OUR LITERARY LETTER.

Grey River Argus, Volume XIV, Issue 1691, 5 January 1874, Page 2

OUR LITERARY LETTER.

[j?RQM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.] i !.':■;■;■:■;; -J -' :'PARisi^bvJ'l.i ?\ ■ ;The fourth volume of the " History of j* the. Second ' Empire;" by Taxile Dele'rd^ Thas appeared, and embraces the period' 18J63 to 1867V 1 Ho' aerial ' publication n\' ÜbAkecl to . with greater pleasure; ' The style > .is.. so simple, correct and cbn-t versational ; the matter so well arranged, | fhft events- bo wejl and tJ?§ ho|hesty and iWpartiattiy'fKat.perVade th 6 work, make it most agTeeable and in- ; structive reading. ' THe^Kis^fy not only L-; includes the Second .Empire's doings^ trafrlf re yie ws ihe, jCqritemp.or.ary/ inoic?sliyj|^F'J ctiier nations! The biographies of^Heceused celebrities are cabinet pictures : for example), Hhose of Oobden; Maiimi^iaij,' antt'tiebpold I. of Belgiuiii, ar6 models of „', style. 1 'Kree .'traders ' in 1 prance v deeply' • ' njourried Cbbdett!s : death/ -4nd r co>srasteid 1 y3q hw last: visit to Paris, with -hi? fjr^t; a .quarter JoiE^ century- before, a^'afein^pli^ Commercial traveller. .;; theiugh the •anchor is a repnljlicak i| ranked; as $h"e impdel qi mbdern'tqbiiarchii,' 0^ i^ Whosie gre^tegt.lpride Syas'tb^have ob? served Tiis oath an,d respeot^^jsTn^ost.^/ liberal' prin'oiples, ; and ' whb was .the only ' " *•*■■ 'Continental monarch that m-1848 escaped being obliged to wear;]fbr;a^moinent, the Phrygian cap. Curiosity haturaHy^urns.,..-. to the portrait of the Due de 1 Morny^ whb -A was popularly ' held tor be the ''SeWnd ' , Empire,' , Napoleon i III/ being ! but ; ; his '■' creature. ■.« Both ihad the same 'mbtner'; however, de Morny's: father! is iriot so certain, but. is. generally .believed to be i , i|he QSmtejaeVFlahaut.V.Like.iliegitimatp If children generally, fd'e^Mori^s .eduijatib^ : ) and ybiith l w'ere ipregiilar.' ,He ,w;as not < « t bo much an educated as a practical, man^ ; -, a man of business. 1 It was in^his sense * -fie planned and. executed the Coup d' Etat, and the very boldnesd he displayed ... .'...• in that, made not a' few forget tHe, crime. tie, was, the incarnation of the material* 1 prosperity of the Second-Empire ; from _^. director of ;a beet Bugar'factory, hetoose to r s-| more than ' ' shape the whißper of athrone,,'! 1 .while making imoney also a^ft 1 picturebroker, dabbling in FrenbhraUyftys, an 4 pocketipg hi&.')Cornmiss|on-|foc influSriejin^ H '3 financial As president ,9? a Corps Legislatif of 25Q dfeptitips he was a I 'Bucoess," the opposition -being only Jimited to ( f three " members, he t'ept it of course r 'ml |Oi*der,T -His sp?eohes wepol ejommbi AS^ plage, but "homely and full of rough sense, .A profound knowledge 'fefihe world fur- - nished him with ready replies, that proved asgoodte'^ifc-'He buppi^saesd thepoli- (

tical life of France;- held Ministers to be 'only -Commissaries of .'Police, and civil servants bnt policemen j his death was a loss tothe'ljmphe, but a w^ia, to France^ as it hastened the certain extinction of Imperialism. His obsequies were royal,' .'all that njoney and oflSic'sJs could do were jprecsed into giving his interment' &fa£ ; but not a priest could be found in the .Second Empire to deliver an oration on ; ,h,iß ; " virtues," arid •■' exemplary life."; ";All men are mortal— or nearly all, S're," said the courtier-bishop with a bow, •wKfenpteacbing. before Louis XIV". n 'The Marquis Alfieri, an Italian Senator, ' in his work, "Liberal Italy," and M. Kobert, in hia volume on "Division of; the fruits of labor," approach from different points the burning problem of the future— democracy. Civil equality and the sovereignty of the people are ■ -accepted by both authors as truisms. M. Alfieri holds that the only way to control the wild elements of democracy, ia by educating the masses and forming the intellect of the nation into an elite class. M. ; Robert considers education as limited arid remote, but that the division of pro6ts, between employer and employed^ instead of salaries, would organise labor, and make conservatives of reckless democrats. He cites a long array of the most distinguished names in France, who are partizans of his views, arid better, gives a list of those establishments where the division of labor-gains, is practised; the parties thereto being perfectly contented, strangers to extreme politics, or fanciful yi^s. about society. , M. Kobert cites a tVrious fact ; in co-operative, associations those "elected at their head, are chosen from the most intelligent members of the body, i but. on -the> expiration of their directorship the heads 1 ! retire, set up in business for themselves', and share the profitß twith 1 their erwployis., It was recently proposed in one of the most important op-operative Societies, that since, tfie intelligent directors quit the corporation on the expiration of their office, the most stupid member be henceforth elected head— which was done. |'jn tib,e early;. part of the sixteenth century, the life of actors was as virtuous and exemplary, as that of other classes of i society in France j . they performed strictly their ' religious duties, and eyen when not compelled |o dp go, abstained from playing on Fridays. Their devotion was 1 a fact undefthe Regency when everything was corrupt, and on commencing a ■eason, their records, according to M. Despois show, they ever did so, "in the name of (*od,,of the Virgin Mary,, and the souls in Purgatory." Many artists left legacies to the church, and donations for the celebration of masses, and the relief of \ke poor ; but; these good: works did not the less: '.prevent 'ttieir i performers from being, -buried like dogs. ' An actor, Rosixnont, published a "Life of the Saints, for daily use,'- bnt he was. not the less deliied; 1 ecclesiastical . interment. The tjieafcre, however, despite the piety of the performers, did' in'ot become more moral. GiOlas shows ub what it- was at the close pf J^oujs.^lY. wign, as \ others did at the ppmmenceaient., ' With -Moliere's tuflfei'! the church revived its rigors against the ■ theatrical profession. ■ llacine reoounts the, difficulties 'actors had to find a' play-house j the clergy of every parish' protested, some that . the "six fiddle? of the orchestra tfoald drown the organ.;' ■ qthera. that their churches would be *' deserved by thfl /wmn«f.iHnn TJin

