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Ano. 16, 1851.] gfte UtAXtt. _^ 777
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The Great Exhibition would be as sore a ...
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M I R A 11 IC A U. Correspondence entre ...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
The " Monks Of Old " Have Much Unconscio...
merits , to substitute their homilies , legends , and poems ! ' What was a Decade of Livv to them ? What cared they for Aristotle ' s great work on Political Constitutions ? They wanted parchment , not literature . They covered with their own rubbish the fair lineaments of ancient Art—buried it as Herculaneum was buried , one day to reappear from under the dust to astonish and delight
mankind . But as many vases and ornaments are manufactured for the credulous , who purchase them for veritable antiques ; so also manuscripts are manufactured from time to time for the bewilderment of scholars . The glorious discoveries of Professor Mai stimulated the hopes of scholarly Chattertons ; and Leopardi forged a Hymn to Neptune and two Odes of Anacreon , which for a long while duped the learned .
In spite of these and similar hoaxes , the Risorgimento of Turin lately excited the curiosity of scholars by announcing that M . Simonides had discovered several precious manuscripts at Athens . On examination these turned out to be forgeries so clumsy , that the verses of Homer are actually reproduced from the text of the Tauchnitz edition !
Ano. 16, 1851.] Gfte Utaxtt. _^ 777
Ano . 16 , 1851 . ] gfte UtAXtt . ^ 777
The Great Exhibition Would Be As Sore A ...
The Great Exhibition would be as sore a point in every Frenchman ' s mind as Waterloo is , if it were not * for the splendid assurance with which they clang the cymbals of their own glory I Every Frenchman , grave or gay , has chaunted the one unvarying hymn , " France originated the idea , and —France surpasses every other nation in every department . " The feuilletonist , the philosopher , the badaud , one and all , see nothing but the immense superiority of France in all this Congress of Nations . They are annoyed at England having
the honour of executing a scheme which would have been so much better executed in France ; but , at any rate , they console themselves with having " originated the idea . " So they did ; as a popgun originated the cannon ! But if England has some credit for the enterprise itself , La France y tient la premiere place—France is the glory of the Exposition ! At first this incessant throbbing of the national drum simply amused us . It has become fatiguing . It sounds childish to be always crying out , ' * See , what a good boy am I ! So clever , so
much cleverer than other boys ! " They intoxicate themselves with the fumes of national vanity . Michel , Chevalier presents a glaring example in the Debuts this week . He has a leading article drawing a comparison between Englund and France at the Exhibition . It is irresistibly amusing . Wilh perfect gravity he proves that the French beat us iu weaving , beat us in machinery , and beat us in cutlery ! Who can doubt that they beat us in everything ; did they not beat us at Waterloo ?
M I R A 11 Ic A U. Correspondence Entre ...
M I R A 11 IC A U . Correspondence entre Ic Cumte tie Mirabrau et Ic , Covtte < le la M < trck , j > endant let antieet 17 « 9 , \ TM , et 17 iM ,- recueillie , miieen ordre , et publie ' e , par Al . Ad . dc itueourt . 3 vols . W . Jeffs . In contemplating the history and biographies of recent or present times and men , we cannot avoid being startled by the discovery that the very abundance of tbe materials tends to place both history and biography in as doubtful a state of authenticity and accuracy as is the case with those ancient men and eras who are only known through the mists of tradition and fable . Ancient history is unsatisfactory throug h mcagrcncss of reliable documents : modern history sceins to be in almost as bad a plight through the very opposite evil , the excessive number and tin ; conflicting nature of the muterials from which a history or a biography has to be collected . Mirabeau baa Buffered from this mass of evidence more than almost any other man . It is not going too far to say , that before 183 G the world knew little or nothing concerning' him , except the broad fc *« ts of his being a dissolute character , and the "ia « ier spirit of the early years of the Revolution . I ' -nchet , Vitry , Chuuasauu , and one or two more Wl ! ro <> "r Hole guides , and they were about as corttttt in spirit and in fact as to the true occurrences of Minibeau ' s life , as Sir Walter Scott is in his novels to those historic celebrities with whom he hud no « yinpu thy . As if bv magic , in all places at once . anting duels at Aix at the very time he was in
prison in Vincennes ; doing literary hodwork in Berlin , when he was in the south of ¥ ranee abducting ladies from the reclusion of a convent life j tete-a-tete with the King and Queen , when he was speaking in the Assembly ; plunged in the most infamous orgies of Orleans and Laclos , when he was walking with his nieces through the gardens of his sister . Dying of poison and of disease ;
being murdered by the King , by Robespierre , by the emigrants ; and , though killed by one or all of these , only dying of a natural disorder through his own rashness and the bungling of his doctor . Such , in literal truth , is the result of a study of the biographies of Mirabeau , before his adopted son published the eight thick volumes , which had the merit of truth , but no other claim upon the patience of the public .
