LA FAMILLE PAR PAUL JANET.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 96, 7 March 1862, Page 6

LA FAMILLE PAR PAUL JANET.

Books like this show that there arc .vi nindaniuntul dWlbriruccs between French society add our own. We do not, it is trite, look ibr orignuiity in prize essays auy mora tlinn m prixe poems. The fact of a work winning the award oi a hundred pounds from a committee^ or being couronne by an academy, Joes not excite in us a desire to cmen its pages. Tha notion o. reward suggests tlio Men of something winch we have alia right to try for, and, consequently, when Unsuccessful book appears, we regard it as a specimen of what everybody thinks ot powers of which we all have some share, and of which tlie committee in question is by no means an infallible judge-Committers having a natural love oi commonplace, and finding safety in platitudes. Nevertheless, we do not think that a man who could write so well as the author of this treatise, would, with us, have strung together page after page of such obvious undisputed commonplaces as take up nine tenths of M. Paul Janet's '• Ln Famiile ;" nor, if he did, would lie be crowned by whatever authority may pass for our Academy -, nor, lastly, would he be in such favor with the public as to reach four editions. We must assume then, that, if commonplaces at all, his commonplaces are not obvious to his readers — that, iv fact, the laws of ordinary morality are not unquestioned in French society—that it is becoming time with our neighbours to revert to first principles, taking nothing for granted. AYe arc led to suppose that there are no inconsiderable number of persons in France, and those amongst its educated civilized classes, in whom it is necessary to revive the idea of •' La Fanii' .." —the relations and the duties of parent a ;d child, husband and wife, brother and sister — that these primary sentiments run a present risk of being included amongst those "illusions," fleeting as they are beautiful, over which the youth "of France mourn, fixing a term to their enchantment, and foreseeing their end even while still under their influence. Indeed, il. Janei plainly tells his hearers that there is but one oi all theso relations that the fatal "ironic" of the day has spared :—" Chose remarquable ! l'csprit dedoute gui n'a rieu respecte, s'est arrctc devant la matei-nite. Je crois que e'est le soul fait moral do I'anie Immaino gui le doula et l'ironis aient epargno." To French hearers, then, living in the nineteenth century atmosphere of doubt, it may be useful to lieai* paternity respectfully apostrophised : —" Quel role auguste, m -sieurs, (pie eclui de pere, uiais quel role redoutable!" The cautious inquiry may awaken young vi .11 in a career of dissipation to a new view :—-'Etesvous bien stirs dans ess commerces dun jour, dans cos relations faciles, de ne point kisser ftlterer la diguite, la purite dv caractere ;" It may be a wnrning needed under the preponderance of very opposite counsels t at the only course for "La Fennne" under her trials is " une courngeuse clemence," or " uno fiere resignation." " une silencieuso patience," marked by "un retranchement austere de touts il'usion." Ii may inspire novel as well as pious reflections in his female auditors to be told that there is 11 point of provocation under which unassisted virtue fails :—•' IL lvi faut un point d'appui ;je a'en voispas d'autre quale sentiment religieux ;" md duty may want an advocate who will remind the reader of the forgotten truth, that "e'est un grand mensonge de laLser croire quo la vie de levoir soit•' neces.v.ireu ent sec'ie. aride, ennuyjuse, et la vie de passion, vive, briilante, enehanteresse." M. Janet is a moralist, but before all things a Frenchman. lie boasts of a philosophy condescending and compassionate, though without illusions ; but whatever illusion is inseparable from the abstract idea of a Frenchman reigns in him in full force. As such, society is his paramount idea. La Fa mille is subsidiary—a thing to philosophise about, an idea, a sacred tradition of past ages; but family, morals, aud all other thing's are brought to the bar of French opinion and customs—that is, of society. Thus, after a great deal of fine language on the conjugal relation, we find him entering on the question as fairly open to dispute—whether love is even desirable in the married state. Taking for granted that " la passion ne dure pas to-.ijours"—that if can only last a short time, and that this is all for the best—he yet dares to side with romance, but sxplains that he would not venture that too delicate aud questionable a sentiment, and one so subversive of received opinion, if he could not show himself backed up by Madame de Stael. M. Guizot, and the lieoue dcs Dsux Mondes :— "Pardon me for pleading the cause of a sentiment justly under suspicion, and against which tve cannot bo too much on our guard. I should lot have dared to do so to you but under the shelter of two eminent write.