In the ocean of
uncertainty
on which we
float, is my plank any safer than theirs?
float, is my plank any safer than theirs?
Warner - World's Best Literature - v21 - Rab to Rus
S.
Bolton.
REFLECTIONS
ON SOCIETY
N SPEAKING Of society, it is not my intention to speak of friend-
ship: although they have some connection, they are never-
theless very different; of the two, the second has more
elevation and humility, and the greatest merit of the other is to
resemble it.
I shall speak, then, at present only of the particular inter-
course which well-bred people ought to have with each other. It
would be useless to say how necessary society is to man. All
desire it, and all seek it; but few make use of the means to
render it pleasant and to make it lasting. Every one wishes to
find his own pleasure and advantage at the expense of others:
we always prefer ourselves to those we propose to live with;
and we almost always make them feel this preference: it is this
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12331
which disturbs and breaks up society. We ought at least to
know how to conceal this preference, since it is too much part
of our nature for us to be able to conquer it. We ought to
derive our pleasure from that of others, to spare their self-love,
and never to wound it.
The mind has a large part in so great a work; but alone, it
does not suffice to lead us in the various roads we must travel.
The harmony which is met with between minds would not long
preserve society if it were not ruled and supported by good
sense, by temper, and by the regard which ought to exist between
people who wish to live together. If it sometimes happens that
persons opposed in temper and in mind appear to be united, they
doubtless hold together from extraneous causes, which do not last
long. We may also be in society with persons to whom we are
superior by birth or by personal qualities: but those who have
this advantage ought not to abuse it; they ought seldom to make
it felt, and only make use of it for the instruction of others.
They ought to make them see that they need to be guided, and
lead them by reason, adapting themselves as much as is possible
to their feelings and their interests.
To make society agreeable, all its members should preserve
their liberty. They should either not see each other, or should
see each other without constraint, and with a view to mutual
enjoyment. They should be able to part without that parting
causing a change. They should be able to do without each other,
if they would not expose themselves sometimes to being in the
way; and they should remember that they often bore others when
they think it impossible ever to bore them. They should con-
tribute as much as is possible to the amusement of those with
whom they desire to live, but they should not always burden
themselves with the care of contributing to it. In society, com-
pliance with the wishes of others is necessary, but it ought to
have limits: it becomes a slavery when it is excessive. It should
at least appear to be free; and that in following the sentiments
of our friends they should believe we are also following our
own.
It should be easy to find excuses for our friends when their
faults are born with them, and when they are fewer than their
good qualities. We should often avoid letting them see that
we have observed them and are shocked at them. We should
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12332
endeavor so to manage that they may see them themselves, to
leave them the merit of correcting them.
There is a kind of politeness which is necessary in the inter-
course of well-bred people: it makes them familiar with raillery,
and prevents them from taking or giving offense by sharp and
hard forms of speech, which often escape us without our thinking
of it when we support our opinion with warmth.
Intercourse between well-bred people cannot exist without a
certain sort of confidence: it ought to be common among them;
every one should have an air of security and discretion which
never gives rise to fear that anything could be said imprudently.
There should be variety in the mind: those who have only
one kind of mind cannot please long. We may take various
roads, not having the same talents, provided that we contribute
to the pleasure of society, and observe in it the same propriety
which different voices and different instruments ought to observe
in music.
As it is not easy for several persons to have the same inter-
ests, they must at least, for the comfort of society, have no
conflicting ones. We ought to anticipate what may please our
friends, seek the means of being useful to them, save them from
troubles, let them see that we share them with them when we
cannot turn them aside, efface them insensibly without pretend-
ing to pluck them away at once, and replace them with agree-
able subjects, or at least with such as engage their attention.
We may talk to them of their own concerns; but only so far as
they allow us to do so, and in that we ought to observe great dis-
cretion. There is politeness and sometimes even humanity in not
going too far into the recesses of their heart: people often feel
pain in showing all they know of them, and still more when
we penetrate to what they do not know well. Although the
intercourse which well-bred people have together gives them
familiarity, and supplies them with numberless topics for frank
conversation, scarcely any one has sufficient docility and good
sense to receive in good part much of the advice that is neces-
sary for preserving society. We like to be advised up to a certain
point, but we do not like to be so in all things; and we are
afraid to know all kinds of truths.
As we ought to preserve distances in order to see objects, we
should preserve them also for society. Every one has his point
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of view from which he desires to be seen; we are generally
right in not liking to be seen too closely, and scarcely any man.
likes to be seen in all things such as he is.
Translation of A. S. Bolton.
ON CONVERSATION
THE
HE reason why so few people are agreeable in conversation is,
that every one thinks more of what he wishes to say than
of what others say. We should listen to those who speak,
if we would be listened to by them; we should allow them to
make themselves understood, and even to say pointless things.
Instead of contradicting or interrupting them, as we often do, we
ought on the contrary to enter into their mind and into their
taste, show that we understand them, praise what they say so far
as it deserves to be praised, and make them see that it is rather
from choice that we praise them than from courtesy. We should
avoid disputing about indifferent things, seldom ask questions
(which are almost always useless), never let them think that
we pretend to more sense than others, and easily cede the advan-
tage of deciding a question.
We ought to talk of things naturally, easily, and more or
less seriously, according to the temper and inclination of the per-
sons we entertain; never press them to approve what we say,
nor even to reply to it. When we have thus complied with the
duties of politeness, we may express our opinions, without preju-
dice or obstinacy, in making it appear that we seek to support
them with the opinions of those who are listening.
We should avoid talking much of ourselves, and often giving
ourselves as example. We cannot take too much pains to under-
stand the bent and the compass of those we are talking with, in
order to link ourselves to the mind of him whose mind is the
most highly endowed; and to add his thoughts to our own, while
making him think as much as is possible that it is from him we
take them. There is cleverness in not exhausting the subjects
we treat, and in always leaving to others something to think of
and say.
We ought never to talk with an air of authority, nor make
use of words and expressions grander than the things. We may
## p. 12334 (#384) ##########################################
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LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
keep our opinions, if they are reasonable; but in keeping them,
we should never wound the feelings of others, or appear to be
shocked at what they have said. It is dangerous to wish to be
always master of the conversation, and to talk of the same thing
too often; we ought to enter indifferently on all agreeable sub-
jects which offer, and never let it be seen that we wish to draw
the conversation to a subject we wish to talk of.
It is necessary to observe that every kind of conversation,
however polite or however intelligent it may be, is not equally
proper for all kinds of well-bred persons; we should choose what
is suited to each, and choose even the time for saying it: but if
there be much art in knowing how to talk to the purpose, there
is not less in knowing how to be silent. There is an eloquent
silence, it serves sometimes to approve or to condemn; there is
a mocking silence; there is a respectful silence. There are, in
short, airs, tones, and manners in conversation which often make
up what is agreeable or disagreeable, delicate or shocking: the
secret for making good use of them is given to few persons,
those even who make rules for them mistake them sometimes;
the surest, in my opinion, is to have none that we cannot change,
to let our conversation be careless rather than affected, to listen,
to speak seldom, and never to force ourselves to talk.
Translation of A. S. Bolton.
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12335
-
ÉDOUARD ROD
(1857-)
BY GRACE KING
DOUARD ROD belongs in the class of young French authors
of the last quarter of the century; the last recruits in the
column of which De Stendhal, in the opening quarter, was
the standard-bearer. His writings belong to that phase of the liter-
ary development of the period which may be termed parenthetical,
rather than transitional. They are in their nature a consequent, a
production, a reflection, rather than a factor, a vital actor; and their
value lies perhaps in their ethical rather than literary relation to
their period, important and charming as they are from a literary
point of view. They might indeed be fitly defined as intuitive, had
not the author, by himself assuming the classification of "intuitivist,"
shorn the term of its fundamental meaning of self-unconsciousness.
Although Rod's writings belong to French literature, he himself
is Swiss. He was born at Nyon in 1857, and studied at Berne and
Berlin; and after a brilliant literary career, was invited to the chair
of professor of foreign literature in the University of Geneva. Start-
ing with essays upon his first ideals,- Leopardi, Schopenhauer, and
Wagner, he has followed in his books, as a critic has pointed out,
the entire revolution of thought with which men's minds have been
in travail for twenty years: first the inflexible rulings of naturalism
and positivism,- of facts, externals, experiences, limited by the
contracted horizon of immediate reality; then the gradual modifica-
tion of the reactionary movement, when facts began to be accompa-
nied by explanatory and supplemental ideas,- deprived of which they
had been proven incomplete and sterile of conclusions. The soul
was rediscovered; the phenomena of conscience began to be observed;
intellectual activity was recognized to have an aim, and its devel-
opment to be in conformity with certain rules and regulations of
the time; the sum of whose changing, amended formulæ constitutes
morality, which is of and for all time. And now it is being asked
in literature if this morality, to be solid, should not rest on some
supernatural foundation. In short, the human mind has turned round
and retraced every step of its previous journey.
Rod's first novel, Palmyre Veulard,' is dedicated to the author
of Nana. "Conscientiously brutal and studiously impure," says the
## p. 12336 (#386) ##########################################
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ÉDOUARD ROD
judicial critic, René Doumic, "it is worthy a disciple of Zola and the
school of Medan. " But-to follow the reasoning of this authority —
Rod's own nature protested against the developing tendencies of
Naturalism; and besides, outside influences came to his assistance.
He is a Swiss University man, and he is a Protestant; although he has
retained but little tenderness of heart for the religion in which he
has been reared, and mocks it upon all occasions. "But we remain
prisoners for life in the religion that first fashioned our souls; we
may lose faith, but not mental discipline. " Disengaging himself from
Zola, and following his intuitive predilections for Leopardi, Schopen-
hauer, the music of Wagner, the art of the English pre-Raphaelites
and the great Russian novelists, and for the contemporary psycho-
logical analysis, as applied by Bourget,- he came to the conception
of his own work, his own true originality, and his self-possession,
enfranchised from all other mastership.
'La Course à la Mort' (The Way to Death), 'Le Sens de la Vie'
(The Sense of Life), 'La Haut' (Up Above), 'La Vie Privée de
Michel Tessier' (The Private Life of Michael Tessier), and 'La Se-
conde Vie de Michel Tessier' (The Second Life of Michael Tessier),
are the novels which, succeeding one another in rapid succession,
have carried his name and the stream of his fresh strong thought
afield into literature. Their titles are a fair indication of their essen-
tial nature. 'La Course à la Mort' is the intimate journal, the piti-
less self-analysis, of the typical pessimistic youth of the day; a
despairing cry in the darkness; the confession of the want of the
very light of which one denies the existence. It has been criticized
as a catechism of pessimism drawn from the philosophy of Schopen-
hauer, and its author is reproached with its possible contagious influ-
ence upon the young. But as he himself observes in the preface
to the book, the analysis of a more or less subjective state of mind,
which is itself more or less general, is not to be taken as the per-
sonal conviction of the author,- a confession of faith; still less as
the propagation of a system. 'La Haut' itself is the antidote to the
contagious influence, if such there be, of La Course à la Mort. ' It
is the story of the cure of a soul and its restoration to virility and
hope, in the pure heights of an Alpine village. La Vie Privée de
Michel Tessier,' with its sequel, is the melancholy story of a high-
principled man, overtaken in his home and in an honored and honor-
able career by a love which seems to him pre-eminent above all
previous claims and duties; and his conscientious effort, through
divorce and remarriage, to reconsecrate his life with love, and his
love with life. It is a modern French tragedy of the purest writing.
