SOURCE: "Vigny's View of History," in Bulletin of the New York Public Library, Vol. 69, No. 9, November, 1965, pp. 609-17.

In the following excerpt, Kushner surveys Vigny's poetic examination of historical progress and his search for "the collective destiny of mankind."

Historical Consciousness is one of the battle cries of French Romanticism. On the level of literary expression, this is shown by the historical reconstructions abounding in "couleur locale" with which every French Romantic writer filled his poems, novels, and plays. In depth, it manifests itself by the Romantics' keen and pathetic awareness of the historicity of man and all things created. The realization of historicity may elicit regret and merge with lamentations on the theme of "carpe diem," as the poet feels unable to accept the passing of time and the inherent fleetingness of human beings; in the words of Musset, summing up the theme of Lamartine's all to...