ror of Vinet's theory, that it does not rise to the actual fact of the case, and therefore strikes not only at the union of Church and State in the ordinary sense, but, so far as we can see, subverts, by strict logical sequence, the Christian responsibility of nations yet blessed with the knowledge of the Gospel. The Vaudois Revolution of 1830 revived with new warmth the discusions as to religious liberty, and Vinet again lent his active pen to aid in the solution of the controversy. He published a brochure vindicating the utmost latitude of religious freedom, as alone compatible with the interests of Christianity. Far, however, from requiring the overthrow of the national church, he congratulated himself that all the facts and reasonings of his publication tended to shew that the highest prosperity of this institution was involved in the most perfect freedom being allowed. to all modes of worship. Vinet indeed remained even for some time after this a member of the national church, although the force of conviction and the course of circumstances were ever bearing him further away from it. Already a dissenter in principle, he did not hasten to become one in practice; and for the obvious reason, that the severance of church and state was as yet to him rather an "ideal than a dogma.' He still believed in a Christian nation, if doubts were also beginning to assail him on this head. The sentiments which still in 1831 attached him to the national church are expressed in a very touching manner in one of his articles in the Nouvelliste. In another point of view, the ecclesiastical teaching of Vinet appears to be defective. In its extreme reaction from the old Catholic theory, it is not content merely to assert the right of private judgment, but to isolate it till the idea of authority seems altogether to disappear. Catholicism sinks the individual in the Church; Vinet forgets the Church in the individual. With the former, the Church is a mother nursing her children, the baptized throughout the earth. With the latter, the Church is merely an aggre. gate of individuals, freely adhering under the force of a common faith and sympathy. Taken distinctively, there is no doubt truth in both of these views; but in the former assuredly not less than the latter. We can not help feeling that Vinet has too much obscured the former, and that the truly scrip tural notions of a Divine institution and education, preserved in the Catholic doctrine, are too little regarded in his system of indi- The new Vaudois government, after many vidualism. The fact is, a fact elsewhere agitations, rejected the clause in the proposed so clearly recognised by our author,-that constitution intended to secure religious libhere, as in every such general question, there erty. This was a great blow to the cause is a duplicity of ideas which we must not which Vinet had so much at heart, and in overlook, but in the strongest manner main- whose behalf he had incessantly raised his tain-difficult as it may be to determine, in voice during the prolonged debates regarding point of actual working, their exact corre-it. The result was to him full of grief, and lation to ascertain their mutual practical adjustment. Having in our remarks somewhat antici pated the progress of Vinet's ecclesiastical opinions, it will be well to pursue, before again pausing, the series of external events with which that progress was intimately bound up, and which so strikingly helped it forward. his health, never strong, became about this time a source of great anxiety to his friends. While mingling so directly in the political and ecclesiastical conflicts of his native canton, Vinet had remained at Basle up to the period of which we speak. Hitherto attached to the university of that city merely as an extraordinary professor, the govern The law of May 1824 constituted, as has "Sans doute, je ne suis pas plus étranger qu'un autre à ce sentiment qui attache au passé, à ce been said, the formal commencement of perrespect pour les anciennes institutions, proche secution in Vaud. In 1829 the persecuting parent du respect pour la vieillesse. Je me respirit broke out with fresh and redoubled procherais presque autant de manquer à une vieille violence, on which occasion Vinet stepped chose qu'à une vieil homme. L'âge de notre Eglise forth as a determined opponent of the Gov-ne la recommande, son origine bien davantage. ses écrits encore plus, et je considère en outre l'inconernment, and became in consequence involv- vénient de la supprimer. Mais j'aime encore plus ed in a public prosecution. It is impossible en elle ce qu'elle peut devenir que ce qu'elle a été. not to admire his frank and manly bearing throughout this matter. In the extended defence of himself and his views, which he published distinguished alike for the resources of its logic and the vigour of its style-he takes his stand on the inviolable rights of conscience, and expresses his opinions with fearless boldness. J'aime en elle un des départements, un des territoires de l'Eglise invisible. J'aime en elle ce que travaillées et chargées, une hôtellerie pour les voyanos pères y