'The Sense of Life,' crowned by the Academy, is however the work
which displays M. Rod's originality to the best advantage, to himself
―
## p. 12337 (#387) ##########################################
ÉDOUARD ROD
12337
and to that of the reader. There is hardly a novel in modern French
literature that can be read with more profit, particularly by the for-
eign student of that literature and that life. And it is one of the
books upon which criticism seems least profitably employed; — neces-
sarily, from its nature and from the nature of M. Rod. To quote a
characteristic passage from Jules Lemaître about it:-"M. Édouard
Rod puts to himself the question: What is the Sense of Life? ' and
if I have quite understood him, he answers himself in pretty much
these words: 'If life have a meaning, it is that which honest and
brave people give it, no matter what be the kind and degree of their
cùlture. ' . . . Life has no meaning except for such as believe and
love, that is his conclusion. "
Besides these stories, M. Rod has written other works on the same
lines. It would hardly be just to the author to omit the competent
criticism of M. Anatole France upon one of these:-"I understand
nevertheless that there is a moral in the book of M. Rod,-that to
the vain all is vanity, to the lying all is lies.
But even in its
desolation of sadness, the book warns us to fear egoism as the worst
of evils. It teaches us purity of heart and simplicity. It brings
back to our memory that verse of the 'Imitation': 'For in whatever
instance a person seeketh himself, there he falleth from love. '»
'Moral Ideals of the Present Time' is a volume of essays upon
those masters who have appeared to M. Rod to exercise a direct
moral influence upon the public. It opens with a worthy dedication
to M. Paul Desjardins, and passes in review Renan, Schopenhauer,
Zola, Bourget, Lemâitre, Scherer, Dumas, Brunetière, Tolstoy, and De
Vogüé. The most succinct expression of the worth of the work is,
that it is an invaluable and indispensable document to any literary
student or demonstrator of the literary influences of the century.
Grace King
MARRIAGE
From The Sense of Life'
I
SHOULD like to find a word to express a being who is tran-
quil, sweet, good, confiding; one whose presence alone gives
repose; a being of grace and charm, breathing peace.
While I work she is there behind me, watchful not to disturb
XXI-772
## p. 12338 (#388) ##########################################
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ÉDOUARD ROD
me; from time to time I am conscious of the noise of the worsted
she draws through the canvas, or the page she turns, or of her
light breathing. Sometimes I turn and no longer see her; she
has silently disappeared: after a moment she returns in the same
way, without even a creak of the floor beneath her little slip-
pers; and I feel her look resting on me as a continual caress,
the look of her great, deep, clear eyes, wherein there is only
goodness, tenderness, and devotion. And always also I feel her
thought following mine, and traveling side by side with it across
the dreams, as across the cares of the day.
What mystery is there, then, in this sentiment of intimate
union, which lessens disquietude and doubles joys? I suffered so
much formerly in feeling myself alone! I passed nights wander-
ing amid crowds to evade myself; forcing myself to the illusion
that I was something to those others who were moving before my
eyes. I have fled with horror from my home, so pitilessly filled
with myself; where the smallest objects-the bibelots, books,
paper on the wall, pictures and easy-chairs-sent back to me
like multiplied mirrors my odious image. It seemed to me that
I might leave it behind me as I went in the streets
this me;
or forget it in a café, or deposit it in a theatre; and I haunted
theatres, cafés, and streets. Often I fastened myself on to
trumpery friends,- friends met by chance,- and recounted to
them my affairs, sharing with them fragments of my soul, with-
out allowing myself to be rebuffed by their indifference. How
many times has not my heart beat out to strange hearts, without
hearing aught but its own palpitations beating in a vacancy?
How many times after having forgotten myself for an hour or
a night in gay company,- in salons, casinos, or taverns; after
laughing from full lips, and talking boisterously; after having
diffused myself in confidences to others, and received with a
friendly air theirs in return,- have I not felt with tenfold bit-
terness on the morrow that I was still alone, irremediably alone;
that the noises had vanished, leaving naught behind; that the
fumes of alcohol,- all had exhaled into sadness, like the friend-
ship or love of the day before.
Well, it seems to me now that my solitude is vanquished;
certainly not because I see unceasingly near me the same known
form, but because that form is loved. Something of her passes
continually into me, like a beautiful warmth; like another, bet-
ter life; and something of me passes into her. It is no longer a
-
-
## p. 12339 (#389) ##########################################
ÉDOUARD ROD
12339
strange soul, which remains a stranger in spite of frequent meet-
ings, in spite of closeness of relation; it is a continuous penetra-
tion, which little by little, of two beings makes only one.
It is strange how one permits oneself to be taken and swept
on by the machinery of life. We yield one finger carelessly; it
takes the whole body. We think we can play with it; take from
it what we wish; give up to it, through laziness, through las-
situde or indifference, fragments of ourselves, and yet remain
masters and maintain our independence. Illusion! After the
revolt of first youth, one day we see that we have surrendered
ourselves, that we are bound! It is the trifling and treacherous
habits whose insinuating sweetness has insensibly conquered you;
it is the ambition for a long-disdained aim, which yet developed
itself across your disdain; it is love-your powerlessness to
feel which made you for a long time doubt it, which you even
denied because you had experienced it under none of its known
forms, and which glides into you in a guise you never expected.
It is duty.
Heavens! Yes, duty,-the sentiment unjusti-
fied among all; that convention, that absurdity, that imperative,
whose non-existence your reason has a thousand times demon-
strated; which sets itself to cry out its orders, and makes itself
obeyed. All these ties bind me; all these voices govern me; I
feel that I no longer belong to myself.
How many times before, when I suffered without cause, or
when some dolorous shock produced agonizing thoughts in me,
have I consoled myself by saying, "After all, I am master of my
existence; when the measure shall be full, nothing shall prevent
my delivering myself; a few precautions so as not to be remarked,
the least noise possible, and all these worries will be forever
away from me! " Now I can no longer thus console myself: I
have by an act of will bound myself, my destiny, to another
destiny; and this double chain which I imprudently linked, I
have not the right to break. . The right! -oh, the absurd
word which comes and imposes itself upon my mind! Whence
comes that unknown force which can weigh upon my decision?
whence the mysterious fluid which paralyzes my egoism?
know that the moment I close my eyes, the world will cease to
exist, with her of whom I think, with the affection which grows
in my heart, with the ideas I forge around myself, and with my
wranglings about the right, duty, liberty, and all the rest. I
know that I shall know nothing of the tears, sorrows, struggles,
·
—
## p. 12340 (#390) ##########################################
ÉDOUARD ROD
12340
which will exist after me; that in my repose I shall feel noth-
ing, absolutely nothing, of the ill caused by my act, which may
even possibly result in good. I know all this; an effort of my
imagination lets me touch nothingness: and yet I feel myself
a slave. Destiny may strike with redoubled blows upon me; I
may be harassed by the troop of enemies from without, or by
a worse one which we carry within ourselves; I may find myself
in the clutches of those two adversaries which in other times I
would not have hesitated to rid myself of at the price of life,—
misery and suffering.
I shall probably have to struggle
with them for a long time; to bear their frightful wiles: my
relations with men may become a source of continual goadings,
on which my imagination will pour the boiling oil of its dreams.
I must support all this,-patient beast of burden bending under
the lash,
without a way of issue, without being able to
look once more toward the Great Liberator; without ever dream-
ing again in sweet hours of the means of putting an end to all
the evils.
•
Sometimes at nightfall we go and sit beside that Auteuil
pond, which we have taken to loving for its silence, and its old
trees that bathe their branches in its sleeping waters. Generally
it is deserted; and, separated from the road by a thick curtain
of leaves, we are very far from the Bois, very far from Paris,
very far from life. To-day, by chance, a young woman was there
with her children: one still in swaddling-clothes, sleeping on her
lap; while the other, a little girl, was playing at her side with
a shovel in the gravel. We seated ourselves opposite this pretty
group; and soon the little girl observed us and came toward us,
her finger in her mouth, with an adorable air of timidity and
roguishness. She greatly wanted to come to us, yet dared not
quite do so. Ever looking at us, she stooped to gather a few
daisies in the turf; then deciding suddenly, she came running
and laid them on my wife's knee, with a pretty "Here," friendly
and satisfied. We embraced her, and she told us many charming
things, and we played with her until her mother called her back
again. She left, throwing us kisses. Then, left alone, we began
to speak of children. She, like all women, a mother by instinct,
desired to have them. I do not.
I do not. I fear the responsibilities; fear
the disturbances: our intimacy of two suffices me; it seems to
me that we lack nothing. "Nevertheless," said she, "they are
so beautiful, and put so much life into the house. Imagine how
## p. 12341 (#391) ##########################################
ÉDOUARD ROD
12341
much gayer our house would be with a pretty little girl,— such
a one as you have just kissed. "
"But the anxieties about the mother, the cares, the noise night
and day, the worry with the nurse, the sacrifice of our independ-
ence! Would it not be necessary to renounce our walks, our
project of traveling, change all our plans for the future, which
we have made as though we were always to be tête-à-tête ? »
«< But when we are old? »
"Well, when we are old,- and after all it is not certain that
we ever shall be old,-our affection will be all the more solid
because we are alone. God knows the storms which await our
common life; escaping together, wearied it may be, we shall
press one to the other to brave the common sadness of our fate.
Our days being fewer, will be dearer to us; we shall not have
one too many in which to love on; and how well off we shall be
amid the revolutions of human affairs, which will scarcely touch
us any longer! Detached from all save one another, having
inclosed our entire horizon with our affection, life-whose pos-
sible caprices we now dread—will have glided away behind our
footsteps; we shall look upon it as from the summit of a traveled
road, of which we no longer see the rough places or pebbles;
recalling together good and bad recollections, which in the mirage
of memory will appear equally good to us. We shall love each
the other all the more, for we shall have proved each other
for a long time: for the heart grows old only to the world; it
remains a temple wherein are piously preserved sacred affections:
and if we too come to be cold, that indifference towards every-
thing, which obscures the eyes of the aged, shall not prevent our
cultivating the feeling which shall still unite us, but rather the
contrary. Who knows but that some night, bent and leaning one
upon the other, going out once more to breathe the spring air,—
our last, perhaps,—our talk of to-day will come back to us like
a gust of air from the past? And I am sure that, taught by our
experience, we shall say then, 'Decidedly it is best it should
have been so. '»
She looked at the murmuring water with an unconvinced air,
hesitating to answer. "But," she said at last, after a silence in
which we both heard the other think, «< one of us two will go
first. If we have no child, the other will remain alone. ” This
was precisely the idea that had come to me, and had silenced
Both of us shivered and said no more.
me.
Translation of Grace King.
