As a literary character, Lamennais occupied a promi- nent place in the revival of style under the Restoration. His era succeeds that of Chateaubriand, and corresponds with that of ^Madame de Stael and .Joseph de Maistre. He was an earnest if not )irofound thinker, but especial- ly brilliant as a writer. He had the culture of art com- bined with the vehemence of passion, though the latter element perhaps too often expressed itself in the manner of declamatiiin. As a theorist in social iihilosophy he had a counterpart in Benjamin Constant, who took his stand-jioint in individual liberty, while Lamennais set out from the assumption of a consenting unity in society and religion. It has been claimed that his steadfastness
to this primar\' principle explains the variation of posi- tion which changed political circumstances seemed to necessitate, causing him to be at one time all for the Church, at another all for the people. There were, at all events, three distinct periods in his career, in tlie first of which he was Ultramontane ; in the second he sought to mediate between the Church and democratic ideas ; Avhile at the last he cast off all cliurchly control, and became a chiliastic prophet of the democracy.
M. Guizot, in the second series of his Meditations on the Actual State of Christianity, thus portraitures La- mennais : " This apostle of universal reason was at the same time the proudest worsliipper of his own reason. Under the pressure of events without, and of an ardent controversy, a transformation took place in him, marked at once by its logical deductions and its moral inconsist- ency ; he changed his camp without changing his prin- ciples; in the attempt to lead the supreme authoritj^of his Church to admit his principles he had failed ; and from that instant the very spirit of revolt that he had so severely rebuked broke loose in his soul and in his writings, finding expression at one time in an indigna- tion fuU of hatred levelled at the po^verful, the rich, and the fortunate ones of the world ; at another time in a tender sympathy for the miseries of humanity. The Words of a Believer are the eloquent outburst of this tumidt in his soul. Plunged in the chaos of sentiments the most contradictor^', and yet claiming to be always consistent with himself, the champion of authority be- came in the state the most baited of democrats, and in the Church the haughtiest of rebels. It is not without sorrow that I thus express my unreserved opmion of a man of superior talent — mind lofty, soul intense; a man in the sequel profoundly sad himself, although haughty in his very fall. One cannot read in their stormy suc- cession the numerous writings of tiie abbe dc Lamen- nais without recognising in them traces, I will not say of his intellectual perplexities — his pride did not feel them — but of the sufferings of his soul, whether for good or for evil. His was a noble nature, but fuU of exaggeration in his opinions, of fanatical arrogance, and of angry asper- ity in his polemics. One title to our gratitude remains to the abbe de Lamennais — he thundered to purpose against the gross and vulgar forgetfulness of the great moral interests of humanity. His essay on indifference in religious questions inflicted a rude blow upon that vice of the time, and recalled men's souls to regions above. And thus it was, too, that he rendered service to the great movement and awakening of Christians in the 19th century, and that he merits his place in that movement, although he deserted it."
One of Lamennais' last and most earnest injunctions was that certain papers, which contained his latest sen- timents, should be published without alteration or sup- pression ; but the religious advisers of his niece (who was also his housekeeper) so far wrought on her suscep- tibility as to cause her to refuse to give up the jiapers to the persons whom Lamennais had authorized to super- intend their publication. The matter was in conse- quence brought before the proper legal tribimal, when the judges directed (August, 1850) that the papers shoidd be handed over for publication in their integrity.
The first edition of Lamennais' collected works was published under the title G-luvres completes (Paris, 1836- 37, 12 vols. 8vo). Several editions have appeared since. See Paganel, Examen critique des Opinions dc I'A hhe de Lamennais (2d edit. 1825, 2 vols. 8vo) ; H. Lacordaire, Considerations sur le Si/steme J'hilosophique de M. de Lamennais (1834, 8vo) ; E. Lerminier, Les Adversaires de Lamennais (in the Revue des Deux Mondes, 1834); Robinet, Etudes szir I'abbe de Lamennais (1835) ; Ma- drolle, Jlistoire secrete du Partie et de I'Apostasie de M. de Lamennais (1843); Lomenie, il/. f/e Lamennais (1840); Sainte-Beuve, Critique et Portraits Litteraires, v (Paris, 1846); and, by the same author. Portraits Contemporains (1846), i, 134-191 ; E. Renan, Lamennais et ses en-its (in the Revue des Deux Mondes, August, 1857) ; Morell, Hist.
LAMENNAIS
213 LAMENTATIONS, BOOK OF
Modem PhUosophj, p. 527-37; Damiron, Z'^^ai snr Vhis- toire de la Philosojjhie en France au Ideme siecle (1828), p. 105-197; ll!i!L^,Les Dogvies Chretiens,\,AA^ 8(\.\ For- ei(jn Qiuir. Rev. April, 1838 ; Brit, and For. Rev. 1843, p. 382 sq.; Westminster Review, A\)xi\,\9.hQ; 18G6, p. 174; Revue Chrkienne, vol. xiv, No. 3, p. 173. See also the ex- cellent articles in Herzog, Real-EnajUop. viii, 178-184 ; Hoefer, Kouv. Biorj. Generale, xxix, 182 sq. (E. B. 0.)