The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1870-12-13 00:00:00

thee •th in amordance with the universal conscience.
rtspected-if the Frenchman acquits
"If io • befitting manner of most of his duties
„reeds the State and his fellow citizens, it is to the
pout of honour that we are elerfly indebted for this.
h is not respect for Divine laws, which have for • long
ifte been regarded as quite problematical-it is not
rl t.ecrhicl devotion to an uueertain duty, and still
Ina to the ebstrast being, ailed the Stedie, which has
wen nyerthrown and discredited by so many revolutions.
I. the fear it baying to bitub in public for an action
aimed to be dlegraeefue that alone keeps up among
sufficient desire to do tight." And, farther On
...rim point of honour has nevettheless reoelved •
roent sl.ock, and it must never be forgotten that in
['ince. if the point of honour is weakened, not only
ire men's mitac degraded, but also the lowest founds.
time of society and the state are shaken." He son-
eierka by saying that there Is an urgent necessity for
ea bogs duct In favour of France lilt Is to main.
eon the position in 'thigh preceding ages had placed it.
floe words foetid an 'oho in many souls, but the evil
eed gene too far to be checked by the most solemn
warnings. or the most strenuous effort of the few true.
hearted men who saw the fatal incline down which the
septa" was rapidly burying. In proceeding to a.ot
tome you • few mere tuts illustrative of the social
religious coodition of France previous to the oat.
Desk of war, lets,. refer very briefly to the conditien
of literature and Lit as ill ewe of the testes of the
PoltleLas well as of the influences wheel were
gradually tending to sonnet their very life. . Forb'k
and the artsre designmaybe regarded as boo cease
*nub! lesekuoU-thal w
unte eicelaire.eflartioleosaws't
tithaeial. general
e". they
yFoarenronoshlt
of thought. Tbore was .
high piece among the
likniture hell a Tee/
world. The writers of the
litanit'ute of the ewiAnis Philippe were men of
"ill" Charlie"-
whom animation might been proud. Some of tbecu
are still live', eedi be"
anring the last twenty years
onntieeed their labours."Thiera owl (Nivel, and others,
have ...Med on their hertorteal labours, and men of
'sees have had before the world many meth] works
:liter la the felicitously film style which is thunder-
late el French scientific productions. But the new
rwie a writers is with fire exceptions • degenerate one.
Bresestists and novel writers have deemed it to be their
ineeloe to paint scrawly as it really is, and by an exact,
or awn exaggerated description, in the very plainest
termedonits most secret visas, and have pandered to the
vilest pericas, and been • means of conteminetion to
the whole load. We mina scythed our writers have
been in every case free frem blame, and roma of our
female writers of lotion have, I believe, erred most in
dd. respect. Rue as coinpired with French novels,
ears are parity itself. Andlwhat is to my mind one of
the mildest and at moat eiguificant signs of the down-
ward tendency of French society, Is that some of the
men who ones stood high n their several departments,
have been gradually sinking down to the low level
..coupled by men of far less talent. be Michele!, the
hoeoriaa, has of late years degraded his pen by his
coarse manner o' writing history. as well as by several
works of a most immoral character, especially by what
is called the Bible of Humanity-• book which has
been deecribed in two words se en "impure bluphemy."
V. Hugo has sent forth from Guernsey of late several
huge novels of coulderable power, but full of most
incoherent pages and baneful descriptions of vice. 14:
About formerly wrote stories of modern life which
might be lead by the purest mind without the danger of
defilement, but of late his novels have been glorifications
of ceedoithe and loose women. Again, the newspaper
press has also declined in power. The serious discussion
of polities and of 'all gr!at questions affecting the real
Interests of the empire, being v.rtnally forbidden,
and all ifissire for • sound and healthy treat.
meet of thou topics which were allowable being
simcet extinct, the press has gradually become more
and more trilling, icandaloue, and corrupting. The
",Little Frees," as it was celled, boasted that it would
soon drive the journals of higher standing, and which
still maintained some semblance of self.respeet, entirely
out of the maiket. Absurd and worthless stories,
mere scandalous gossip, constituted the main substance
of these miserable productions. One consolation-though
a very poor one-might perhaps be. found in the fact
that the taste for reading in France was rapidly
destining. Art is another index of a
nation's standing, u well as a powerful
means of promoting the growth of either good or evil
principles- It is very seldom any picture in the annual
Royal Academy exhibition offends our morel those
bilities. Purity of thouabt is characteristic of the
pester number of paintings and statues ex-
hibited. the French WOO, or anneal exhibition
of pictures in Paris, contrasts painfully with
our Royel Academy. No one can walk through
the rooms without being struck with the
amazing number of perfectly nude figures depicted in
every conceivable attitude. Exigencies of art can offer
sr, excuse for this. The only explanation that col be
given is that the public taste is terribly depraved and
consequently calls for the display of such productions.
Again, the few Scriptural and religious subjects that
are treated show that the French, who used to be
celebrated for their reel/ices pictures, are rapidly
onaiog to take delight In worts of this kind. In the
salon of this year there were • few pictures of this
order, but the only one that really attracted any notice
was of a very equivocal itharacter. It was • painting
of oensidemble aims in which a cardinal and a priest are
represented as dining together in Lent time-a well-
spread table is before them, and • black servant is
bringing in some very savoury dish. As he enters the
door he is struck with terror at seeing • vision of the
Saviour standing by the Mille and looking at these two
seventh of His who are feasting together so ungesson.
ably. But, as far as one mak' judge, the two tailed.
settee seemed wholly unaware of, or Glee indifferent to,
the Divine precinct. The only disconcerted person
was the negro waiter I It will perbaps be thought
that I am potting matters in their worst Hight, but, in
joitificetion, let me read • Pas-Mac's words written in
1862, "I love France. Yes I I love Frame as • good
eon should his mother, even though she were a coquette.