## p. 12342 (#392) ##########################################
12342
ÉDOUARD ROD
PATERNITY
From The Sense of Life'
WIFE has gravely propounded the question of
M Before, when I was an aggressive unbeliever, I loved to
say in a peremptory tone that my children should never be
baptized. She would never reply, and her silence irritated me:
I divined a menace; I understood that it announced a resistance,
and that I should never be able to impose my opinion except by
an act of tyranny. This perspective troubled me a little, although
I was determined to remain firm. But time has progressed since
that epoch, which already seems far away; I have just made an
examination of conscience in order that I may answer in perfect
sincerity my wife's question. I find I have no longer any tem-
per against religion,- quite the contrary. When I had broken
the chains that it had so firmly bound about me, I had a period
of hatred and revolt, in which I dreamed of exciting the world
to the great combat for Truth against Faith.
Then this hatred changed into a profound indifference; the
meaning of the word "truth" wavered in my mind; I no longer
found either criterion or proof: I said to myself that my nega-
tion was a religion also, just as much so as affirmation; just as
gross, no more certain, no better, worse probably.
Then why trouble simple souls? Why prevent them from
deceiving themselves holily? Why teach them that the source
at which they quench their thirst is imaginary? Is their error
greater than mine?
In the ocean of uncertainty on which we
float, is my plank any safer than theirs? I have therefore prom-
ised myself to remain neutral in the contest.
I had reached thus far, when I recognized that it was the
free-thinkers who had disgusted me with free thought.
It was at the time of the "disaffection" of the Pantheon.
God was being chased out to give place to Victor Hugo: the
adored of yesterday ceded place to the idol of to-day; the sweet
Christ of the 'Imitation' fled before the man of the Chastise-
ments'; the good Holy Virgin of so many tender miracles went
down before Lucretia Borgia and Marion Delorme. And this
was, they said, the progress of light, and the cause of truth
gained in the exchange. Chance led me into the temple. They
were all there: municipal counselors, deputies, politicians of all
kinds, as if they were at home; hats on heads, canes in hands;
## p. 12343 (#393) ##########################################
ÉDOUARD ROD
12343
some had not even extinguished their cigars: and all were proud
of driving out by their smoke the last vanishing trace of incense.
Beneath the majesty of the dome they talked, laughed, gesticu-
lated, and disputed, insolent and disrespectful.
In a corner, however, before an altar left standing for a mo-
ment, a poor old woman in black cap and blue apron, unmindful
of their noise, faithful to the God they had chased out, fervently
knelt and prayed. She had brought two candles, whose flames
flickered in the draught, and which a brutal breath would blow
out before they were half consumed. Of what sorrow had she
laid there the burthen? of what remorse, perhaps? What confi-
dences was she addressing silently to the One who understands,
compassionates, pardons? And when the last altar shall have
fallen, which of these political mountebanks will give her the
means of appeasing her sufferings? Then I understood that she
was in the right against them all: for a moment the light of her
flickering candle seemed to me a sun of truth; and passing before
the altar, I bent my knee, and made the sign of the Cross. Ah!
poor old unknown woman! Thou hast enlightened me more than
much reading. If thy prayer was lost in its flight through space,
it at least resounded in my heart, and thou madest me feel the
void in my own depths. Why should I prevent the baptism of
my child?
To-day is Marie's birthday, and she probably has but a few
hours to live. Her condition is unaltered. The fever does not
increase; if it had increased, all would now be ended; but it has
not decreased. Her respiration is just as labored, her breathing
uneven, the noise in her chest is like broken machinery, and the
same hacking cough shakes and rends her. She is as languid as
ever, as indifferent, as detached from all.
What beginnings of ideas may not this unexplained and bru-
tal illness start in her little brain through which fever gallops ?
Oh, that constant moan! And there is one thing more heart-
rending: it is when the wailing is suddenly interrupted for a
moment, and the hoarse voice begins to coo as it used to do in
her well days. No, I cannot imagine the little body stiffened in
death! It would be too hideous to see it immovable and to know
that it is so forever; that no voice can call her back; that she
will never smile again; that she must be put into the earth,
where soon she will be nothing: while the inanimate objects she
has touched her doll, her sheep-will remain here, surviving
·
## p. 12344 (#394) ##########################################
ÉDOUARD ROD
12344
her in all their longevity as things. And then I think of the
mother's grief. And then I imagine the material details which
come after: the little coffin which they will nail; the mourning
notes to be addressed, all the formalities that have been invented
to make mourning more painful. And again the slow procession
winding its way, so far, to the cemetery of Passy; and on our
return, the desolation, the immense desolation, of the apartment
where she is no more!
The danger is over; yesterday the fever fell almost at once,
as if by enchantment. It already seems as if the illness were
only a part of a bad dream. I am happy. Up to this time I
have asked myself unceasingly whether I loved my child. Now
I am enlightened: and my affection is so deep in this hour of
deliverance that I forget to grieve that she will have to live a
whole life; that she will have to become acquainted with the
agonies we have passed through, and more still,-who knows
what? —all the future sufferings from which death would have
delivered her. And for the first time I saw that in all I had
said and thought of life, there was a good part of it only words,
phrases.
And when one has felt death pass very near; when
one has just missed seeing one of those existences which is
one's very own disappear, then one understands probably that
life-frightful, iniquitous, ferocious life-is perhaps better than
nothingness.
Live then, little Marie, as thou hast not wished to die! Live,
- that is, suffer, weep, despair; live to the end, as long as Des-
tiny will drag thee on its hurdle. And knowest thou, since he
can no longer wish thee unborn, since he has not the strength
to wish thee to die young as those whom the gods love,-
knowest thou what thy father wishes for thee? It is to see all,
feel all, know all, understand all. I say "all," and I know the
bitternesses the word contains; yet I do not wish to spare thee
one: since if all be sorrow, chimera, falsehood, the summing-up
of all these sorrows, chimeras, falsehoods, is nevertheless fine, like
a landscape made up of abysms; and since there is a supreme
satisfaction in feeling that we change with the years, that we
ever reflect more images, even as a river grows larger in rolling
towards the sea, and that we are, and we shall have been; and
that nothing, neither human revolutions nor universal catastro-
phe, can ever cause to be taken away from us that part of
eternity which we have had, which is human life.
Translation of Grace King.
## p. 12345 (#395) ##########################################
12345
-
SAMUEL ROGERS
(1763-1855)
ATE in the eighteenth century a young man started out one
day to call upon the great Dr. Johnson. He himself was
nursing literary ambition, and he felt a vast veneration for
successful authorship. He rang the bell; then fancying he heard
the Doctor's own steps approaching, he lost courage and ran away.
Young Samuel Rogers hardly foresaw that he too was to be a lit-
crary lion of London, his favor eagerly sought by tyros in writing.
For over half a century his home in St. James's Place was a ren-
dezvous for poets and artists, statesmen and
musicians; for English men and women of
note, and for distinguished people from
abroad. Here almost daily he entertained
five or six at breakfast, and talked with
them through the morning hours. Here
art and politics were discussed, bons-mots
originated, and entertaining anecdotes re-
tailed. This English "autocrat of the break-
fast table," whose keen ugly face, high
brow, and striking pallor, had a cadaverous
effect provoking much witticism, was him-
self an able story-teller. Sometimes his
wit grew caustic, and his almost ferocious
frankness inspired terror. But in spite of
surface crabbedness he was philanthropic and personally generous.
He was a faithful friend not alone to Sheridan through his wretched
last years of poverty, but to many another unfortunate, author or not.
Keenly appreciative rather than creative, the practical adviser of
Wordsworth and the other "Lake poets," as well as their admiring
auditor, he was the friend of poets to a greater extent than a con-
siderable poet himself. Perhaps his greatest hindrance was his con-
tinuous prosperity. From the beginning to the end of his life he was
quite too comfortable for poetic thrills. His poems have no intensity;
they are gentle moralizings and appreciations of moral and physical
beauty, the fruit more of refinement and cultivation than of irresist-
ible poetic impulse,- and bear no very strong individual stamp.
SAMUEL ROGERS
There is idyllic charm about Rogers's early life. Fortunate son of
a loving if austere father and a beautiful sprightly mother, he was
## p. 12346 (#396) ##########################################
T2346
SAMUEL ROGERS
born at Stoke Newington, a suburb of London, on July 30th, 1763.
His parents were people of refined and liberal tastes, who constantly
received in their hospitable mansion a circle of delightful friends,
among them Dr. Priestley. There with his brothers and sisters, ten
in all, Samuel was carefully trained by private tutors. Good Dr.
Price, the clergyman, dropping in of an evening in dressing-gown
and slippers to chat with the children before their bedtime, was an
important factor in their daily life. At this home Rogers learned to
appreciate social intercourse; and there in leisure hours he pored
over Pope and Goldsmith, and took their poems as models. When
he was sixteen or seventeen his father placed him in the London
bank of which he himself was head; and he remained in connection
with it all his life, as clerk, partner, or director. In London he found
a helpful friend in Miss Helen Williams, an intellectual woman, at
whose literary parties he heard brilliant conversation and formed con-
genial friendships. In 1793, when he was about thirty, his father's
death left him with an income of £5,000. Ten years later he fitted up
comfortable bachelor quarters in St. James's Place; where, following
his own recipe for long life, "temperance, the bath and flesh-brush,
and don't fret," he lived to the age of ninety-two, dying in 1855.
Rogers's first literary efforts were short sketches, signed "The
Scribbler," which appeared in the Gentleman's Magazine, and were
the tentative work every young poet must practice his hand on.
In 1786 the 'Ode to Superstition,' appearing in a time of com-
parative poetic dearth and of metrical trivialties, was greatly admired.
Rogers loved music; and his ear for harmonious sound guided him
to a pleasing choice of word and measure. At its best, his verse is
as trim and ently smooth as a Kentish landscape. He was reared
in the traditions of an era of common-sense and well-regulated emo-
tions. Grace of workmanship is the predominating characteristic of
the banker-poet; he had nothing in common with the passion of his
younger friend Byron. The Pleasures of Memory,' published in
1792 (doubtless suggested by Akenside's 'Pleasures of Imagination'),
and 'Human Life,' have the same leisurely, meditative quality. At
the same time, the usual fling that Rogers owed all his contemporary
repute to his social and business position is unjust and untrue. He
was a welcome member of the literary group, as a distinguished
component of it, before he had any such position.
Travelers in Italy soon grow familiar with often quoted lines from
his long poem upon Italy. In 1814 he spent eight months in Italy;
and he worked over material gathered there until 1822, when the
first part of the poem appeared. It was a failure; and the author
burned the unsold copies, and set about a careful revision. A second
edition, beautifully bound, and so profusely illustrated that an ill-
natured critic called it "Turner illustrated," had more success, though
## p. 12347 (#397) ##########################################
SAMUEL ROGERS
12347
public taste was already demanding something different. The very
fact, however, that a century after it was written it is still quoted
from, shows that it has some enduring quality; for poems on Italy
have been written and forgotten by the thousand, and there is noth-
ing to keep Rogers's alive but its own merit. What that is, our
extract will indicate.
Rogers was a link between the forms of thought and expression
before and after the French Revolution. A disciple of Pope, intimate
with the Barbaulds and the Burneys, with Joanna Baillie, Mrs. Sid-
dons, Fox, and Sheridan, he saw the revival of the poetry of the
soul, knew Wordsworth and Coleridge, Byron and Scott, and lived on
to know Dickens and Thackeray.