Perhaps this uncertainty , exaggeration , and invention had a great share in building up the fame of Mirabeau . People always wonder most at the impalpable , the vague , the vast . They may hate it and dread it , but they wonder still , and wonder is very near akin to worship . The Himalaya mountains do not strike us as gigantic when we see their height in statute feet ; but when we read wild tales of their frozen pinnacles , gleaming white in the heavens over a hundred miles of country , we feel how great they are , and cannot speak or think " disrespectfully of the Himalayas . "
Children are not terrified by dogs and cats , whose nature and dimensions they accurately know , but by some large , indefinable bogy , that inhabits nowhere , and never is , and yet may pounce upon them at any minute . And though they shudder at the thought of him , depend upon it , at the bottom of their hearts , children have a considerable respect and even admiration , for that same bogy . And when we were ignorant of the details of Mirabeau ' s career , when all our knowledge was from a sort of vague tradition that had floated from his age to ours in the minds and mouths of men , Mirabeau
was half supernatural , and loomed largely from the distance , towering above his contemporaries as Saul towered above the men of Israel . He appeared a giant , with something of mystery about his every action ; a giant man , a giant debauchee , a giant orator , a giant intriguer , and a giant villain . This was the notion of Mirabeau . And although people denounced him , and hated him , and tabooed his memory , they still felt themselves dwarfed by him , and lost themselves wonderingly in the shadow cast from his colossal fame .
And this is the destiny of every great man . A large and unreasonable fame , perhaps , in his life time , and while his personal influence endures through the oral tales of eye-witnesses and hearers , thentohavchis minutestaction and speech accurately recorded , to be estimated by them , and to take his stand upon them in the Walhalla of the world . Mirabeau suffers by this process , and yet gains . The immensity of his character dwindles : but if the immense genius diminishes , the immense debauchery and corruptibility diminish also . The intellectual man is certainly lessened , but the moral man is proportionately improved . He ceases to be a monster and becomes a man . " We wonder no
more : we understand him . " It has been complained of our brilliant English historian of the French Revolution , that when he has told all his facts about Mirabeau , they do not justify his estimate of his genius . " So writes Emerson , and gives it as his opinion that , though less accurate , tbe original vague rumour is truer in essence than the final veridical detail . It is not our business to examine into that matter , but rather to give our readers an idea of the nature of the workundcr notice , and its claims upon our attention .