ont aimé; un asile pour les âmes geurs en chemin pour l'éternité, un filet jeté par la main du Seigneur sur ma terrestre patrie. J'aime en elle quelque chose de plus ancien que tout notre de Christ, ou plutôt c'est l'Eglise de Christ que passé Je veux dire ce qu'elle a encore de l'Eglise j'aime en elle." ment at length in 1835 sought to fix him as national church, setting forth the grounds of one of its regular members by instituting for his determination in a letter addressed to his him a chair of French Literature and Elo- clerical brethren of the class of Lausanne. quence. The Vaudois authorities, however, He resigned at the same time his office as about the same time commenced a move- Professor of Theology. He appears, howment for his recall to his native city, of ever, to have continued privately his theowhich he promised to prove so brilliant an logical lectures, and again, in 1844, connected ornament; and accordingly, when in 1837 himself openly with the Lausanne Academy the chair of Practical Theology became va- as temporary Professor of French Literacart in the Academy of Lausanne, he was ture. appointed to it. Vinet yielded to what he regarded a duty, but he did not quit Basle without a struggle, and he often looked back with lingering regret to the years he had spent there. The Vaudois revolution of 1845 constituted the actual triumph of that wild Democracy which was only temporarily stayed by the constitution of 1830. The ecclesiastical consequences which followed this triThe revolution of 1830 resulted in a po umph are well known. A direct collision litical compromise, which it was obvious to arose immediately between the clergy and all discerning eyes could not be permanent. the government, and soon thereafter termiAlthough yielding for a time the reins of nated in a large secession of ministers from government, Democracy then really tri- the national church. The position of Vinet umphed as subsequent events fully proved. in reference to this movement was somewhat In the meanwhile, discussions continued as singular. He felt himself alternately atto the proper relations between Church and tracted and repelled. He sympathized with State. In place of the old ecclesiastical or the sacrifices of the clergy, but he could not dinances adopted at Basle in 1793, the coun- understand the partial grounds on which cil of state occupied itself in 1837 with the alone they sought to defend their secession. preparation of a new ecclesiastical constitu- He complained of their inability to grasp tion, which, before bringing up for adoption the real importance of their position, and to the grand council, it submitted to dele- aimed to convince them that the step which gates of the four classes of clergy. Vinet they had taken, under the force of circumwas appointed delegate for the class of Lau- stances, was not a pisaller, but a step glorisanne and Vevay. The sittings of the dele-ous and momentous to the Church. He gates were public, and may be said to have been devoted to the whole range of the ecclesiastical controversy that had so long agitated the canton. Such questions as the admission of the laity to the government of the church, and adherence to the Helvetic Confession of Faith, were prominently dis cussed. On both of these questions Vinet ranged himself once more in opposition to the ultimate decision of the government. In reference to the important point of adherence to the Helvetic Confession, the part taken by him is well worthy of attention. He did not defend the Confession considered in itself-as in all its parts a thoroughly accurate or adequate exhibition of Christian truth; but he maintained the essential relation sub. sisting between the two terms church and symbol. It was necessary in his opinion that the Vaudois church should have a symbol, and, symbol for symbol, he preferred that which was known to that which was unknown -that which represented an historical faith to t at which would probably prove a mere series of negations. The new ecclesiastical constitution came into operation in 1841. Vinet did not think it in his power to accept the régime to which it submitted the church; and accordingly, in the end of 1840, he withdrew from the urged his ecclesiastical views in "Considerations" addressed to them; but there were few comparatively that he could raise into the same clear atmosphere of conviction with himself. Even the Evangelical Society of Geneva, in its General Assembly of 1846, protested by two of its most eminent members, against the importance attached to such merely ecclesiastical questions. D'Aubigné, their President, complained that there was given to such questions a place which only belonged to the cross of Calvary. M. Gaussen, in a report on the Theological School, proclaimed that the best church is that which speaks least of the Church and most of Christ. These were among the last assertions on the subject to which Vinet made reply. It was thus that in the closing years of his life, Vinet returned to questions which had occupied his youth. He preached tolerance to a persecuting people. He preached the spirituality of the Church