AS editor of the Revue des Deux Mondes, Ferdinand Brunetière is ex officio chief of French literary critics. In style of expression and habits of thought he approximates Matthew Arnold more than he does Taine. He is self-controlled always, and at times almost severe, with more of Attic plainness than we would look for in a master of all the possibilities of so flexible and rich a language as French. He was born at Toulon, July 19th, 1849, and was educated at Marseilles and Paris. In 1875 he joined the staff of the Revue des Deux Mondes, the leading critical review of France, and his merit as a writer and scholar made him its editor in chief. The first two series of his “Critical Studies” were crowned by the French Academy to which he was elected in 1893. He is a member of the Legion of Honor also. Among his works are “Critical Studies of French Literature,” “Questions of Criticism,” “The Evolution of Lyric Poetry,” and many essays as yet uncollected. He is an opponent of materialism in literature.