There is no department of the moral and physical sciences that has not been enriched and elucidated by the labors of French savans. Among the great scientific writers pf modern France, we may instance in metaphysics and political economy, Victor Jouffroy, Sinaon, and Lamennais, whose eloquent defense of, spiritualistic and religious principles reacted strongly against the materialism to which French philosophy had long been addicted; while socialism has found powerful advocates in Comte, St. Simon, Fourrier, and Leroux. Chevalier, le Tocqueville, Bonald, and Laferriere, are known for their able and philosophic exposition of the jurisprudence of nations, and the social and political condition of democracy in the new and old world. In philology and ancient history, Champollion, Sylvestre de Sacy, Renan, Remusat, and Stanislas Julien, by their profound researches into Egyptian hieroglyphics and Semitic literature, have thrown new light on the origin of races and languages. In mathematics, D'Alern bert, Laplace, Lagrange, Biot, Ampere, and Arago stand unrivaled. In natural his. tory, and its kindred sciences, among a host of great French discoverers, we can only instance a few of the more distinguished, as Cuvier, Geoffroy and Isidore St. Hilaire,
Blainville, Jussieu, D'Orbigny, Hacy, Gay-Lussac, Elie de Beaumont, Milne-Edwards, and Brongniart, whose painstaking and important services in the cause of science have identified names with the triumphs of physical research.
No country has ever produced a greater number of elegant essayists and literary critics than France, and no language seems to lend itself more readily than French to a concise and graceful, yet forcible style of epigrammatic writing, and few admit of more idiomatic terseness, or a more polished play of words.
For authorities on French literature, see Nisard, Mist. de la Litter. Franfaise (1846); Villemain, Tableau de la Litter. au Mogen Age (1857); Demogeot, Mist. de la Litter. Franc. (1857); Littre's Histoire de la Langue Francaise (1867); Gidel's Histoire de la Lit Francaise (1875); La Litterature Francaise, Staaif (1869 to 1873); History of French Literature, by H. Van Latin (1877 to 1879).