Tbe adopted son furnished us with all the particulars of Mirabeau ' s life prior to the meeting of the States' ( General in 17 « 9 , from the mass of family papers in his possession . He left nothing to be desired us regarded completeness and authenticity , though he certainly proved how a man may make an unreadable book from the richest materials more thoroughly than any predecessor or successor in the art of' editing family papers , lie produced the ne plus ultra of bungling dulncss ,
which was a triumph in its way . From 1789 to Mirabeau ' s death in 1791 , he also had the advantage of being permitted to consult tbe correspondence in the possession of M . de la Marck , and gave frequent and , occasionally , lengthy quotations from tbo originals of the , letters now before us in type . This he did in his own peculiarly unfehcitous and roundabout manner , giving the facts truly , but so mixing them up with extraneous and antagonistic statements , and arranging them ho
clumsily , as to necessitate a third perusal before a glimmer of their bearing dawned upon the wearied reader ; and making it imperative on any one who would understand them , to give up his nights and his days for a considerable period , employing no small share of patience and acuteness . The facts as stated by him remain unaltered by the present work . Its chief attraction is in the preliminary narrative of De la Marck himself . Though there _
is a great advantage in possessing the original correspondence in its totality , as it insures us from garbled extracts , which it is so easy to make to suit a purpose , and as it is infinitely pleasanter to read Mirabeau ' s letters and judge for yourself , than to wade through the interminable prosings of the adopted son for the sake of the extracts interspersed among them , like the brilliant sayings of a master mind scattered through the inanities of a tedious reviewer . All the ideas of
Mirabeau obtained from the adopted son receive in these volumes a distinct and final confirmation . Many minor additions of information , many details are also supplied ; but the work does not in any way alter what was known about the more important points in Mirabeau ' s career at the time when Carlyle wrote his famous History and Essay . In this respect these volumes do not fulfil the expectations of the world of letters , and our own
among them . Now , however , that the materials of Mirabeau ' s life are complete—now that the last intimation regarding the mystery of his connection with the Court has appeared , and the final seal been placed upon all the details of his life , it may not be labour in vain to give a short sketch of his public career during the period embraced by these letters , not without , however , specifying in what particulars the book under notice has first placed it in our power to do so .
Auguste Marie Raymond , Prince of Arenberg , Count de la Marck , was the descendant of an ancient and wealthy family in Belgium , devoted to the House of Austria . When Marie Antoinette married the Dauphin , De la Marck was , by Maria Theresa ' s request , placed in the French army , and introduced at Court . From that time he became the firm and constant friend of the ill-fated Queen , her ally and adviser in a private capacity , of course . A rigid monarchist and a precise gentleman , De la Marck- * s testimony regarding Mirabeau is the most valuable we could possible have , as he
could not be prejudiced in his favour . And this testimony we have in these volumes in a very pleasant memoir of their friendship from its commencement to its end with the death of Mirabeau . In the year 1788 , when the heavens were black with the coining storm , and when Mirabeau , scenting agitation from afar , had sailed down upon Paris to take his share in stirring up and in controlling the rising spirit of France , De la Marck , having heard again and again of the sinister fame of Mirabeau , of his intrigues , his / light with Sophie , his imprisonments , his sharp political invectives , and his
magnificent pleadings at Aix , which were just then noised through France , accepted the oilers of a friend to introduce this monster to him . Apparently he went to stare at Miraiteau , as people go to stare at the hippopotamus , not with any idea of becoming the friend of so disreputable a being , lie gives us a sketch of his appearance , which was as little likely to prepossess De la Marck in hia favour , as it was to diminish the preconceived notion of his reckless , unprincipled force . Tall , thick ,
heavy looking , with an immense head , and features of an ugliness carried to such an extreme as almost to go through again into a certain Satanic beauty ! Pitted and seamed with the smallpox , clad in capacious garments of exaggerated ( ashion chiefly remarkable by the size of the bows and buckles , wearing a rough tremendous chavelure , and moving with uncouth actions ; impetuously voluble compliments and . salutations , repulsive from their clumsiness and fulsoinncsH and their
antagonism to all the then received forms of polite parlance . Such was Mirabeau in 17 M , when first introduced to the prim , gentlemanly De la Marck . lint no sooner are they . seated at table than this strange apparition commences to pour out his » tore of natural uiul acquired wealth . He speaks of ( Germany , of Prussia , and the ( jJrcat Frederick ; <> f France and her deepening crisis , and attacks Necker with disdainful invectives , greatly to tho terror of his host , who has a friend tind devotee of Necker at his table , fortunntely doting and deaf ; of England and her constitution , showing that he
was one of those who were called Auglomaniacs in that day , not from hia imitation of our mode of r iding , but from u sincere admiration of our limited
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 16, 1851, page 13, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_16081851/page/13/
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