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l been Initiated In the secrets ct parties 0t

 the Court and the State. have witnessed, not atar oil, but near, the greatest reverses, the lofhest fortunes the most sounding celebrities. 1 have assisted at seiges, at congresses, at conchves, at the re-editiea- ton and demolition of thrones, l have made essays on history, which l could have written and ny life, solitary, dreamy, and poetic, has trawrsed this world of ca- tastrophes, tumult. and noise, with the sons of my dreams, Chactas, Rene Eudore, Abet Hamet; and with the daughters of my fantasy, Atalla, Amelia, Blanca, Vel leda, and Cymodoea. On my age, have exeried, perhaps without wishing it. and without seeking for it, triple influence, religious, political, and literary.

 "I am nc longer surrounded but by three or four contemporaries of a long re- nown; Alferi, Canova, Monte, have dis appeared. 0t its brilliant days, Italy pre- serves only Pindemonte and 4Iazoni. Pel- lico has fingered out his best years in the dungeons of Spielburg the talents of the country of Dante are condemned to silence, or forced 10 lanouish on foreign shore. Lord Byron and Canning died young. M Malter Scott seems about to leave Us. Goethe has just quilted us,fnll of glory, and of years. France has almost nothing for her past, so rich in talent. She Is com mencing a new era; 1 remain 10 inter my age, as the cid priest in the Beziers, who was to sound the knell to entomb himself after the last citizen had expired.

 When Death shall have let down the curtain between me and the world, my drama will be found to be divided into three acts. From my earliest youth to 1900, l was soldier and traveller; from 1900 to 1874, under the Consulate and Empire, my life has been literary; since the Restoration to the present day, politi- cal. In my three successive careers l have proposed to myself great task i: as a traveller, aspifed to the discovery of the Polar world-as an author, to re-establish religion on it's ruins; as a statesman, l have siriven to show to nations the repre- sentative monarehlc system, with its several liberties. I have at least aided to attain that which is worth them all, which re- places them, and holds the place of q cons stitution-the liberty of the press. If l have often failed ia my designs, t was q failure of destiny. Foreianers who have succeeded in their designs. were seconded by fortune; they had behind .heun powerful friends and a tranquil couairsx I have not had this happiness.

 thors, am tue only one whose life resen- bles his works traveller, soldier, poet, le- gist; 1t is in the woods that have sung oi the woods. in vessels that l have described the sea, in camps that have spoke of armies, in exile that ] learnt of exile, and in courts, in affairs, in assemblies, that have studied princes, politics, laws and his tory. The orators of Greece and Rome were involved in the public cause, and par took of its fate. In Italy and Spain, to- wards the close of the middle age, the first genius of letters aiitl the arts participated in the social movements. What stormy and splendid lives are those of Dante, of Tasso, of Camoens, of Ercilla, and Ger vantes!

 In France, OUT ancient poets and an- cient historians sang and wrote in the midst of pilgrimages and of combats- Thibault, Count of Campagne, Yillehardouin join- vile, borrowed the facilities of their style from the adventures of their career. Fro issard sought for his history on the high roads, and learnt 1t from the knights and abbots whom he met. But from the reign of Francis l., our writers have been isolated individuals, whose talents might be the expression of the mind, but not of the facts of their epoch. If l am destined to live, 1 will represent in my person-re- presented in my Memoirs-lhe principles, the ideas, the events, the catastrophes, the epoppia of my time: and tbis the more faithfully, as 1 have seen the world begin and end, and the opposed characters of this beginning and this end are mixed in my opinions. meet myself, as it were, between two ages, as at confluence of two streams; I have plunged into the troub- led waters, borne with regret from the old bank where was born, and swimming with hope towards the unknown shore, on which new generations will arise.

 My Memoirs, divided into books and parts, have been written at different dates and in different places. These sections naturally introduce sorts of prologues. which recall the events which have happen ed since the last dates, and point out inc places where I resume the thread of my narration. The varying events and chang ing forms of my life, thus reciprocally cross each other. It happens sometimes that in my moments of prosperity, have to speak of my unhappy days, and that in my days of tribulation retrace those of my hanniness. The different sentiments