"
GINEVRA
I'
F THOU shouldst ever come by choice or chance
To Modena, where still religiously
Among her ancient trophies is preserved
Bologna's bucket (in its chain it hangs
Within that reverend tower, the Guirlandine),
Stop at a palace near the Reggio-gate,
Dwelt in of old by one of the Orsini.
Its noble gardens, terrace above terrace,
And rich in fountains, statues, cypresses,
Will long detain thee; through their arched walks,
Dim at noonday, discovering many a glimpse
Of knights and dames such as in old romance,
And lovers such as in heroic song,-
Perhaps the two, for groves were their delight
That in the springtime, as alone they sate,
Venturing together on a tale of love,
Read only part that day. -A summer sun
Sets ere one-half is seen; but ere thou go,
Enter the house - prithee, forget it not-
And look a while upon a picture there.
care not.
'Tis of a lady in her earliest youth,
The very last of an illustrious race,
Done by Zampieri - but by whom
He who observes it, ere he passes on,
Gazes his fill, and comes and comes again,
That he may call it up when far away.
She sits, inclining forward as to speak,
Her lips half-open, and her finger up,
## p. 12348 (#398) ##########################################
12348
SAMUEL ROGERS
As though she said "Beware! " her vest of gold
Broidered with flowers, and clasped from head to foot,
An emerald stone in every golden clasp;
And on her brow, fairer than alabaster,
A coronet of pearls. But then her face,
So lovely, yet so arch, so full of mirth,
The overflowings of an innocent heart,—
It haunts me still, though many a year has fled,
Like some wild melody!
Alone it hangs
Over a moldering heirloom, its companion,
An oaken chest, half eaten by the worm,
But richly carved by Antony of Trent
With Scripture stories from the life of Christ;
A chest that came from Venice, and had held
The ducal robes of some old ancestor.
That by the way,-it may be true or false,—
But don't forget the picture; and thou wilt not,
When thou hast heard the tale they told me there.
She was an only child; from infancy
The joy, the pride, of an indulgent sire.
Her mother dying of the gift she gave,-
That precious gift,- what else remained to him?
The young Ginevra was his all in life;
Still as she grew, forever in his sight:
And in her fifteenth year became a bride,
Marrying an only son, Francesco Doria,—
Her playmate from her birth, and her first love.
Just as she looks there in her bridal dress,
She was all gentleness, all gayety,
Her pranks the favorite theme of every tongue.
But now the day was come, the day, the hour;
Now, frowning, smiling, for the hundredth time,
The nurse, that ancient lady, preached decorum;
And in the lustre of her youth, she gave
Her hand, with her heart in it, to Francesco.
Great was the joy; but at the bridal feast,
When all sate down, the bride was wanting there.
Nor was she to be found! Her father cried,
"Tis but to make a trial of our love! "
And filled his glass to all; but his hand shook,
And soon from guest to guest the panic spread.
'Twas but that instant she had left Francesco,
Laughing and looking back and flying still,
## p. 12349 (#399) ##########################################
SAMUEL ROGERS
12349
Her ivory tooth imprinted on his finger:
But now, alas! she was not to be found;
Nor from that hour could anything be guessed
But that she was not! -Weary of his life,
Francesco flew to Venice, and forthwith
Flung it away in battle with the Turk.
Orsini lived; and long was to be seen
An old man wandering as in quest of something,
Something he could not find - he knew not what.
When he was gone, the house remained a while
Silent and tenantless-then went to strangers.
Full fifty years were past, and all forgot,
When on an idle day—a day of search
'Mid the old lumber in the gallery,-
That moldering chest was noticed; and 'twas said
By one as young, as thoughtless as Ginevra,
"Why not remove it from its lurking-place? "
'Twas done as soon as said: but on the way
It burst, it fell; and, lo! a skeleton,
With here and there a pearl, an emerald stone,
A golden clasp, clasping a shred of gold.
All else had perished-save a nuptial ring,
And a small seal, her mother's legacy,
Engraven with a name, the name of both,
"Ginevra. " There then had she found a grave!
Within that chest had she concealed herself,
Fluttering with joy, the happiest of the happy;
When a spring-lock that lay in ambush there
Fastened her down forever!
FROM THE PLEASURES OF MEMORY
OPENING LINES
Τ
WILIGHT'S Soft dews steal o'er the village green,
With magic tints to harmonize the scene.
Stilled is the hum that through the hamlet broke,
When round the ruins of their ancient oak
The peasants flocked to hear the minstrel play,
And games and carols closed the busy day.
Her wheel at rest, the matron thrills no more
With treasured tales and legendary lore.
All, all are fled; nor mirth nor music flows
To chase the dreams of innocent repose.
## p. 12350 (#400) ##########################################
12350
SAMUEL ROGERS
All, all are fled; yet still I linger here!
What secret charms this silent spot endear?
Mark yon old mansion frowning through the trees,
Whose hollow turret wooes the whistling breeze.
That casement, arched with ivy's brownest shade,
First to these eyes the light of heaven conveyed.
The moldering gateway strews the grass-grown court,
Once the calm scene of many a simple sport;
When nature pleased, for life itself was new,
And the heart promised what the fancy drew.
Childhood's loved group revisits every scene,
The tangled wood-walk and the tufted green!
Indulgent Memory wakes, and lo, they live!
Clothed with far softer hues than light can give.
Thou first, best friend that Heaven assigns below,
To soothe and sweeten all the cares we know;
Whose glad suggestions still each vain alarm,
When nature fades and life forgets to charm,-
Thee would the Muse invoke! to thee belong
The sage's precept and the poet's song.
What softened views thy magic glass reveals,
When o'er the landscape Time's meek landscape steals!
As when in ocean sinks the orb of day,
Long on the wave reflected lustres play. —
Thy tempered gleams of happiness resigned,
Glance on the darkened mirror of the mind.
The school's lone porch, with reverend mosses gray,
Just tells the pensive pilgrim where it lay.
Mute is the bell that rung at peep of dawn,
Quickening my truant feet across the lawn.
Unheard the shout that rent the noontide air
When the slow dial gave a pause to care.
Up springs, at every step, to claim a tear,
Some little friendship formed and cherished here;
And not the lightest leaf but trembling teems
With golden visions and romantic dreams.
CLOSING LINES
OFT may the spirits of the dead descend
To watch the silent slumbers of a friend;
To hover round his evening walk unseen,
And hold sweet converse on the dusky green;
To hail the spot where first their friendship grew,
And heaven and nature opened to their view!
## p. 12351 (#401) ##########################################
SAMUEL ROGERS
12351
Oft when he trims his cheerful hearth and sees
A smiling circle emulous to please,-
There may these gentle guests delight to dwell,
And bless the scene they loved in life so well.
O thou! with whom my heart was wont to share
From Reason's dawn each pleasure and each care;
With whom, alas, I fondly hoped to know
The humble walks of happiness below;
If thy blest nature now unites above
An angel's pity with a brother's love,
Still o'er my life preserve thy mild control,
Correct my views and elevate my soul;
Grant me thy peace and purity of mind,
Devout yet cheerful, active yet resigned;
Grant me, like thee, whose heart knew no disguise,
Whose blameless wishes never aimed to rise,
To meet the changes Time and Chance present
With modest dignity and calm content.
When thy last breath, ere Nature sunk to rest,
Thy meek submission to thy God expressed,—
When thy last look ere thought and feeling fled,
A mingled gleam of hope and triumph shed,-
What to thy soul its glad assurance gave,
-
Its hope in death, its triumph o'er the grave?
The sweet remembrance of unblemished Youth,
The still inspiring voice of Innocence and Truth!
Hail, Memory, hail! in thy exhaustless mine
From age to age unnumbered treasures shine!
Thought and her shadowy brood thy call obey,
And Place and Time are subject to thy sway!
Thy pleasures must we feel, when most alone;
The only pleasures we can call our own.
Lighter than air, Hope's summer visions die,
If but a fleeting cloud obscure the sky;
If but a beam of sober Reason play,
Lo, Fancy's fairy frostwork melts away!
But can the wiles of Art, the grasp of Power,
Snatch the rich relics of a well-spent hour?
These, when the trembling spirit wings her flight,
Pour round her path a stream of living light;
And gild those pure and perfect realms of rest,
Where Virtue triumphs and her sons are blest!
## p. 12352 (#402) ##########################################
12352
SAMUEL ROGERS
FROM RECOLLECTIONS OF THE TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL
ROGERS
I
WAS present when Sir Joshua Reynolds delivered his last lect-
ure at the Royal Academy. On entering the room, I found
that a semicircle of chairs immediately in front of the pul-
pit was reserved for persons of distinction, being labeled “Mr.
Burke," "Mr. Boswell," etc. , etc. ; and I, with other young men,
was forced to station myself a good way off. During the lecture,
a great crash was heard; and the company, fearing that the build-
ing was about to come down, rushed towards the door. Presently
however it appeared that there was no cause for alarm, and they
endeavored to resume their places: but in consequence of the
confusion, the reserved seats were now occupied by those who
could first get into them; and I, pressing forwards, secured one
of them. Sir Joshua concluded the lecture by saying with great
emotion, "And I should desire that the last words which I should
pronounce in this Academy, and from this place, might be the
name of Michael Angelo. " As he descended from the rostrum,
Burke went up to him, took his hand, and said,-
"The Angel ended, and in Adam's ear
So charming left his voice, that he awhile
Thought him still speaking, still stood fixed to hear. "
What a quantity of snuff Sir Joshua took! I once saw him
at an Academy dinner when his waistcoat was absolutely pow-
dered with it.
THE head-dresses of the ladies during my youth were of a
truly preposterous size. I have gone to Ranelagh in a coach
with a lady who was obliged to sit upon a stool placed in the
bottom of the coach, the height of her head-dress not allowing
her to occupy the regular seat.
Their tight lacing was equally absurd. Lady Crewe told me
that on returning home from Ranelagh, she has rushed up to
her bedroom, and desired her maid to cut her laces without a
moment's delay, for fear she should faint.
DR. FORDYCE sometimes drank a good deal at dinner. He
was summoned one evening to see a lady patient when he was
more than half-seas-over, and conscious that he was so. Feel-
ing her pulse, and finding himself unable to count its beats, he
## p. 12353 (#403) ##########################################
SAMUEL ROGERS
12353
muttered, "Drunk, by God! " Next morning, recollecting the
circumstance, he was greatly vexed; and just as he was thinking
what explanation of his behavior he should offer to the lady, a
letter from her was put into his hand. "She too well knew,"
said the letter, "that he had discovered the unfortunate condition
in which she was when he last visited her; and she entreated
him to keep the matter secret in consideration of the inclosed"
(a hundred-pound bank-note)!
SIR GEORGE BEAUMONT once met Quin at a very small dinner
party. There was a delicious pudding, which the master of the
house, pushing the dish towards Quin, begged him to taste. A
gentleman had just before helped himself to an immense piece
of it. "Pray," said Quin, looking first at the gentleman's plate
and then at the dish, "which is the pudding? "
Sir George Beaumont, when a young man, was one day in
the Mount (a famous coffee-house in Mount Street, Grosvenor
Square) with Harvey Aston. Various persons were seated at
different tables. Among others present, there was an Irishman
who was very celebrated as a duelist, having killed at least half
a dozen antagonists. Aston, talking to some of his acquaintance,
swore that he would make the duelist stand barefooted before
them.
