SAINT DOMINGO DARK. See CARIBBEE BARE.
CCIARi.Es-AUousTrN. , a French poet and critic of great eminence, was b. at Boulogne-sur-Mer, on Dec. 23, 1804. His father, who died two months before his birth, was principal des (trolls reunis at that port. His mother, a woman of superior character and intelligence, was by family originally English, and through her the boy early acquired a familiarity with the English language and literature. He was educated at an institution of his native place, and afterward at the college Charlemagne in Paris, On leaving college, though his bent toward literature was already pronounced, be wassIty of committing himself to it as a profession, and betook himself to the study of medicine and anatomy. Shortly he obtained a situation at the hospital St. Louis. Mere for some time lie worked steadily; but his spare time was occupied with literature; and his articles contributed to the Globe on topics of history, philosophy, and criticism, attracted atten tion. and in particular procured him the acquaintance of the celebrated M. Jouffroy. While lie Was thus between literature and the claims of a profession distasteful to him, Victor Hugo's Odes et Ballades were published, and the impression made upon him by this work, of which he wrote an enthusiastic critique, seems to have deterniined him finally to a life exclusively literary. He gave up his situation at the hospital, and attached himself to Le attack, along with Alfred de 3Iusset, the two Deschainps,.and others of the so-called Romantic school. Shortly, he gave to the world his Tableau torique et Critique de la Poe. Francaise, au XVI.° Siecle enlarged in ed. 1843), which at once established his reputation as one of the first critics of the time. His mixt work, Les Poesies de Joseph Demrme, though somewhat coolly received by the public, brought him what perhaps pleased him better than any applause of the multitude, the emphatic approval of Beranger and others of the literary guild. Les Consolations, published in 1830, was considerably more successful in hitting the taste of the public. On the cessation of Le Una&le, after the revolution of 1830, Sainte-Beuve attached himself to the Globe; and subsequently lie wrote much in the Revue des De11X _Valdes, the National, and the C'on,stitutionnel. In 1834 appeared his Volupte, a work
curious as a study of moral pathology, but more curious than pleasing; and in 1840 he published the first volume of his Histoire de Port Royal, a work which, iu 1860, he com pleted in five volumes. On Feb. 27, 1845, lie received the most distinguished mark of honor which can fall to a Frenchman of letters, by his election to be a member of the academy. In 1850 he began to issue, in the pages of the ConstitutMnnel, the famous series entitled Causeries de Lundi, the most delightful of 101 his works, and that by which le is most widely known. After the coup d'itat of Dec. 2, 1851, he became connected with the Monitettr, and was appointed professor of Latin poetry at the college de France. Of this appointment some fruits are before the world in his L'Etude sur Virgile, pub lished in 1857. In 1865 he was called to be a member of the senate. He died Nov., 1869.
As a poet Sainte-Beuve, despite the fine talent lie displayed, never succeeded in becom ing popular, nor can very high rank be accorded him. But as critic, he was "himself alone," and his place is by commcn consent in the vety fore-front of French literature. His sympathies were wide and catholic; in delicacy of perception, and subtlety of refined analysis, he was almost without a rival; his style is piquant, lively, fascinating, instinct with individual expressiveness; and nothing can exceed the felicity with which the interest of criticism proper is combined in his sketches with that of anecdotic biography.
Of his works not already glanced at, the following only need be mentioned: Pasies Completes (1840); Critiques et Portrailes Litteraires Portraits LitMraires (1844); Portraits Contemporains; Causeries de Lundi Nouveaux Lundis (1863); Sauce wire et Indiscretions. Le Diner du Vendredi-Saint (1872). A selection from the Causeries de Lundi has been translated into English, with an introduction, under the titlo English Portraits C. A. set Vie et sea Wuvres, by D'Haussonvi1le (1875); and an article in No. 281'of the Quart. Rev.