But alas! France thinks no more, dreams no more, no
longer knows, or appears not to know, what it has
believed, or imagined, or done, or said in the day of
Its confidence and greatness. It has extinguished Its
soul, or allowed it to be extinguished, by a passing
breath; and with all the lire and light of the put,
what remains at this moment? Nothtng, except here
and there, as if through forgetfulness, the reflection
of some former glory, the last rays of • Netting sun."
And to this statement let me add the penitent ory of
a writer in a very recent number of La
Agar°, one of the most widely read, but
certainly not one of the best, of the Paris
papers. The article is entitled Somata nous
perdu? (Are we lost?), and, as one reads it, it really
seems as if the eyes of some of the Parisians were being
at length opened to see the fearful character of the
life which too many of them have been leading. The
article is thus epitomized by • correspondent in one of
our daily papers: " Vainere ou mower, eat tea beast;
sta4 costs ne miecronsi /MU, SOSO / We have too many
faults, we Frenchmen. We are boaster', idlers,
loungers, dissiples of immorality, lover, of luxury ;
we have not enough of merger, of truthfulness, of
honesty. That is why we are being conquered; and we
must submit. Afterwards, we mast reform ourselves;
we must rid ourselves of vanntfalness, of unsteadinem,
disquietude, and mendacity. Our women must become
decent ; they must give up their mad toilettes and
their loose morals. -We must do away with licentious
books, and above all, with • licentious drama. We
must not crowd our theatres to gloat over immoralities.
We must put an end to our detestable cafteexistenoe,
which works isseredible hunt to our mindeand manners;
and to the still more abominable Boulevard.life, the
came of half oar sins, prompted by wilful waste of
time. We must be industrious, sober, and honest,
faithful to our wives, spending our leisure with our
families instead of squandering them at cafés, at clubs,
and-worse. We must make ourselves another people
before we can hope to deserve anything like • recovery
from the awful catastrophe that has crushed us. We I
have lost our intrepidity through one own fault-let
us regain it by a thorough regeoeration." Let me now
Gall your attention to the religions condition of France.
Tbe subject is a very wide and very oomplicated one.
In general terms it mey be said that France is an
irreligious country. But in saying this we must be
care( ul not to do injustice to the various religious bodies
which in their several ways are seekiog to hold up
before the people certain portions of God's truth, and
to preserve at least some amount of piety and devo-
tion in the lend. We must also be careful not
to be misled by the external comet of things, and
by the absence of some forms of religions life
which are enamor% emote/ as, and which many
think constitute the very mamma of religion. If we
look hack to the closing years of the lust century. we
find Frames engaged in destroying the shame and
hypocrisies., political, social, and religious, with which
the country has been cursed for mere than a hundred
years. We observe too that in their passionate excite.
meat and their Gorey eagerness to obliterate the put,
and create • new and higher order of things, they did
not stop to discriminate between the false and the
true, whether in the Church or State. They cursed
their king and all his belongings. They also cursed
their God. In this mused., against religion, Voltaire
had been the great leader. By hie rietnifold writings
he had suoceeded in casting ridicule on almost every
portion of the Word of God, and by his infamous
motto or war-ory "Crash the wretch," he had anco-eilod
In inspiring many minds with • belief that Christianity
was a tissue of fables and lies, and a souree of un-
speakable mischief to the country. But while Voltaire
was abusing the old faith and blaspheming the
character of the God of the Bible, Housman was con-
stituting biretta the teacher of • new religion, and
gaining really • stronger bold on the people than
Voltaire ever possessed. And it would biedly be an
exaggeration to say that the God in whom the majority
of Frenchmen believe lithe God of Rouseeau-" Le bon
Dieu-la Dieu de bons gene • ,"- good thy/, indifferent
twies, wheat you may adore, but to whom it is useless
t° erle-one who cares little or nothing about the
troubles and sorrows of earth, who 'Winks from extent.
lug the Judgments Hs has threatened, and who will not
trouble Himself to discriminate between the good and
wicked, tito /Eat and the toped, the oppressed and the
oppressor, bet will admit all eli an eternity of
h'PPial°L Boob la the religion, the to
the only reli ion of
Frac°s at the prompt da d
ittoo remember
very
.it—ords 07 oat, my •nn
eminent apuiregasi vi
'lnge , ena:et
t feorbonne,
and one of the most devoted Chrietith. that I know.
Them it least were his opinions in 1861, but I very
much fear whether unless the calamities which have
now some 13Pals Frldos shell be the rues
to 4( leading
her to think of the God of heaven and.'"
oept its word-I say I fear whether she Wiilrrilon
matinee to believe in any God whatever. Haterielisg
has made terrible program dee', the last t verity lu
and lintel-WM= means Atheism. The belief in a future
life Is rapidly dimorsring. "lot es eat, and drink
for to-morrow we die,' perish, we cense to be -this
Is the motto which is rapidly being adopted, and which
an wittingly-is ether:marring his
ementrymen to adopt, for the only immortality in which '
he believes is the Immortality of reputation. And,
indeed, the God of whom he speaks. Is not the Infinite
Being, distinct from, and 'Reneging rule over, the
works of His hands, but an existence still in progress
of dayslopment--not, in fact, a Being at all, but simply
the all-peeveding spirit of life to be found throughout
the anthers*, and having no distinct, separate existence
X Ronan, ham, it is trits, written what he cells a "Life
Weiss," the manaluding words of which are that "all ages
wiliprosielesthntnenoftg the eons of men there never NM
born • greater then Jesus." But though he saes "fa
=Christ will to the end call loath tears from the
au, awl His islscimp inks' the oparab7