REFLECTIONS
ON SOCIETY
N SPEAKING Of society, it is not my intention to speak of friend-
ship: although they have some connection, they are never-
theless very different; of the two, the second has more
elevation and humility, and the greatest merit of the other is to
resemble it.
I shall speak, then, at present only of the particular inter-
course which well-bred people ought to have with each other. It
would be useless to say how necessary society is to man. All
desire it, and all seek it; but few make use of the means to
render it pleasant and to make it lasting. Every one wishes to
find his own pleasure and advantage at the expense of others:
we always prefer ourselves to those we propose to live with;
and we almost always make them feel this preference: it is this
## p. 12331 (#381) ##########################################
LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
12331
which disturbs and breaks up society. We ought at least to
know how to conceal this preference, since it is too much part
of our nature for us to be able to conquer it. We ought to
derive our pleasure from that of others, to spare their self-love,
and never to wound it.
The mind has a large part in so great a work; but alone, it
does not suffice to lead us in the various roads we must travel.
The harmony which is met with between minds would not long
preserve society if it were not ruled and supported by good
sense, by temper, and by the regard which ought to exist between
people who wish to live together. If it sometimes happens that
persons opposed in temper and in mind appear to be united, they
doubtless hold together from extraneous causes, which do not last
long. We may also be in society with persons to whom we are
superior by birth or by personal qualities: but those who have
this advantage ought not to abuse it; they ought seldom to make
it felt, and only make use of it for the instruction of others.
They ought to make them see that they need to be guided, and
lead them by reason, adapting themselves as much as is possible
to their feelings and their interests.
To make society agreeable, all its members should preserve
their liberty. They should either not see each other, or should
see each other without constraint, and with a view to mutual
enjoyment. They should be able to part without that parting
causing a change. They should be able to do without each other,
if they would not expose themselves sometimes to being in the
way; and they should remember that they often bore others when
they think it impossible ever to bore them. They should con-
tribute as much as is possible to the amusement of those with
whom they desire to live, but they should not always burden
themselves with the care of contributing to it. In society, com-
pliance with the wishes of others is necessary, but it ought to
have limits: it becomes a slavery when it is excessive. It should
at least appear to be free; and that in following the sentiments
of our friends they should believe we are also following our
own.
It should be easy to find excuses for our friends when their
faults are born with them, and when they are fewer than their
good qualities. We should often avoid letting them see that
we have observed them and are shocked at them. We should
## p. 12332 (#382) ##########################################
LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
12332
endeavor so to manage that they may see them themselves, to
leave them the merit of correcting them.
There is a kind of politeness which is necessary in the inter-
course of well-bred people: it makes them familiar with raillery,
and prevents them from taking or giving offense by sharp and
hard forms of speech, which often escape us without our thinking
of it when we support our opinion with warmth.
Intercourse between well-bred people cannot exist without a
certain sort of confidence: it ought to be common among them;
every one should have an air of security and discretion which
never gives rise to fear that anything could be said imprudently.
There should be variety in the mind: those who have only
one kind of mind cannot please long. We may take various
roads, not having the same talents, provided that we contribute
to the pleasure of society, and observe in it the same propriety
which different voices and different instruments ought to observe
in music.
As it is not easy for several persons to have the same inter-
ests, they must at least, for the comfort of society, have no
conflicting ones. We ought to anticipate what may please our
friends, seek the means of being useful to them, save them from
troubles, let them see that we share them with them when we
cannot turn them aside, efface them insensibly without pretend-
ing to pluck them away at once, and replace them with agree-
able subjects, or at least with such as engage their attention.
We may talk to them of their own concerns; but only so far as
they allow us to do so, and in that we ought to observe great dis-
cretion. There is politeness and sometimes even humanity in not
going too far into the recesses of their heart: people often feel
pain in showing all they know of them, and still more when
we penetrate to what they do not know well. Although the
intercourse which well-bred people have together gives them
familiarity, and supplies them with numberless topics for frank
conversation, scarcely any one has sufficient docility and good
sense to receive in good part much of the advice that is neces-
sary for preserving society. We like to be advised up to a certain
point, but we do not like to be so in all things; and we are
afraid to know all kinds of truths.
As we ought to preserve distances in order to see objects, we
should preserve them also for society. Every one has his point
## p. 12333 (#383) ##########################################
LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
12333
of view from which he desires to be seen; we are generally
right in not liking to be seen too closely, and scarcely any man.
likes to be seen in all things such as he is.
Translation of A. S. Bolton.
ON CONVERSATION
THE
HE reason why so few people are agreeable in conversation is,
that every one thinks more of what he wishes to say than
of what others say. We should listen to those who speak,
if we would be listened to by them; we should allow them to
make themselves understood, and even to say pointless things.
Instead of contradicting or interrupting them, as we often do, we
ought on the contrary to enter into their mind and into their
taste, show that we understand them, praise what they say so far
as it deserves to be praised, and make them see that it is rather
from choice that we praise them than from courtesy. We should
avoid disputing about indifferent things, seldom ask questions
(which are almost always useless), never let them think that
we pretend to more sense than others, and easily cede the advan-
tage of deciding a question.
We ought to talk of things naturally, easily, and more or
less seriously, according to the temper and inclination of the per-
sons we entertain; never press them to approve what we say,
nor even to reply to it. When we have thus complied with the
duties of politeness, we may express our opinions, without preju-
dice or obstinacy, in making it appear that we seek to support
them with the opinions of those who are listening.
We should avoid talking much of ourselves, and often giving
ourselves as example. We cannot take too much pains to under-
stand the bent and the compass of those we are talking with, in
order to link ourselves to the mind of him whose mind is the
most highly endowed; and to add his thoughts to our own, while
making him think as much as is possible that it is from him we
take them. There is cleverness in not exhausting the subjects
we treat, and in always leaving to others something to think of
and say.
We ought never to talk with an air of authority, nor make
use of words and expressions grander than the things. We may
## p. 12334 (#384) ##########################################
12334
LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
keep our opinions, if they are reasonable; but in keeping them,
we should never wound the feelings of others, or appear to be
shocked at what they have said. It is dangerous to wish to be
always master of the conversation, and to talk of the same thing
too often; we ought to enter indifferently on all agreeable sub-
jects which offer, and never let it be seen that we wish to draw
the conversation to a subject we wish to talk of.
It is necessary to observe that every kind of conversation,
however polite or however intelligent it may be, is not equally
proper for all kinds of well-bred persons; we should choose what
is suited to each, and choose even the time for saying it: but if
there be much art in knowing how to talk to the purpose, there
is not less in knowing how to be silent. There is an eloquent
silence, it serves sometimes to approve or to condemn; there is
a mocking silence; there is a respectful silence. There are, in
short, airs, tones, and manners in conversation which often make
up what is agreeable or disagreeable, delicate or shocking: the
secret for making good use of them is given to few persons,
those even who make rules for them mistake them sometimes;
the surest, in my opinion, is to have none that we cannot change,
to let our conversation be careless rather than affected, to listen,
to speak seldom, and never to force ourselves to talk.
Translation of A. S. Bolton.
-
## p. 12335 (#385) ##########################################
12335
-
ÉDOUARD ROD
(1857-)
BY GRACE KING
DOUARD ROD belongs in the class of young French authors
of the last quarter of the century; the last recruits in the
column of which De Stendhal, in the opening quarter, was
the standard-bearer. His writings belong to that phase of the liter-
ary development of the period which may be termed parenthetical,
rather than transitional. They are in their nature a consequent, a
production, a reflection, rather than a factor, a vital actor; and their
value lies perhaps in their ethical rather than literary relation to
their period, important and charming as they are from a literary
point of view. They might indeed be fitly defined as intuitive, had
not the author, by himself assuming the classification of "intuitivist,"
shorn the term of its fundamental meaning of self-unconsciousness.
Although Rod's writings belong to French literature, he himself
is Swiss. He was born at Nyon in 1857, and studied at Berne and
Berlin; and after a brilliant literary career, was invited to the chair
of professor of foreign literature in the University of Geneva. Start-
ing with essays upon his first ideals,- Leopardi, Schopenhauer, and
Wagner, he has followed in his books, as a critic has pointed out,
the entire revolution of thought with which men's minds have been
in travail for twenty years: first the inflexible rulings of naturalism
and positivism,- of facts, externals, experiences, limited by the
contracted horizon of immediate reality; then the gradual modifica-
tion of the reactionary movement, when facts began to be accompa-
nied by explanatory and supplemental ideas,- deprived of which they
had been proven incomplete and sterile of conclusions. The soul
was rediscovered; the phenomena of conscience began to be observed;
intellectual activity was recognized to have an aim, and its devel-
opment to be in conformity with certain rules and regulations of
the time; the sum of whose changing, amended formulæ constitutes
morality, which is of and for all time. And now it is being asked
in literature if this morality, to be solid, should not rest on some
supernatural foundation. In short, the human mind has turned round
and retraced every step of its previous journey.
Rod's first novel, Palmyre Veulard,' is dedicated to the author
of Nana. "Conscientiously brutal and studiously impure," says the
## p. 12336 (#386) ##########################################
12336
ÉDOUARD ROD
judicial critic, René Doumic, "it is worthy a disciple of Zola and the
school of Medan. " But-to follow the reasoning of this authority —
Rod's own nature protested against the developing tendencies of
Naturalism; and besides, outside influences came to his assistance.
He is a Swiss University man, and he is a Protestant; although he has
retained but little tenderness of heart for the religion in which he
has been reared, and mocks it upon all occasions. "But we remain
prisoners for life in the religion that first fashioned our souls; we
may lose faith, but not mental discipline. " Disengaging himself from
Zola, and following his intuitive predilections for Leopardi, Schopen-
hauer, the music of Wagner, the art of the English pre-Raphaelites
and the great Russian novelists, and for the contemporary psycho-
logical analysis, as applied by Bourget,- he came to the conception
of his own work, his own true originality, and his self-possession,
enfranchised from all other mastership.
'La Course à la Mort' (The Way to Death), 'Le Sens de la Vie'
(The Sense of Life), 'La Haut' (Up Above), 'La Vie Privée de
Michel Tessier' (The Private Life of Michael Tessier), and 'La Se-
conde Vie de Michel Tessier' (The Second Life of Michael Tessier),
are the novels which, succeeding one another in rapid succession,
have carried his name and the stream of his fresh strong thought
afield into literature. Their titles are a fair indication of their essen-
tial nature. 'La Course à la Mort' is the intimate journal, the piti-
less self-analysis, of the typical pessimistic youth of the day; a
despairing cry in the darkness; the confession of the want of the
very light of which one denies the existence. It has been criticized
as a catechism of pessimism drawn from the philosophy of Schopen-
hauer, and its author is reproached with its possible contagious influ-
ence upon the young. But as he himself observes in the preface
to the book, the analysis of a more or less subjective state of mind,
which is itself more or less general, is not to be taken as the per-
sonal conviction of the author,- a confession of faith; still less as
the propagation of a system. 'La Haut' itself is the antidote to the
contagious influence, if such there be, of La Course à la Mort. ' It
is the story of the cure of a soul and its restoration to virility and
hope, in the pure heights of an Alpine village. La Vie Privée de
Michel Tessier,' with its sequel, is the melancholy story of a high-
principled man, overtaken in his home and in an honored and honor-
able career by a love which seems to him pre-eminent above all
previous claims and duties; and his conscientious effort, through
divorce and remarriage, to reconsecrate his life with love, and his
love with life. It is a modern French tragedy of the purest writing.
