"Of French literature taken as a whole it may boldly be said that it is not the wisest not the weightiest not certainly the purest and loftiest but by odds the most brilliant and the most interesting literature in the world. Strong at many points at some points triumphantly strong it is conspicuously weak at only one point the important point of poetry. In eloquence in philosophy even in theology; in history in fiction in criticism in epistolary writing in what may be called the pamphlet; in another species of composition characteristically peculiarly almost uniquely French the Thought and the Maxim; by eminence in comedy and in all those related modes of written expression for which there is scarcely any name but a French name the jeu d'esprit the bon mot persiflage the phrase; in social and political speculation; last but not least in scientific exposition elegant enough in form and in style to rise to the rank of literature proper the French language has abundant achievement to show that puts it upon the whole hardly second in wealth of letters to any other language whatever either ancient or modern."