Copyright by the Open Court Publishing Company, 1922 PREFATORY NOTE. Tribute is here feelingly paid to the memory of Professor John E. Matzke, who, together with Professor Oliver M. Johnston, of Stanford University, was the writer's first Romance teacher in this country. The writer also wishes to thank his friend, Professor Roy P. Lingle, who has considerably aided him in reading the proofs. M. R. ~\ l\ ILTON has convened many a man to Diabolism," says \jJ_ Max Beerbohm in his recent story, "Enoch Soames." 1 Among these converts must be counted Frangois Rene, Yicomtc de Chateaubriand. His return to Catholicism was not inspired by his mother's death, but incited by Milton's Devil. Chateaubriand him- self, as is well known, attributed bis religious conversion to his mother's death-bed appeal to him to return to her faith. "Ma con- viction;' said he, "est sortie du cceur. J'ai pleure et j'ai cru." This story, however, is the purest of his fictions. It is truthful only to the extent that he inherited from his mother the tendency towards Catholicism. The abruptness of his transition from the scepticism of his Essai sur les Revolutions (1797)—"a book of doubt and sor- row," as he himseif called it—to the certainty of his Genie du Chris- tianismc (1799-1302) is a suspicious circumstance. The interval between "Quelle sera la religion qui remplacera le Christianisme?" (th? title of the last chapter of the Essai) and his panegyric of the genius of Christianity was too brief. The fanatical Voltairian was too suddenly transformed into a fervent votary of the Catholic faith. As a matter of fact, Chateauhr'and remained the sceptic even after writing his Genie du Christianisme. This is shown by mar- ginal notes to the Essai in the author's own handwriting found by Sainte-Reuve in a copy which had belonged to Chateaubriand him- self.2 On the basis of this discovery alone our author's sincerity in 1 Enoch Soames is the most recent imitator of Theophilus, the ambitious priest of Adana, who, as is well known, was the first to discover that man could enter into a bond with Beelzebub. The story "Enoch Soames" first appeared in the Century Magazine for May, 1916, and was reprinted in Max Beerbohm's book, Seven Men (London, 1919; New York, 1920). 2 Cf. Augustin de Sainte-Beuve, Chateaubriand ct son groupe litteraire. Xouv. ed. (2 vols., 1872), i. p. 183; cf. also, i. 297; see also Georg Brandes, Main Currents in Nineteenth Century Literature (English translation, 6 vols., London, 1901-5), iii. 78. SUPERNATURALISM AND SATANISM IN CHATEAUBRIAND. 5 "The finest thing in connection with this [Milton's] Parad'se," says Taine,' in his Histoire de la litterature anglaise (1863), '"is Hell: and in this history of God the chief part is taken by the Devil." What fascinated Chateaubriand also in Milton poem was the char- acter of Satan. Our author prais-s the poetic personifications of evil in all Christian poems, but finds Milton's Satan the finest conception of all. He considers this irreconcilable and irreirrdiable archangel an incomparable creation—a mighty angel fallen! The reader cannot but be affected by a sense of sorrow for this fall. Some of the most eloquent passages in the Gewe du Christian'-sme treat of the emp> r an rebel in Milton. In Chat aubriand's opinion there is no poeticj character, ancient or modern, that equals this Devil. Contrasting Milton with Homer, he finds nothing in the Odyssey that can be com- pared with Satan's address to the sun in Parad'se Lost (Genie, Pt. II. bk. vi. chap. 9). "What is Juno," Chateaubriand asks, "repair- ing to the limits of the earth in Ethiopia, compared to Satan, speed- ing his course from the depths of chaos up to the frontiers oi nature?" (ibid, Pt. II, bk. iv, chap. 12). "What is Ajax," he exclaims, "compared with Satan?" "What is Pluto," echo;s Victor Hueo. "as compared with the Christian Devil?" It was the Satan of Milton who reveal:d to Chateaubriand the poetic beauties of I Christianity. Of all Christian supernatural beings it is the Devil j who. as a poetic figure, is superior to all pagan divinities. The poetry of the Christian religion is mainly manifested in the Prince of Demons. The genius of Christianity is finally reduced, in its poeti- cal aspect, to the Adversary. Chateaubriand, who throughout the book takes issue at every turn with Voltaire, seems to agree with his erstwhile master that the Fiend was the fount and foundation of the Christian faith. C'Cette doctrine [du diable] devient depuis le fondement de la religion chretienne," Essai sur les moeurs et Vesprit des nations, chap, iii).'