'The Sense of Life,' crowned by the Academy, is however the work
which displays M. Rod's originality to the best advantage, to himself
―
## p. 12337 (#387) ##########################################
ÉDOUARD ROD
12337
and to that of the reader. There is hardly a novel in modern French
literature that can be read with more profit, particularly by the for-
eign student of that literature and that life. And it is one of the
books upon which criticism seems least profitably employed; — neces-
sarily, from its nature and from the nature of M. Rod. To quote a
characteristic passage from Jules Lemaître about it:-"M. Édouard
Rod puts to himself the question: What is the Sense of Life? ' and
if I have quite understood him, he answers himself in pretty much
these words: 'If life have a meaning, it is that which honest and
brave people give it, no matter what be the kind and degree of their
cùlture. ' . . . Life has no meaning except for such as believe and
love, that is his conclusion. "
Besides these stories, M. Rod has written other works on the same
lines. It would hardly be just to the author to omit the competent
criticism of M. Anatole France upon one of these:-"I understand
nevertheless that there is a moral in the book of M. Rod,-that to
the vain all is vanity, to the lying all is lies.
But even in its
desolation of sadness, the book warns us to fear egoism as the worst
of evils. It teaches us purity of heart and simplicity. It brings
back to our memory that verse of the 'Imitation': 'For in whatever
instance a person seeketh himself, there he falleth from love. '»
'Moral Ideals of the Present Time' is a volume of essays upon
those masters who have appeared to M. Rod to exercise a direct
moral influence upon the public. It opens with a worthy dedication
to M. Paul Desjardins, and passes in review Renan, Schopenhauer,
Zola, Bourget, Lemâitre, Scherer, Dumas, Brunetière, Tolstoy, and De
Vogüé. The most succinct expression of the worth of the work is,
that it is an invaluable and indispensable document to any literary
student or demonstrator of the literary influences of the century.
Grace King
MARRIAGE
From The Sense of Life'
I
SHOULD like to find a word to express a being who is tran-
quil, sweet, good, confiding; one whose presence alone gives
repose; a being of grace and charm, breathing peace.
While I work she is there behind me, watchful not to disturb
XXI-772
## p. 12338 (#388) ##########################################
12338
ÉDOUARD ROD
me; from time to time I am conscious of the noise of the worsted
she draws through the canvas, or the page she turns, or of her
light breathing. Sometimes I turn and no longer see her; she
has silently disappeared: after a moment she returns in the same
way, without even a creak of the floor beneath her little slip-
pers; and I feel her look resting on me as a continual caress,
the look of her great, deep, clear eyes, wherein there is only
goodness, tenderness, and devotion. And always also I feel her
thought following mine, and traveling side by side with it across
the dreams, as across the cares of the day.
What mystery is there, then, in this sentiment of intimate
union, which lessens disquietude and doubles joys? I suffered so
much formerly in feeling myself alone! I passed nights wander-
ing amid crowds to evade myself; forcing myself to the illusion
that I was something to those others who were moving before my
eyes. I have fled with horror from my home, so pitilessly filled
with myself; where the smallest objects-the bibelots, books,
paper on the wall, pictures and easy-chairs-sent back to me
like multiplied mirrors my odious image. It seemed to me that
I might leave it behind me as I went in the streets
this me;
or forget it in a café, or deposit it in a theatre; and I haunted
theatres, cafés, and streets. Often I fastened myself on to
trumpery friends,- friends met by chance,- and recounted to
them my affairs, sharing with them fragments of my soul, with-
out allowing myself to be rebuffed by their indifference. How
many times has not my heart beat out to strange hearts, without
hearing aught but its own palpitations beating in a vacancy?
How many times after having forgotten myself for an hour or
a night in gay company,- in salons, casinos, or taverns; after
laughing from full lips, and talking boisterously; after having
diffused myself in confidences to others, and received with a
friendly air theirs in return,- have I not felt with tenfold bit-
terness on the morrow that I was still alone, irremediably alone;
that the noises had vanished, leaving naught behind; that the
fumes of alcohol,- all had exhaled into sadness, like the friend-
ship or love of the day before.
Well, it seems to me now that my solitude is vanquished;
certainly not because I see unceasingly near me the same known
form, but because that form is loved. Something of her passes
continually into me, like a beautiful warmth; like another, bet-
ter life; and something of me passes into her. It is no longer a
-
-
## p. 12339 (#389) ##########################################
ÉDOUARD ROD
12339
strange soul, which remains a stranger in spite of frequent meet-
ings, in spite of closeness of relation; it is a continuous penetra-
tion, which little by little, of two beings makes only one.
It is strange how one permits oneself to be taken and swept
on by the machinery of life. We yield one finger carelessly; it
takes the whole body. We think we can play with it; take from
it what we wish; give up to it, through laziness, through las-
situde or indifference, fragments of ourselves, and yet remain
masters and maintain our independence. Illusion! After the
revolt of first youth, one day we see that we have surrendered
ourselves, that we are bound! It is the trifling and treacherous
habits whose insinuating sweetness has insensibly conquered you;
it is the ambition for a long-disdained aim, which yet developed
itself across your disdain; it is love-your powerlessness to
feel which made you for a long time doubt it, which you even
denied because you had experienced it under none of its known
forms, and which glides into you in a guise you never expected.
It is duty.
Heavens! Yes, duty,-the sentiment unjusti-
fied among all; that convention, that absurdity, that imperative,
whose non-existence your reason has a thousand times demon-
strated; which sets itself to cry out its orders, and makes itself
obeyed. All these ties bind me; all these voices govern me; I
feel that I no longer belong to myself.
How many times before, when I suffered without cause, or
when some dolorous shock produced agonizing thoughts in me,
have I consoled myself by saying, "After all, I am master of my
existence; when the measure shall be full, nothing shall prevent
my delivering myself; a few precautions so as not to be remarked,
the least noise possible, and all these worries will be forever
away from me! " Now I can no longer thus console myself: I
have by an act of will bound myself, my destiny, to another
destiny; and this double chain which I imprudently linked, I
have not the right to break. . The right! -oh, the absurd
word which comes and imposes itself upon my mind! Whence
comes that unknown force which can weigh upon my decision?
whence the mysterious fluid which paralyzes my egoism?
know that the moment I close my eyes, the world will cease to
exist, with her of whom I think, with the affection which grows
in my heart, with the ideas I forge around myself, and with my
wranglings about the right, duty, liberty, and all the rest. I
know that I shall know nothing of the tears, sorrows, struggles,
·
—
## p. 12340 (#390) ##########################################
ÉDOUARD ROD
12340
which will exist after me; that in my repose I shall feel noth-
ing, absolutely nothing, of the ill caused by my act, which may
even possibly result in good. I know all this; an effort of my
imagination lets me touch nothingness: and yet I feel myself
a slave. Destiny may strike with redoubled blows upon me; I
may be harassed by the troop of enemies from without, or by
a worse one which we carry within ourselves; I may find myself
in the clutches of those two adversaries which in other times I
would not have hesitated to rid myself of at the price of life,—
misery and suffering.
I shall probably have to struggle
with them for a long time; to bear their frightful wiles: my
relations with men may become a source of continual goadings,
on which my imagination will pour the boiling oil of its dreams.
I must support all this,-patient beast of burden bending under
the lash,
without a way of issue, without being able to
look once more toward the Great Liberator; without ever dream-
ing again in sweet hours of the means of putting an end to all
the evils.
•
Sometimes at nightfall we go and sit beside that Auteuil
pond, which we have taken to loving for its silence, and its old
trees that bathe their branches in its sleeping waters. Generally
it is deserted; and, separated from the road by a thick curtain
of leaves, we are very far from the Bois, very far from Paris,
very far from life. To-day, by chance, a young woman was there
with her children: one still in swaddling-clothes, sleeping on her
lap; while the other, a little girl, was playing at her side with
a shovel in the gravel. We seated ourselves opposite this pretty
group; and soon the little girl observed us and came toward us,
her finger in her mouth, with an adorable air of timidity and
roguishness. She greatly wanted to come to us, yet dared not
quite do so. Ever looking at us, she stooped to gather a few
daisies in the turf; then deciding suddenly, she came running
and laid them on my wife's knee, with a pretty "Here," friendly
and satisfied. We embraced her, and she told us many charming
things, and we played with her until her mother called her back
again. She left, throwing us kisses. Then, left alone, we began
to speak of children. She, like all women, a mother by instinct,
desired to have them. I do not.
I do not. I fear the responsibilities; fear
the disturbances: our intimacy of two suffices me; it seems to
me that we lack nothing. "Nevertheless," said she, "they are
so beautiful, and put so much life into the house. Imagine how
## p. 12341 (#391) ##########################################
ÉDOUARD ROD
12341
much gayer our house would be with a pretty little girl,— such
a one as you have just kissed. "
"But the anxieties about the mother, the cares, the noise night
and day, the worry with the nurse, the sacrifice of our independ-
ence! Would it not be necessary to renounce our walks, our
project of traveling, change all our plans for the future, which
we have made as though we were always to be tête-à-tête ? »
«< But when we are old? »
"Well, when we are old,- and after all it is not certain that
we ever shall be old,-our affection will be all the more solid
because we are alone. God knows the storms which await our
common life; escaping together, wearied it may be, we shall
press one to the other to brave the common sadness of our fate.
Our days being fewer, will be dearer to us; we shall not have
one too many in which to love on; and how well off we shall be
amid the revolutions of human affairs, which will scarcely touch
us any longer! Detached from all save one another, having
inclosed our entire horizon with our affection, life-whose pos-
sible caprices we now dread—will have glided away behind our
footsteps; we shall look upon it as from the summit of a traveled
road, of which we no longer see the rough places or pebbles;
recalling together good and bad recollections, which in the mirage
of memory will appear equally good to us. We shall love each
the other all the more, for we shall have proved each other
for a long time: for the heart grows old only to the world; it
remains a temple wherein are piously preserved sacred affections:
and if we too come to be cold, that indifference towards every-
thing, which obscures the eyes of the aged, shall not prevent our
cultivating the feeling which shall still unite us, but rather the
contrary. Who knows but that some night, bent and leaning one
upon the other, going out once more to breathe the spring air,—
our last, perhaps,—our talk of to-day will come back to us like
a gust of air from the past? And I am sure that, taught by our
experience, we shall say then, 'Decidedly it is best it should
have been so. '»
She looked at the murmuring water with an unconvinced air,
hesitating to answer. "But," she said at last, after a silence in
which we both heard the other think, «< one of us two will go
first. If we have no child, the other will remain alone. ” This
was precisely the idea that had come to me, and had silenced
Both of us shivered and said no more.
me.
Translation of Grace King.