members -of -the order of St. Augustin were prominent in ' their opposition, although many of them we^e t^e' mosf constant spectators at the .thofttreoi ThY more/prosperous a, theatre ;the heavier the church taxe^d'it,; and./While^ taking the money, ' did not abate a jot rin the persecutidti :tf the . company. : The univeraiiy^prohibited students O from going to ' and plays"; they. were, not excluded, . however, from witnessing the ■ burning of heretic's 1 , of Simon Morin, 'for example', ! whip' flnder ; L6uis KW, waa so punished for advocating the abolition of the papacy and'the seculari^atipp of its temporal possessions. Richer jieiw the Bismarck of his periop, protected the actors ; he had twp theatres in his palace, which prelates attended, fear-: ing., 'not., to incur the wrath of his Emir nenpe. Several abbes, Boyer, Nadalac, were- successful dramatic authors,- and others, .argued: that the anathemas pronounced by: the church against gladiators, ought not to be applied to tHe comedies of Moliere, or the tragedies of Cor'neille. Bossuet's attacks against the theatre are well known ; twenty yeara after Moliere' s death^ he .thundered > against that artist, whose fatal illness commenced whilehe was acting in the Malade Imagiwrire— his own production, and which' ended a few hours later »in 'the, green^rodm; "he passed," as'Boasuet said, "from dfche pleasantries of the theatre, among which he rendered almost his last sigh,' to the tribunal of Him' who i said, *^pc unto yon that laugh, - for you shall wjeep.'? M St. Basile held; that it was riot permitted to laugh jinder any circtimstances^ arid Ambrbjse rejected alipleasan tries withoutexceptiori. Ecclesiastes says, to, every thing there is a season, and a time to laugh: However, it iq.ajgopd divine thai follows bis .own instructions, Bo?suet, like Cardinals, $ishops, -the Papal vjfuncio, &(*., was present: at: the Court theatricals, according to Mme. de Seyigne,' yet he went; so far in his denunciations as to include even' Marionettes. Curious also the fact, while ' l actors were excommunicated in France,', they were tolerated in Rome.

M. Gravier has published a very interesting volume on ambition of women, as portrayed on the stage as well as in history, at different. periods and among [different nations. The contrasts are .very happily drawn between those wives' who have <aided, ; and those who have (opposed, their husband's ambition. Agripjjina j| not a case in point of a wife's Ambition, unless ,in the poisoning of her nnßbfcinfr'ihte wished to ! hasten the Emperor Claudius being included among the gods. Hjßjv aipbi,tipn, was .. to .. share the th'rone^^-K^Vsonj Nerd. ; The author concludes, m^ JbVsband's ought not to counjjjppp! ,their; o wives when they are in pursuit ;}/ and that hideous and repulsive as are his types of the ambi&fc>q{iusQifie~n T of "antiquity 'and 1 the middle ages, modern ladies act as a break on theiehnsbaricls' ambitionV checking its first symptohYs/ 1 and 'ever charging*' them to "flirig.it away. „ ',', ' t ' : , ..,:• f "> Pc revtocWon' of . We Edict of Nantes," which iprce4,aO#o^ for reiuge in. Holland, : Switzerland,, and America, j and iocompelled a million, to conceal oriabjure. their faith at horn,e, *jj9;.pppttlarjy>j considered to have bee^<ian/Timpiilflive ! ftOb^orr • ihe part. Jpf. Louis XIV., suggested by Mme. deßraihv tenon, and royal advisers. M. Hugues,

Jn^his life of- " Antoine Court," and French Protestantism during the 38th century, founded on unedited documents in the National Library of Geneva, clearly shows that for twenty years Lonis XIV. had npt ; ceased to curtail the rights and privileges of his Protettant -subjects, soppressing their temples and preparing the ruin of the Reformation, so that the edict of 1685 was but the last blow given to a structure laboriously undermined. Bossuet congratulated the Kin? on that event : "You have exterminated heresy; the most worthy act in your Majesty's reign." Louis XIV. considered that all religious division was a political danger, dll heresy rebellion. He was faithful to the device of the middle ages — one God, one King, one law, one faith. The moral of the work in question is to show the evils flowing from putting politics at the service of religion, and religion at the service of politics," an error as common with Pagans as with Christians, with the

(For eoniimmtion of JV eves see Athpage.)