-s —Madame de 3tuel and M. Guizot—who, the one in her book, ' L'Allemagne," the other in arecent n-tiele, universally applauded, in the Revue dcs Deux Mondes, have equally defended, with the authority of their high reason, love in marriage (l'amour ians le manage"). Society is virtually accepted as the judge of right md wrong, as far as these distinctions are really important. No comedy, however, can assert the loctrine of sowing wild oats with less scruple hat does our moralist. Only let the young man eturn at last to the bosom of his family—let him tot absolutely forget or utterly renounce its tie, —and " tliere is nothing to fear—the good will n the end prevail over tiie bad." Tliere is more n this strain than we care to quote—concluding vith the fear tiiat perhaps his yotinj hearers will hink him too severe. He reminds tliern, howiver, that there is " une lan gage plus severe c ;- ore, celui de la morale striate," but tacitly atnits that this is beyond the aim of French young nen, as ilfc is beyond the hope of French moralts. "La Morale Sfcriete" talks of duty and rirtue, but practically tiiese ideas are not intelli;ible to youth. For them tho author substitutes he-idea of honor. " Virtue speaks little to the imagination," " honor raises us in om- own !stcem"—so he says, but ins real principle is übmission to a low, but recognised, external tandard. From "Le Fils" we pass to "La Fille." The übject is approached witli a flourish of delicacy, 1 sort of mysterious propriety of diction, vhich, when cleared away, shows the same irinciple at work. "La Fille," "La Fennne," 'La Mere," are all of them to be extremely lareful not to offend society, and are reminded hat society is vastly more particular in its i-e-----[uirements from them than from its men, "W ivcrlook so much litrtn in a man for the sake oi 1 little good," but it is not permitted in women Ide passer par les fautcs pour arrivor a la sagesse." tie enforces on the young beauty the necessity of, icing modest, "for if yon admire yourself the ,vorld will soon cease to'admire y. v." He rc:omrncnds an absence of display, with the enconriging assurance that her reserve will not pass unrewarded. " A happy word, a sweet smile, an intelligent physiognomy will reveal" to the observer "les richesses quelle dissiinule." He advises that irecise amount of intellectual culture which will enable her to please the greatest number ; and while he apologises to the ladies for assigning to man 'gilic privilege of reason," he hints that it' would not be to their advantage to try to diminish tho distance already existing by any effort of their own, lest it should imperil those soins far dearer than reason to the Frenchwoman. After tptoting the saying of a contemporary writer, that he never knew even a superior woman who could follow a train of abstract reasoning for a quarter of an hour, he proves his point by an ingenious illustration. The real question is not whether there are women who can do what the lady in question could not, but whether they can master the difficulty and be charming at the same time. M. Janet clearly regards a success as dangerous, if not fatal to higher interests:— " Madame do Longneville, of whom an illustrious writer has just given us the touching history, offers us an amusing example of the inability of even a distinguished woman to follow a train of abstract reasoning. Nicole one day maintained to Madame de Longuevillo that he could prove to her that there were in Paris at least two people with the same number of hairs. 'I take for granted,' said he, that the head most richly endowed with hair has not more than two hundred thousand hairs, and that the least favoured has at least one single hair. Now if you suppose that two hundred thousand heads have all a diflcrent number of hairs, they must each have one of the numbers between one and two hundred thousand; For if we suppose there are any two amongst these Tiro hundred thousand heads with the same num-

her of hall's, I shall havo gained the wager. Now • supposing that these two hund.'ed thousand in ; [I habitants have nil a different number of hairs. If 1 . 1 bring a single inhabitant mo.o with some hair, , and who hits not more titan two hundred thousand ;' hairs, it must of necessity he that this number of .- hairs, whatever it he, is to be found between one , ! and two hundred thousand, and consequently be 1 equal to the number of hairs of one of those two -. hundred thousand bends. Now, as instead of one • inhabitant over and above the two hundred . thousand, there are eight hundred thousand in- !' habitants in Paris, you see there must be many ; heads with an equal number of hairs, though I . have not counted them.' Madame de Lougueville I never could be brought to understand that a demonstration could be made of this equality of > hairs, aud always maintained that the only way to prove it was to count them." M. Janet enriches liis own somewhat super- ; fieial views by occasional extracts from German i writers on the same subject. '-La Fam'lle" occu- [ [lies apparently a large space in the continental . mind. With deep thinkers it is becoming histoi rical—a thing connected with races, and with ; those primitive forms of Government which 5 modern Europe is outgrowing. Perhaps it is be- . cause England has not yet outgrown them that it , furnishes M. Janet with no profound authorities son the subject. He complains that M. Kichl, ot , Ltuttgardt, lays all the blame on France for the . decline of domestic manners in Germany, once . the classic laud for la vie de famille. This writer _, attributes the mischief to the passing away for t ever of the ancient regime. Another speculator 'on the training of children assumes, very phui--1 sibly, a return to old modes. Generations of . children are divided he says, into the flattered ; and the beaten. .Every man sees faults in his i own training, and resolves to correct them in his : , offspring. The next race of children, therefore, !