to a clergy whose demission, he believed, had not sufficiently impressed them with this great principle. He laboured, at the same time, till the state of his health rendered this no longer possi ble, in the actual formation of the communion which was born of the Demission. Although himself, we have seen, a dissenter of friends, and he was urged to seek repose: But the spirit was willing, though the flesh was weak; and in the commencement of this very year (1847), besides the ecclesiastical labours we have mentioned, and from which throughout his whole life he had scarcely rested, he was busy with many literary pro to Clarens, and devoting himself there in older standing, he attached himself to this communion and exercised his ministry in it. A project of a constitution was presented to ay snod which met at Lausanne on the 10th of November, 1846, and was remitted by this synod to a committee of nine members, who were to report upon it at the commencement of the following year. Vinet was a mem-jects. He cherished the intention of retiring ber of this committee, and hastened to expound in the "Semeur" the principles which he considered indispensable as the founda tion of such a work. These principles he reduced to three. The first contemplated not merely the admission of the laity to the councils of the church, but the modification of the ministry itself, so that there should be different orders for preaching and ruling. The second proposed that the simple fact of secession, and the profession which such an act implied, should constitute the terms of admission into the church. The third sought to adjust the relations between the church as a whole and its different congregations. There was to be a general church-a church of the canton; but every separate church-made arrangements for the publication of a every ecclesiastical monad-was to be the History of French Literature in two volumes. centre of authority for itself. The indepen. He thought even of writing a grammar. dence and proper life of the church were con- Such was, nevertheless, the degree of debilisidered to be bound up in this principle, ty to which he was reduced, that he was which secured as much liberty as unity per scarcely able to proceed from his bed to his mitted, and as much unity as was compati- lecture-room. At length he was forced to ble with liberty. abandon all his professional duties, and on the 20th of April he was conveyed to Clarens. He bore the journey better than was expected, but any hopes of his recovery were of short duration. "Vinet knew clearly," writes M. Scherer, "the gravity of his situa tion. At the same time, as he had not made of his heart two parts, the one for the world and the other for God, so neither did he make of his life two divisions, the one for living and the other for dying; but he continued up to the last moment to occupy himself with the thoughts and labours which had filled his life." He continued to take a lively interest in literary matters. His last pleas ure in this way was the perusal of Lamartine's History of the Girondists. In the beginning of May, on Sabbath the 2d, his suf The committee did not limit itself to the revision of the project submitted to it, but prepared a new work, which was presented to the synod in the month of February, 1847. This work was composed of two parts-a project of constitution for the Free Church of the canton of Vaud, and a report containing an exposition of the principles on which the project was based. This report in its most essential parts was from the pen of Vinet. The influence which he exercised in the committee was not, however, transferred to the synod; and the result was, that not a few of his proposals and principles met with strong opposition, and were ultimately rejected, or at least so modified as to leave them scarcely the same as when they came from his hand. There is reason to think that he deep-ferings greatly increased, and for the few last ly felt this defeat of his cherished views. days he was unable to speak much. He is Prevented by the state of his health from supposed to have purposely abstained from aking an active part in the labours of the such statements as are often collected and tynod, he gave vent to his feelings in the recited from the lips of the dying,-having sages of the Reformation in the form of a cherished always a distaste for such recitalsptter to a member of this assembly. He The only memorials that have been preservad announced a second letter, and even diced of his last moments are expressions of afted the commencement of it from his couch fection and humility. One of his friends hav. suffering, when death put an end to this g said that he would pray earnestly for him, nd all his other labours. Essais de Philosophie Morale et de Morale reli. For some time the health of Vinet had b.en the subject of great anxiety to all his gieuse. he replied, "You could scarcely pray for a creature more unworthy." At another time he asked pardon for all the offence-so he expressed himself-which he had given by his impatience and intolerance. He left the following message for his son:- "Tell him