## p. 12342 (#392) ##########################################
12342
ÉDOUARD ROD
PATERNITY
From The Sense of Life'
WIFE has gravely propounded the question of
M Before, when I was an aggressive unbeliever, I loved to
say in a peremptory tone that my children should never be
baptized. She would never reply, and her silence irritated me:
I divined a menace; I understood that it announced a resistance,
and that I should never be able to impose my opinion except by
an act of tyranny. This perspective troubled me a little, although
I was determined to remain firm. But time has progressed since
that epoch, which already seems far away; I have just made an
examination of conscience in order that I may answer in perfect
sincerity my wife's question. I find I have no longer any tem-
per against religion,- quite the contrary. When I had broken
the chains that it had so firmly bound about me, I had a period
of hatred and revolt, in which I dreamed of exciting the world
to the great combat for Truth against Faith.
Then this hatred changed into a profound indifference; the
meaning of the word "truth" wavered in my mind; I no longer
found either criterion or proof: I said to myself that my nega-
tion was a religion also, just as much so as affirmation; just as
gross, no more certain, no better, worse probably.
Then why trouble simple souls? Why prevent them from
deceiving themselves holily? Why teach them that the source
at which they quench their thirst is imaginary? Is their error
greater than mine?
In the ocean of uncertainty on which we
float, is my plank any safer than theirs? I have therefore prom-
ised myself to remain neutral in the contest.
I had reached thus far, when I recognized that it was the
free-thinkers who had disgusted me with free thought.
It was at the time of the "disaffection" of the Pantheon.
God was being chased out to give place to Victor Hugo: the
adored of yesterday ceded place to the idol of to-day; the sweet
Christ of the 'Imitation' fled before the man of the Chastise-
ments'; the good Holy Virgin of so many tender miracles went
down before Lucretia Borgia and Marion Delorme. And this
was, they said, the progress of light, and the cause of truth
gained in the exchange. Chance led me into the temple. They
were all there: municipal counselors, deputies, politicians of all
kinds, as if they were at home; hats on heads, canes in hands;
## p. 12343 (#393) ##########################################
ÉDOUARD ROD
12343
some had not even extinguished their cigars: and all were proud
of driving out by their smoke the last vanishing trace of incense.
Beneath the majesty of the dome they talked, laughed, gesticu-
lated, and disputed, insolent and disrespectful.
In a corner, however, before an altar left standing for a mo-
ment, a poor old woman in black cap and blue apron, unmindful
of their noise, faithful to the God they had chased out, fervently
knelt and prayed. She had brought two candles, whose flames
flickered in the draught, and which a brutal breath would blow
out before they were half consumed. Of what sorrow had she
laid there the burthen? of what remorse, perhaps? What confi-
dences was she addressing silently to the One who understands,
compassionates, pardons? And when the last altar shall have
fallen, which of these political mountebanks will give her the
means of appeasing her sufferings? Then I understood that she
was in the right against them all: for a moment the light of her
flickering candle seemed to me a sun of truth; and passing before
the altar, I bent my knee, and made the sign of the Cross. Ah!
poor old unknown woman! Thou hast enlightened me more than
much reading. If thy prayer was lost in its flight through space,
it at least resounded in my heart, and thou madest me feel the
void in my own depths. Why should I prevent the baptism of
my child?
To-day is Marie's birthday, and she probably has but a few
hours to live. Her condition is unaltered. The fever does not
increase; if it had increased, all would now be ended; but it has
not decreased. Her respiration is just as labored, her breathing
uneven, the noise in her chest is like broken machinery, and the
same hacking cough shakes and rends her. She is as languid as
ever, as indifferent, as detached from all.
What beginnings of ideas may not this unexplained and bru-
tal illness start in her little brain through which fever gallops ?
Oh, that constant moan! And there is one thing more heart-
rending: it is when the wailing is suddenly interrupted for a
moment, and the hoarse voice begins to coo as it used to do in
her well days. No, I cannot imagine the little body stiffened in
death! It would be too hideous to see it immovable and to know
that it is so forever; that no voice can call her back; that she
will never smile again; that she must be put into the earth,
where soon she will be nothing: while the inanimate objects she
has touched her doll, her sheep-will remain here, surviving
·
## p. 12344 (#394) ##########################################
ÉDOUARD ROD
12344
her in all their longevity as things. And then I think of the
mother's grief. And then I imagine the material details which
come after: the little coffin which they will nail; the mourning
notes to be addressed, all the formalities that have been invented
to make mourning more painful. And again the slow procession
winding its way, so far, to the cemetery of Passy; and on our
return, the desolation, the immense desolation, of the apartment
where she is no more!
The danger is over; yesterday the fever fell almost at once,
as if by enchantment. It already seems as if the illness were
only a part of a bad dream. I am happy. Up to this time I
have asked myself unceasingly whether I loved my child. Now
I am enlightened: and my affection is so deep in this hour of
deliverance that I forget to grieve that she will have to live a
whole life; that she will have to become acquainted with the
agonies we have passed through, and more still,-who knows
what? —all the future sufferings from which death would have
delivered her. And for the first time I saw that in all I had
said and thought of life, there was a good part of it only words,
phrases.
And when one has felt death pass very near; when
one has just missed seeing one of those existences which is
one's very own disappear, then one understands probably that
life-frightful, iniquitous, ferocious life-is perhaps better than
nothingness.
Live then, little Marie, as thou hast not wished to die! Live,
- that is, suffer, weep, despair; live to the end, as long as Des-
tiny will drag thee on its hurdle. And knowest thou, since he
can no longer wish thee unborn, since he has not the strength
to wish thee to die young as those whom the gods love,-
knowest thou what thy father wishes for thee? It is to see all,
feel all, know all, understand all. I say "all," and I know the
bitternesses the word contains; yet I do not wish to spare thee
one: since if all be sorrow, chimera, falsehood, the summing-up
of all these sorrows, chimeras, falsehoods, is nevertheless fine, like
a landscape made up of abysms; and since there is a supreme
satisfaction in feeling that we change with the years, that we
ever reflect more images, even as a river grows larger in rolling
towards the sea, and that we are, and we shall have been; and
that nothing, neither human revolutions nor universal catastro-
phe, can ever cause to be taken away from us that part of
eternity which we have had, which is human life.
Translation of Grace King.
## p. 12345 (#395) ##########################################
12345
-
SAMUEL ROGERS
(1763-1855)
ATE in the eighteenth century a young man started out one
day to call upon the great Dr. Johnson. He himself was
nursing literary ambition, and he felt a vast veneration for
successful authorship. He rang the bell; then fancying he heard
the Doctor's own steps approaching, he lost courage and ran away.
Young Samuel Rogers hardly foresaw that he too was to be a lit-
crary lion of London, his favor eagerly sought by tyros in writing.
For over half a century his home in St. James's Place was a ren-
dezvous for poets and artists, statesmen and
musicians; for English men and women of
note, and for distinguished people from
abroad. Here almost daily he entertained
five or six at breakfast, and talked with
them through the morning hours. Here
art and politics were discussed, bons-mots
originated, and entertaining anecdotes re-
tailed. This English "autocrat of the break-
fast table," whose keen ugly face, high
brow, and striking pallor, had a cadaverous
effect provoking much witticism, was him-
self an able story-teller. Sometimes his
wit grew caustic, and his almost ferocious
frankness inspired terror. But in spite of
surface crabbedness he was philanthropic and personally generous.
He was a faithful friend not alone to Sheridan through his wretched
last years of poverty, but to many another unfortunate, author or not.
Keenly appreciative rather than creative, the practical adviser of
Wordsworth and the other "Lake poets," as well as their admiring
auditor, he was the friend of poets to a greater extent than a con-
siderable poet himself. Perhaps his greatest hindrance was his con-
tinuous prosperity. From the beginning to the end of his life he was
quite too comfortable for poetic thrills. His poems have no intensity;
they are gentle moralizings and appreciations of moral and physical
beauty, the fruit more of refinement and cultivation than of irresist-
ible poetic impulse,- and bear no very strong individual stamp.
SAMUEL ROGERS
There is idyllic charm about Rogers's early life. Fortunate son of
a loving if austere father and a beautiful sprightly mother, he was
## p. 12346 (#396) ##########################################
T2346
SAMUEL ROGERS
born at Stoke Newington, a suburb of London, on July 30th, 1763.
His parents were people of refined and liberal tastes, who constantly
received in their hospitable mansion a circle of delightful friends,
among them Dr. Priestley. There with his brothers and sisters, ten
in all, Samuel was carefully trained by private tutors. Good Dr.
Price, the clergyman, dropping in of an evening in dressing-gown
and slippers to chat with the children before their bedtime, was an
important factor in their daily life. At this home Rogers learned to
appreciate social intercourse; and there in leisure hours he pored
over Pope and Goldsmith, and took their poems as models. When
he was sixteen or seventeen his father placed him in the London
bank of which he himself was head; and he remained in connection
with it all his life, as clerk, partner, or director. In London he found
a helpful friend in Miss Helen Williams, an intellectual woman, at
whose literary parties he heard brilliant conversation and formed con-
genial friendships. In 1793, when he was about thirty, his father's
death left him with an income of £5,000. Ten years later he fitted up
comfortable bachelor quarters in St. James's Place; where, following
his own recipe for long life, "temperance, the bath and flesh-brush,
and don't fret," he lived to the age of ninety-two, dying in 1855.
Rogers's first literary efforts were short sketches, signed "The
Scribbler," which appeared in the Gentleman's Magazine, and were
the tentative work every young poet must practice his hand on.
In 1786 the 'Ode to Superstition,' appearing in a time of com-
parative poetic dearth and of metrical trivialties, was greatly admired.
Rogers loved music; and his ear for harmonious sound guided him
to a pleasing choice of word and measure. At its best, his verse is
as trim and ently smooth as a Kentish landscape. He was reared
in the traditions of an era of common-sense and well-regulated emo-
tions. Grace of workmanship is the predominating characteristic of
the banker-poet; he had nothing in common with the passion of his
younger friend Byron. The Pleasures of Memory,' published in
1792 (doubtless suggested by Akenside's 'Pleasures of Imagination'),
and 'Human Life,' have the same leisurely, meditative quality. At
the same time, the usual fling that Rogers owed all his contemporary
repute to his social and business position is unjust and untrue. He
was a welcome member of the literary group, as a distinguished
component of it, before he had any such position.
Travelers in Italy soon grow familiar with often quoted lines from
his long poem upon Italy. In 1814 he spent eight months in Italy;
and he worked over material gathered there until 1822, when the
first part of the poem appeared. It was a failure; and the author
burned the unsold copies, and set about a careful revision. A second
edition, beautifully bound, and so profusely illustrated that an ill-
natured critic called it "Turner illustrated," had more success, though
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SAMUEL ROGERS
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public taste was already demanding something different. The very
fact, however, that a century after it was written it is still quoted
from, shows that it has some enduring quality; for poems on Italy
have been written and forgotten by the thousand, and there is noth-
ing to keep Rogers's alive but its own merit. What that is, our
extract will indicate.
Rogers was a link between the forms of thought and expression
before and after the French Revolution. A disciple of Pope, intimate
with the Barbaulds and the Burneys, with Joanna Baillie, Mrs. Sid-
dons, Fox, and Sheridan, he saw the revival of the poetry of the
soul, knew Wordsworth and Coleridge, Byron and Scott, and lived on
to know Dickens and Thackeray.
