Within the limits of their own thought and emotional experience the ancients achieved perfection of expression, and perfection cannot be surpassed.

But as thought progresses, as the sum of ideas increases and society changes, fresh material is supplied to art, there is "a new development of sensibility" which enables literary artists to compass new kinds of charm.

The Genie du Christianisme embodied a commentary on her contention, more arresting than any she could herself have furnished.

Here the reactionary joined hands with the disciple of Condorcet, to prove that there is progress in the domain of art.

Madame de Stael's masterpiece, Germany, was a further impressive illustration of the thesis that the literature of the modern European nations represents an advance on classical literature, in the sense that it sounds notes which the Greek and Roman masters had not heard, reaches depths which they had not conjectured, unlocks chambers which to them were closed,--as a result of the progressive experiences of the human soul.