that he persevere in the love of Jesus Christ, since he has found it." On Monday evening he appeared better, and there seemed yet a glimmering of hope. His sister and Madame Vinet, worn out with fatigue, went to take some repose. A friend remained with him. These were their last words of conversation. "What shall I ask for you?" said his friend. "Ask for me?" replied Vinet: "all grace, even the most elementary." At one o'clock in the morning his breathing became heavy, and his sufferings returned. They continued to the end, but without any great struggle or agony. Some one asked a question. I can no longer think," he answered; and these were his last words. He expired at four o'clock in the morning, on the 10th of May, 1847. " A great multitude from Vevay, Lausanne, and even Geneva, met to pay the last duties to one whom they had so much admired and loved. A monument raised by his friends marks the place where Vinet rests, in the cemetery of Clarens, on the summit of a smiling hill, in one of the most beautiful spots in the world.* In turning now to the writings of Vinet, we feel that it would be a vain task to criticise them in detail. They are at once so diversified and so fragmentary. We shall best accomplish our purpose by rapidly glancing at his successive publications, and endeavouring to gather up from them his most prominent characteristics as a man of letters and a divine. It is necessary to consider him, to some extent, separately under these aspects; but we would by no means lose sight, even temporarily, of the one cha racter in the other. It is, in truth, impossible to do so from any right point of view in which our author can be regarded. For, as will be fully apparent in the sequel, it is just the very unusual combination of exquisite literary taste and skill, with the depth and comprehensiveness of the Christian philosopher, which imparts to the name of Vinet its highest lustre. Literature was the idol of Vinet's youth, and although graver employments often interrupted his literary ardour, he still clung to it, and, at different intervals, recurred to elaborate plans of literary preparation. He had already in Basle, amid his more ordinary functions as a teacher, begun his literary ca reer. In 1829-30 he gave to the public his first work entitled Chrestomathie Française, which appears to have been intended as a sort of text-book for the use of his classes in the Gymnasium. It was based upon a principle to which he attached great importance in the teaching of languages,-viz., the com munication of instruction in the concrete, from the actual text of some author, instead of the common abstract method of teaching from the grammar as a species of geometry. The second edition of this work he enriched with various fragments in the form of letters, in which he communicated the fruits of his long meditation on his favourite task, and treated cursorily of language and the study of literature. An historical survey of French literature, which formed the introduction to the third volume, was also entirely recast for this edition, and so admirably accomplished its object, as to draw from critics a warm tribute of praise. "It was a veritable literary chef-d'œuvre," wrote M. SainteBeuve, "at once full and finished." In 1831 the Semeur was commenced, and this journal formed henceforth for many years the centre of Vinet's literary activity. It might be said, according to M. Scherer, to be his journal, so much was it indebted to his pen, and determined in its character by his influence. Especially was it the deposi tory of those literary criticisms which he delighted to throw off, with such easy fertility, and in which he manifested such aptitude as to lead some to consider them his special work and calling. A famous course of lectures on the French Moralists, which he delivered at Basle dur ing the winter of 1832, deserves special mention. The success which attended them was remarkable. The felicitous union of literary criticism of the most delicate and searching character, with a vein of profound and ingenious moral sentiment, was something quite new and striking. Among the many regrets, remarks his biographer, which are left to us from the interrupted career of Vinet, one of the most lively is that which arises from the impossibility of our ever possessing as a whole these memorable lec tures. We have only some fragments of them published in the Semeur. In 1837 he collected certain of his miscel laneous writings, and published them in a separate volume, under the title of Essais de Philosophie Morale, one of the works before us. These Essays, as the title indicates, *For the details of these paragraphs, we are in- bear in the main on a common topic. "One train of thought pervades them, and is repro debted to M. Scherer. doctrine. The other essays in the volume treat of such special subjects as the freedom of the will-the nature and principle of moralsthe standard of morals-utilitarianism-individuality and individualism. They all bear abundant marks of Vinet's literary skill, but they do not in this respect claim from us any particular notice. duced under diverse applications."