"
GINEVRA
I'
F THOU shouldst ever come by choice or chance
To Modena, where still religiously
Among her ancient trophies is preserved
Bologna's bucket (in its chain it hangs
Within that reverend tower, the Guirlandine),
Stop at a palace near the Reggio-gate,
Dwelt in of old by one of the Orsini.
Its noble gardens, terrace above terrace,
And rich in fountains, statues, cypresses,
Will long detain thee; through their arched walks,
Dim at noonday, discovering many a glimpse
Of knights and dames such as in old romance,
And lovers such as in heroic song,-
Perhaps the two, for groves were their delight
That in the springtime, as alone they sate,
Venturing together on a tale of love,
Read only part that day. -A summer sun
Sets ere one-half is seen; but ere thou go,
Enter the house - prithee, forget it not-
And look a while upon a picture there.
care not.
'Tis of a lady in her earliest youth,
The very last of an illustrious race,
Done by Zampieri - but by whom
He who observes it, ere he passes on,
Gazes his fill, and comes and comes again,
That he may call it up when far away.
She sits, inclining forward as to speak,
Her lips half-open, and her finger up,
## p. 12348 (#398) ##########################################
12348
SAMUEL ROGERS
As though she said "Beware! " her vest of gold
Broidered with flowers, and clasped from head to foot,
An emerald stone in every golden clasp;
And on her brow, fairer than alabaster,
A coronet of pearls. But then her face,
So lovely, yet so arch, so full of mirth,
The overflowings of an innocent heart,—
It haunts me still, though many a year has fled,
Like some wild melody!
Alone it hangs
Over a moldering heirloom, its companion,
An oaken chest, half eaten by the worm,
But richly carved by Antony of Trent
With Scripture stories from the life of Christ;
A chest that came from Venice, and had held
The ducal robes of some old ancestor.
That by the way,-it may be true or false,—
But don't forget the picture; and thou wilt not,
When thou hast heard the tale they told me there.
She was an only child; from infancy
The joy, the pride, of an indulgent sire.
Her mother dying of the gift she gave,-
That precious gift,- what else remained to him?
The young Ginevra was his all in life;
Still as she grew, forever in his sight:
And in her fifteenth year became a bride,
Marrying an only son, Francesco Doria,—
Her playmate from her birth, and her first love.
Just as she looks there in her bridal dress,
She was all gentleness, all gayety,
Her pranks the favorite theme of every tongue.
But now the day was come, the day, the hour;
Now, frowning, smiling, for the hundredth time,
The nurse, that ancient lady, preached decorum;
And in the lustre of her youth, she gave
Her hand, with her heart in it, to Francesco.
Great was the joy; but at the bridal feast,
When all sate down, the bride was wanting there.
Nor was she to be found! Her father cried,
"Tis but to make a trial of our love! "
And filled his glass to all; but his hand shook,
And soon from guest to guest the panic spread.
'Twas but that instant she had left Francesco,
Laughing and looking back and flying still,
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SAMUEL ROGERS
12349
Her ivory tooth imprinted on his finger:
But now, alas! she was not to be found;
Nor from that hour could anything be guessed
But that she was not! -Weary of his life,
Francesco flew to Venice, and forthwith
Flung it away in battle with the Turk.
Orsini lived; and long was to be seen
An old man wandering as in quest of something,
Something he could not find - he knew not what.
When he was gone, the house remained a while
Silent and tenantless-then went to strangers.
Full fifty years were past, and all forgot,
When on an idle day—a day of search
'Mid the old lumber in the gallery,-
That moldering chest was noticed; and 'twas said
By one as young, as thoughtless as Ginevra,
"Why not remove it from its lurking-place? "
'Twas done as soon as said: but on the way
It burst, it fell; and, lo! a skeleton,
With here and there a pearl, an emerald stone,
A golden clasp, clasping a shred of gold.
All else had perished-save a nuptial ring,
And a small seal, her mother's legacy,
Engraven with a name, the name of both,
"Ginevra. " There then had she found a grave!
Within that chest had she concealed herself,
Fluttering with joy, the happiest of the happy;
When a spring-lock that lay in ambush there
Fastened her down forever!
FROM THE PLEASURES OF MEMORY
OPENING LINES
Τ
WILIGHT'S Soft dews steal o'er the village green,
With magic tints to harmonize the scene.
Stilled is the hum that through the hamlet broke,
When round the ruins of their ancient oak
The peasants flocked to hear the minstrel play,
And games and carols closed the busy day.
Her wheel at rest, the matron thrills no more
With treasured tales and legendary lore.
All, all are fled; nor mirth nor music flows
To chase the dreams of innocent repose.
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SAMUEL ROGERS
All, all are fled; yet still I linger here!
What secret charms this silent spot endear?
Mark yon old mansion frowning through the trees,
Whose hollow turret wooes the whistling breeze.
That casement, arched with ivy's brownest shade,
First to these eyes the light of heaven conveyed.
The moldering gateway strews the grass-grown court,
Once the calm scene of many a simple sport;
When nature pleased, for life itself was new,
And the heart promised what the fancy drew.
Childhood's loved group revisits every scene,
The tangled wood-walk and the tufted green!
Indulgent Memory wakes, and lo, they live!
Clothed with far softer hues than light can give.
Thou first, best friend that Heaven assigns below,
To soothe and sweeten all the cares we know;
Whose glad suggestions still each vain alarm,
When nature fades and life forgets to charm,-
Thee would the Muse invoke! to thee belong
The sage's precept and the poet's song.
What softened views thy magic glass reveals,
When o'er the landscape Time's meek landscape steals!
As when in ocean sinks the orb of day,
Long on the wave reflected lustres play. —
Thy tempered gleams of happiness resigned,
Glance on the darkened mirror of the mind.
The school's lone porch, with reverend mosses gray,
Just tells the pensive pilgrim where it lay.
Mute is the bell that rung at peep of dawn,
Quickening my truant feet across the lawn.
Unheard the shout that rent the noontide air
When the slow dial gave a pause to care.
Up springs, at every step, to claim a tear,
Some little friendship formed and cherished here;
And not the lightest leaf but trembling teems
With golden visions and romantic dreams.
CLOSING LINES
OFT may the spirits of the dead descend
To watch the silent slumbers of a friend;
To hover round his evening walk unseen,
And hold sweet converse on the dusky green;
To hail the spot where first their friendship grew,
And heaven and nature opened to their view!
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SAMUEL ROGERS
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Oft when he trims his cheerful hearth and sees
A smiling circle emulous to please,-
There may these gentle guests delight to dwell,
And bless the scene they loved in life so well.
O thou! with whom my heart was wont to share
From Reason's dawn each pleasure and each care;
With whom, alas, I fondly hoped to know
The humble walks of happiness below;
If thy blest nature now unites above
An angel's pity with a brother's love,
Still o'er my life preserve thy mild control,
Correct my views and elevate my soul;
Grant me thy peace and purity of mind,
Devout yet cheerful, active yet resigned;
Grant me, like thee, whose heart knew no disguise,
Whose blameless wishes never aimed to rise,
To meet the changes Time and Chance present
With modest dignity and calm content.
When thy last breath, ere Nature sunk to rest,
Thy meek submission to thy God expressed,—
When thy last look ere thought and feeling fled,
A mingled gleam of hope and triumph shed,-
What to thy soul its glad assurance gave,
-
Its hope in death, its triumph o'er the grave?
The sweet remembrance of unblemished Youth,
The still inspiring voice of Innocence and Truth!
Hail, Memory, hail! in thy exhaustless mine
From age to age unnumbered treasures shine!
Thought and her shadowy brood thy call obey,
And Place and Time are subject to thy sway!
Thy pleasures must we feel, when most alone;
The only pleasures we can call our own.
Lighter than air, Hope's summer visions die,
If but a fleeting cloud obscure the sky;
If but a beam of sober Reason play,
Lo, Fancy's fairy frostwork melts away!
But can the wiles of Art, the grasp of Power,
Snatch the rich relics of a well-spent hour?
These, when the trembling spirit wings her flight,
Pour round her path a stream of living light;
And gild those pure and perfect realms of rest,
Where Virtue triumphs and her sons are blest!
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SAMUEL ROGERS
FROM RECOLLECTIONS OF THE TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL
ROGERS
I
WAS present when Sir Joshua Reynolds delivered his last lect-
ure at the Royal Academy. On entering the room, I found
that a semicircle of chairs immediately in front of the pul-
pit was reserved for persons of distinction, being labeled “Mr.
Burke," "Mr. Boswell," etc. , etc. ; and I, with other young men,
was forced to station myself a good way off. During the lecture,
a great crash was heard; and the company, fearing that the build-
ing was about to come down, rushed towards the door. Presently
however it appeared that there was no cause for alarm, and they
endeavored to resume their places: but in consequence of the
confusion, the reserved seats were now occupied by those who
could first get into them; and I, pressing forwards, secured one
of them. Sir Joshua concluded the lecture by saying with great
emotion, "And I should desire that the last words which I should
pronounce in this Academy, and from this place, might be the
name of Michael Angelo. " As he descended from the rostrum,
Burke went up to him, took his hand, and said,-
"The Angel ended, and in Adam's ear
So charming left his voice, that he awhile
Thought him still speaking, still stood fixed to hear. "
What a quantity of snuff Sir Joshua took! I once saw him
at an Academy dinner when his waistcoat was absolutely pow-
dered with it.
THE head-dresses of the ladies during my youth were of a
truly preposterous size. I have gone to Ranelagh in a coach
with a lady who was obliged to sit upon a stool placed in the
bottom of the coach, the height of her head-dress not allowing
her to occupy the regular seat.
Their tight lacing was equally absurd. Lady Crewe told me
that on returning home from Ranelagh, she has rushed up to
her bedroom, and desired her maid to cut her laces without a
moment's delay, for fear she should faint.
DR. FORDYCE sometimes drank a good deal at dinner. He
was summoned one evening to see a lady patient when he was
more than half-seas-over, and conscious that he was so. Feel-
ing her pulse, and finding himself unable to count its beats, he
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muttered, "Drunk, by God! " Next morning, recollecting the
circumstance, he was greatly vexed; and just as he was thinking
what explanation of his behavior he should offer to the lady, a
letter from her was put into his hand. "She too well knew,"
said the letter, "that he had discovered the unfortunate condition
in which she was when he last visited her; and she entreated
him to keep the matter secret in consideration of the inclosed"
(a hundred-pound bank-note)!
SIR GEORGE BEAUMONT once met Quin at a very small dinner
party. There was a delicious pudding, which the master of the
house, pushing the dish towards Quin, begged him to taste. A
gentleman had just before helped himself to an immense piece
of it. "Pray," said Quin, looking first at the gentleman's plate
and then at the dish, "which is the pudding? "
Sir George Beaumont, when a young man, was one day in
the Mount (a famous coffee-house in Mount Street, Grosvenor
Square) with Harvey Aston. Various persons were seated at
different tables. Among others present, there was an Irishman
who was very celebrated as a duelist, having killed at least half
a dozen antagonists. Aston, talking to some of his acquaintance,
swore that he would make the duelist stand barefooted before
them.