-' 12 Voltaire must have meant that from the old orthodox point of view Christianity was inconceivable without Satan. What need would there he for salvation through Christ if there were no Satan constantly plotting against man? SUPERNATURALISM AND SATANISM IN CHATEAUBRIAND. 19 assailed Zeus, was chained to a rock in the Caucasus; and Loki, the calumniator of the northern gods, was strapped down with thongs of iron in his subterranean cavern. Another serious deviation from tradition in les Natchez is Cha- teaubriand's placing the demon Rumor at the southern extremity of our earth. To be canonically correct he should have domiciled her in the north. The north and not the south was looked upon as the Devil's special domain. It is described as the Devil's dwelling in the passage where the Lucifer legend first finds expression (Is. xiv. 13; cf. also ler. i. 14f. and Par. Lost, v. 689). "The Lord," says Lactantius, "so divided the world with the Devil that occidens, septcntrio, tenebrac frigus fTl to the sphere of his Adversary." This accords with the saying, "ab aquilone omne malum." The good Goethe also said: "The further northward one doth go, The plentier soot and witches grow." By taking up his sojourn in the north, Satan is but following his Persian ancestor Ahriman, who, as a winter-demon, had his habi- tation in the cold north, from whence he sent down hail, snow and devastating floods. The north side of a churchyard is considered unconsecrated ground and is reserved for suicides. As the entrance to a church is at the west end, the north is always to the left. For this reason the left has always been the seat of, and has practically become a synonym for, the Opposition. The Devil, like the tradi- tional Hibernian, is always "agin the government" of Heaven or oi earth. As a matter of fact, Dublin was by some demonologists con- sidered to be Satan's earthly capital. The Scandinavian form of this name is Divelina. Burns had this fact in mind when he wrote: "Is just as true's the deil's in hell Or Dublin city." Chateaubriand may have been thinking of the daemonium meridianu of the Vulgate for Psalm xc. By this term, however, is meant the demon of noonday and not of the south. It was applied by Joseph de Maistre to Napoleon,3" and recently served as title for a novel by Paul Bourget (1914). The greater part of Chateaubriand's demons are but dull and dreary abstractions devoid of body and blood. Our author resorts to the simplest method of personification, in the medieval manner of 38 Correspondance diplomatique (published posthumously in 1860), ii. 65. Cf. K. R. Gallas, "A propos du titre Ic Demon de inidi," in Neophilologus, vol. IV (1918-19), pp. 371-2. The writer of the note makes no mention of the passage in Joseph de Maistre. SUPERNATURAL1SM AND SATANISM IN CHATEAUBRIAND. 33 he holds in his hand. And all this fuss, as Jules Lemaitre rightly remarks, to inspire in a man the most natural of sentiments!00 Chateaubriand's efforts to make his supernatural characters act naturally are also absurd. Satan "borne down by the might of his crim-s desc nds naturally towards Hell." We read also that dur- ing his physical contact with Velleda the language of Hell escaped naturally from the lips of Eudorus. Chateaubriand's mystic notions of the workings of the universe may be characterized as too silly for words. How amazing must sound to a modern man the explanation of high and low tide which the angel of the seas gives to Gabriel! Our author here sp?aks after the heart of his yoke-fellow Joseph de Maistre, who wished that a scientist might come forward and credit the Lord and not the moon with the ebb and flow of the tide. What shall we say of Chateau- briand's cosmogony? Uriel, tin angel of the sun,07 informs in les Xatchez the guardian