Excerpt from Chrestomathie Francaise, ou Choix de Morceaux Tires des Meilleurs Ecrivains Francais, Vol. 2: Ouvrage Destine a Servir d'Application Methodique Et Progressive a un Cours Regulier de Langue Francaise
Des mots qui naissent, qui meurent, qui ressuscitent, ce n'est la qu'une moitie, la plus apparente et la moins considerable, des vicissitudes d'un idiome. Toutefois cette moitie meme signale des faits publics d'une assez grande importance. A la verite, un grand nombre de mots ont pu etre appeles dans la langue ou rejetes de son sein par des circonstances superficielles ou par les caprices de la mode. Mais quand vous voyez des masses, des systemes entiers de mots, disparaitre ou s'introduire, leur retraite ou leur Invasion temoigne que quelque chose de grave est survenu dans les moeurs. Il y a des temps ou la langue generale se puise dans toutes les parties les plus diverses de la vie d'un peuple, ou elle en (exprime a la fois les elements rustique, pastoral, bourgeois, aristocratique, se teignant et se modifiant les uns les autres. Puis l'un ou l'au tre se retire, laissant, a la verite dans la languedes allusions et des metaphores qui ne peuvent plus s'en detacher, mais toutefois emportant, ainsi qu'une epouse repudiee, la plus grande partie de sa dot.
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Alexandre Vinet was born near Lausanne in Switzerland. Educated for the Protestant ministry, he was ordained in 1819, when already teacher of the French language and literature in the gymnasium at Basel; and throughout his life he was as much a critic as a theologian. His literary criticism brought him into contact with Augustin Sainte-Beuve, for whom he obtained an invitation to lecture at Lausanne, which led to his famous work on Port-Royal.
As a theologian Vinet gave a fresh impulse to Protestant theology, especially in French-speaking lands, but also in England and elsewhere. His philosophy relied strongly on conscience, defined as that by which man stands in direct personal relation with God as moral sovereign, and the seat of a moral individuality which nothing can rightly infringe.
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