• are to feel the rod. Another treats the great ? subject of family with the scientific candor and i calm philosophy characteristic of his nation. Por { great ideas we must make some sacrifices and ? tolerate some fanatical excesses. Tims the suttee I is a victim to family feeling—so was the save t burnt on the funeral pile of his master. So v.-ere ] the weakly and deformed children exposed by t the Spartans and North American Indians. This ) accounts for the position of women in the East. t dhe is only valued in the family relation—as an , individual she is mill. M. Janet very justly , stands out for the personality of the individual, >' and will not share tlie German's enthusiasm foi , the Cahnueks of the Volga—a race largely ln- . Iluenced both by tbe individual and the fai..i!y theory—the first prompting them to treat woman - with a "courtesy rivalling patriarchal times," : until, presuming on this " courtesy," she commits . some finite de menage, when the* predominating • family sentiment asserts itself. i'or among the . Cahnueks " thpj genius of the house is ranked . higher than the personal dignity of the woman,'' • and she is subjected to tlie discipline of the whip, ■ '; glaive et spectre de la maison, wliich. passes like , a sainted relic from generation to genei-atton." i We have not thought it necessary to follow M 1 Janet through the different brunches of his sub- . ject. He owns to liking old truths, and, where ' his morality admits of no question, they are not I truths so much as truisms." But they are neatly , uttered and with an agreeable touch of sentiment , and gallantry ; and we even feci that, though not . in our insular way, his book may he useful to . Frenchmen, or rather Frenchwomen, to whom, probably, it is mainly addressed, as a mild antil dote to tiie poison of George Sand. The best . chapter iv the book is tiie closing one, on the iv- . litiencc ofthe age on the family principle. The : . spirit of doubt has not spared home traditions i mere than other things, artl, universal doubt leads . necessarily to ennui, on which a French author r has always something to say. lie is never with- \ out a certain pride in the unrivalled powers of hii- ■ countrymen for exhausting every emotion, disi pelling every illusion, and settling" down at las in tan ui!ostentatious satiety and clamorous ennui, . which have their own range of satisfactions. The 5 progress and all-embracing grasp of the black . melancholy of the soul furnished M. Janet with it : theme for some effective writing. He pursues it : with zest and appreciation through its stages from • its opening of "delicious langour"—an abandonment . ofthe soul to the vague and undefined, where it . loves to wander iv vaporous and mysterious spaces. , hearing au illusive afiiinity with the infinite—on : to its further development, when it awakes to the , knowledge that it feeds on chimeras, and mistakes '. restlessness for affinity, From thence it brcakf . into revolt '■ arising from utter weariness, a void of all belief, a disease of the soul, profound, i mortal, incurable." All law, all order, all reason, , all measure, is intolerable. It is proud of playing . Satan's part, ami likes nothing so well as to be , called diabolical. But this is not the end—the . role is too sublime for continuance. Conquered. ■ repulsed, doubting even of self, it avenges itself with irony—that irony which is apostrophised as a tenth muse in " Lclia." These are the evils to which the French of our day is especially exposed ; and if they seem of lute to have modified some of their worst characteristics, M. Janet derives no comfort from the semblance of amendment. Indifference is not the contrary of doubt, but its last phase and efFect. These are the enemies with which the sacred institution of the family has to contend, and over wliich it has finally to triumph. Nor, while the great idea of maternity is safe from the assaults of doubt and irony, does lie despair. This sentiment requires some explanation, for maternity is not only a great idea, but a fact, which doubt itself cannot get over ; but it means tliat so long as there is no French author to paint iv favorable colors a mother abandoning her children, there is hope for France. When ali else is lost, maternite remains at the last anchor, tiie last hope, the last refuge of moral sanctity. With these trembling aspirations for his country, shared as they are by the Academe Franeaise, which has formally accepted his picture as a true one, we take our leave of M. Paul Janet.— Saturday lleuiew, 2nd November.