* They the most, obvious and undeniable evidence cannot be said, however, to exhibit anything all around us. A Christian Philosophy,-a of the unity of a treatise, while several satisfactory solution of the problems which merely literary criticisms are appended to meet us wherever we penetrate to the depths fill up the volume. of Christian Thought,-is still notoriously a The Introductory Essay of this collection desideratum; and if the traces of it may be is among the most characteristic of all Vinet's discerned at length by the patient and productions. It is devoted to the considera- thoughtful eye among the suggestions of a tion of those seeming intellectual contradic- more genial, and reverent, and comprehentions," dualities," he calls them,-which sive philosophic spirit, it assuredly does not meet us every where as we push backwards yet present itself as a clear and complete our speculative inquiries. He brings out into clear and sharp prominence a great variety of such antinomies, to use the more exact Kantian expression; and dwells strongly on the impotence of all mere Eclecticism to resolve them,-pointing at the same time to the direction in which he is disposed to seek their solution. It will be felt by all who have grappled with such dif ficulties, that Vinet is, as ever, more suc cessful in the exposition of the problem than in the hints which he throws out towards its solution. We believe no less strongly than he did that Christ is the great centre of mediation here, as in all respects, and that in the "Gospel alone there is a key which opens all doors;" but it is utterly to mistake the true character of that reconciling power which lies in Christianity, to ascribe to it, as he would seem to do, a purely intellectual as well as moral force. Christ came not to resolve the enigmas of human philosophy, but to restore the harmony of human life. If the Christian, therefore, finds a refuge in the Gospel from the oppression of those intellectual contradictions which nave been in all ages the torture of speculation, it is not because he is enabled to see with the intellectual eye more clearly than others, but because he is enabled to repose in the perfect peace which flows to him from the Cross, amid all speculative difficulties whatever. We would not say with Vinet, therefore, "this word (the Cross) re-organizes thought and the world," but simply this word re-organizes the world, and, through the practical unity which it brings, prepares the way, if not for speculative unity, yet speculative submission. To proclaim any thing more than this is, we believe, radically to misrepresent the Truth, and to gainsay * Introduction, p. ii. for + This subordination of speculation to practice, according to the condensed pith of Christian philosophy, expressed in the pregnant words," If ye do the will of God, ye shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God,"-is, indeed, elsewhere distinctly acknowledged by Vinet; and in the Essay in question he probably did not mean to teach an opposite doctrine, although his concluding paragraphs, in their peculiar emphasis, would seem to point to such a conclusion. We hasten to introduce to the reader those more purely literary productions of his pen which his friends have collected since his death, in the three large volumes at the head of our paper, entitled, "Etudes sur la Littérature Française au dix-neuvième Siècle," and in his other writings on the History of French Literature.* The chief foundation of the three volumes, is the lectures which he delivered at Lausanne during the years from 1844 to the close of 1846, while he occupied the chair of French literature there in room of his friend M. Monnard. This, indeed, appears to have been one of the most brilliant periods of Vinet's intellectual activity. Rapid, ingenious, and fruitful, as is the display of his powers in these volumes, they convey but little idea of the real resources and charm of his lecturing. This, according to one of his auditors, was "in its form and method of the highest character. Free from all pedantry and scholastic coldness, it was at once lively and profound, thorough and copious. The effusion of his whole soul into the souls of his pupils,-it was eminently fertile and creative, inspiring as much as merely instructing. No one * Messrs. T. & T. Clark of Edinburgh have just of French Literature in the Eighteenth Century, issued a translation of Vinet's pothumous History founded on his last Course,-(see list at the head of this Article.)-a work of great interest, which abounds in illustrations of the profound views and broad literary sympathies of the author, and is the first attempt to estimate the literary age of Fontenelle, Montesquieu, Voltaire, and Rousseau, from a Christian point of view. The mention of this subject suggests another work, recently translated from French literature into our own. We refer to Voltaire and his Times, by L. F. Bungener. (Edinburgh, Constable and Co., 1854.) This fascinating work should be in the hands of all who are interested in that memorable period in the history of France and Europe. |