angel of America how his planet was created. This star, he tells him, was not at all formed as men imagine, and then goes on to explain the origin of the sun: When the Lord thinks, his thoughts send forth beams of light throughout the universe. The child Emmanuel, playing one day with these thought-beams, breaks one of them; and out of a drop which he lets fall, the sun is formed. The sun spots, this angel instructs us further, are caused by the shadow of his wings, which he spreads whenever a thought crosses the Divine intelligence: otherwise the universe would be consumed.68 And this in the days of Laplace! Mr. John Foster in a review of les Martyrs said that its author "has introduced some of the most foolish extravagances that ever Popish fancy mistook for gran deur." 00 The Supernaturalism in Chateaubriand's works conveys no illusion to the reader; it impresses him rather as singularly uncon- vincing. It is felt as a study in style, for which the author, as a nings" {Martyrs, III). The tendency on the part of the Devil to mimic the Deitv in every detail of his character and conduct has earned for him the appellation simia Dei. For the Evangelists, the wind is the proper vehicle for Satan and his angels. "Rain seems to have been commonly associated, as it sti'l is in the Church of England, with the intervention of the deity, but wind and hail were invariably identified with the devil" (Lecky). The witch's broom represents the sweeping storm. fi0 Op. cit., p. 188. B7 In les Martyrs, Uriel resigned as guardian of the sun to take up his new duties as antrel of Love. 68 In les Martyrs it is ihc old Fiend himself who darkens the universe with his bat's wings. 110 Eclctic Rcti'eii' of September. 1812. Reprinted in his Critical Essays Contributed to "The Eclectic Review" (London, 1856), vol. II, pp. 263-78. 38 SUPERNATURALISM AND SATANISM IN CHATEAUBRIAND. science, as it manifests itself in our daily lives, the Christian soul, as it reveals itself in acts of self-d'nial. The habitation of the spirits of good and evil is not in Heaven and Hell but in our own hearts. The conflict' between God and Satan is fought within and not without us. Of Chateaubriand's Christian Supernaturalism all that remains is his Satanism. The interest in biblical and medieval subjects which our author awakened among the Romanticists was confined almost wholly to "diablerie." Certain passages in his books inspired a few . of the most beautiful Satanistic works of modern times., Alfred de Vigny derived his poem, Eloa (1823), from Chateaubriand, and suggested on his part Lamartine's la Chute d'un Ange (1838), Gau- tier's la Larine dn diable (1839) and Victor Hugo's posthumous la Tin de Satan. In Lamartine's poem, however, the angel, who became a human being through love of a mortal woman, soon loses contact with his former friends and takes up his abode among men. Flau- bert's la Tentation de Saint-Antoine (1849) and Anatole France's Thais (1890) go back to Chateaubriand's description of the The Hid. Little did this "avocat poetique du Christianisme" dream that all his efforts in behalf of Christian Supernaturalism would turn out to be only a "boost" for Beelzebub. In one important respect. Chateaubriand experienced the fate of his master. Milton started out, in his poem, "to justify the ways of God to men" (Par. Lost, i. 26), and ended by conferring lustre upon Lucifer. His French imitator set out with the intention of rehabilitating Christianity in the arts and in literature, and his work redounded to the glory of Gehenna. Of all his Christian Supernaturals it is Satan who appealed most strongly to his contemporaries. In the Romantic period the Devil became an absorbing and alluring character and has dominated most literary forms down to the present day. To call the roll of the writers of the nineteenth century who celebrated Satan in verse and prose is to marshal the names of almost all the makers of modern French letters. If we admit that the nineteenth century literature reached.its highest perfection in France, it should not be overlooked that this is at least in some degree due to the skillful exploitation in it of the fascinating Prince of this World.