of his again performing a conspicuous part diminished, he relapsed into an attitude of complete discouragement, and contributed to chill the ardour of his own party. His narrative of his share in the Congress of Verona, the Life of Ranee, and his translation of Milton, belong to the writings of these later days. He expired on July 4, 1848, wholly exhausted and thoroughly discontented with himself and the world, but affectionately tended by his old friend Madame R(5camier, herself deprived of sight. His remains were interred in Grand Bey, a lonely islet off the coast of Brittany. Shortly after his death his memory was power fully revived, and at the same time exposed to much adverse criticism, by the publication, with sundry mutila tions as has been suspected, of his celebrated Memoires d Outre-Tombe, the composition of which had occupied him at intervals during the greater part of his life. These memoirs undoubtedly reveal his vanity, his egotism, the frequent hollowness of his professed convictions, and his incapacity for sincere attachment, except, perhaps, in the case of Madame Re"camier. They abound, on the other hand, with beauties of the first order, and much of the rough treatment they have experienced is attributable to the animosity of party. Their principal literary defect is the frequent encroachment of the historical element upon the autobiographical, the writer s exaggerated estimate of his own consequence leading him to allow a disproportionate space to transactions in which he had in fact but little
share.Chateaubriand ranks rather as a great rhetorician than as a great poet, rather as a great writer than a great man. Something of affectation or unreality commonly interferes with the enjoyment of his finest works. The Genius of Christianity is a brilliant piece of special pleading; Atala is marred by its unfaithfulness to the truth of uncivilized human nature, Rene by the perversion of sentiment which solicits sympathy for a character rather deserving of con tempt. Chateaubriand s fame owes much to the timeliness of his appearances in print, and even more to the genuine conviction of his countrymen that French literature and European literature are practically convertible terms. They have hence made his position in the former the standard of his influence over the latter, which, for an author so widely read and so generally admired, has in reality been but small. Even in France he is chiefly significant as marking the transition from the old classical to the modern romantic school. He belongs to the latter by the idiosyncrasy of his genius, to the former by the comparative severity of his taste. The fertility of ideas, vehemence of expression, and luxury of natural description, which he shares with the romanticists, are controlled by a discipline imbibed in the school of their predecessors. His palette, always brilliant, is never gaudy ; he is not merely a painter but an artist. He is a master of epigrammatic and incisive sayings, and has contributed as much as any great French writer to foster the disastrous national partiality for la phrase. Perhaps, however, the most truly characteristic feature of his genius is the peculiar magical touch which Mr Arnold has indicated as a note of Celtic extraction, which reveals some occult quality in a familiar object, or tinges it, one knows not how, with " the light that never was on sea or land." This incommunicable gift is of necessity genuine, and supplies an element of sincerity to Chateaubriand s writings which goes far to redeem the artificial effect of his calculated sophistry and set declamation. It is also fortunate for his fame that so large a part of his writings should directly or indirsctly refer to himself, for on this theme he always writes wei/. Egotism was hi* master- passion, and beyond his intrepidity and the loftiness of his intellectual carriage his character presents little to admire. He is a signal instance of the compatibility of genuine poetic emotion, and sympathy with the grander aspects both of man and nature, and even munificence in pecuniary matters, with absorption in self and general sterility of heart.
The principal authority for Chateaubriand s biography is his own Memoircs d Outrc-Tombc. The Souvenirs et Corrcspondance of Madame Kecamier may also be consulted. The best general review of his character and writings is Sainte Beuve s Chateaubriand et sa Groupe Litterairc, Paris, 1872 ; see also the Count de Marcellus s Chateaubriand et son Temps, and for his diplomatic career the latter s Souvenirs Diplomatiqucs. The best edition of his works is Sainte Beuve s, Paris, 1S59-UO.
CHÂTEAUBRIANT, a town of France, at the head of an arrondissernent in the department of Loire Inferieure, on the left bank of the Chere, a tributary of the Vilaine, 35 miles N.N.E. of Nantes. It takes its name from a castle founded in 1015 by Briant, count of Penthievre ; and its principal ornament is another castle, built in 1524 by Jean de Laval, and famous in history as the scene of the assassina tion of Francoise de Foix. There is also an interesting Romanesque church dedicated to St Jean de Bere. The manufactures are mainly woollen stuffs and confectionery ; and the trade is in iron, coal, and wood. Population in 1872, 4134.
CHÂTEAUDUN, a town of France, capital formerly of the countship of Dunois, and now of an arrondissement in the department of Eure-et-Loir, 28 miles S.S.W. of Chartres. It stands on an eminence near the left bank of the Loir, and has remains of an old castle, several ancient churches, a town-hall, a communal college, a public library, and manufactures of woollens and leather. It was almost entirely destroyed by fire in 1723, and in 1870 it was captured by the Germans. Population in 1872, 5923.
CHÂTEAU-GONTIER, a town of France, at the head of an arrondissement in thedepartment of Mayenne,onthe right bank of the Mayenne river, here crossed by a stone bridge, 17 miles S.S.E. of Laval. It has a fine Gothic church, a communal college, three hospitals, an agricultural society, public baths, extensive bleach fields, and manufactures of linen and woollen stuffs. It is also the entrepot of a great part of the trade of the department in wine, slate, iron, and coal. Chateau-Gontier owes its origin and its name to a castle erected in 1037 by Gunther, the steward of Fulqucs Nsrra of Anjou, on the site of a farm belonging to the monks of St Aubin d Angers. On the extinction of the family, the lordship was assigned by Louis XI. to Philippe de Comines. The town suffered severely during the wars of the League, and in the Vendean struggle it was the scene of sanguinary proceedings. Population in 1872, 7048.
department of Indre, is situated in a fine plain on the left bank of the Indrc, 90 miles by rail S.W. of Orleans. It is the seat of a court of assize, and tribunals of primary instance and commerce; and it has a castle, now used as the town-hall, a cathedral, erected about 1873, a society of arts and agriculture, a communal college, a theatre, and a public library. It is ill built, with narrow filthy streets. The principal manufacture is woollens, in which a great part of its inhabitants are employed ; it has an active trade in woollen yarn, leather, iron, grain, and cattle, and there are quarries of lithographic stone in the neighbourhood. The castle from which it takes its name was founded about the middle of the 10th century by Raoul, prince of De"ols, and passed into the possession of several noble families. In 1215 one of the earliest of the Franciscan monasteries was founded in the town by William of Chauvigny. Raised to the rank of a countship in 1497, and to that of duchy in 1616, it finally passed into the possession of Louis II. of Bourbon, prince of Conde", and the castle served for the incarceration of his wife for twenty-three years. General
Bertrand was born in the castle in 1773, and his statue