Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1834-08-23

by fortune; they had powerful friends
and quiet country to back them was not SO
fortunate.
Of all the modern French writer's Of nay day,
] am the only one whose life and travels at all
assimilate. Traveller, soldier, poet, legislator;
it was among forests that / sang Of forests, on
board ship that described the ocean, IN exile
that learned what exile meant; in courts, puo-
lie affairs and conclaves that j studied princes,
politics. lawsand history The orators OF Rome
and Greece mingled with the current OF puolc
affairs, and shared its fate In Italy and Spain,
at the time of the middle ages, the very hrst ge
muses. of the country participated IN all the puo
my times were those OF Dante, Iasso. Cahio-
ems Ercillo and Cervantes.
I'm France our ancient poets and historians
wrote amid the tumult of battles and the Weari-
ness of pilgrimages Thibauit Count ofCham.
pagne Villehardouin, and Joinviile, borrowed
from the incidents of their times materials Tor
their romances. FrOissard sought for history
on the highways, and learnt it of the CheUaiiers
and Abbes with whom he met and journeyed.-
But dating from the reign of Francis the lst,
our writers have been recluses, whose talents
might express the spirit, but not the facts, oil Inc
age.
If am destined to live, | will represent in
my person what will be represented in my me-
mors, the principles the ideas, the events, the
seen the beginning and the end of world, and
the differing characteristics of this beginning
and end often minge together in my opinions
found myself between the two ages, as II at
the confluence Of two large streams; plunged
into their troubled waters, leaving with regret
the old shore which gave me birth, and swim
ming with high raised hopes towards that I'M
known stand where lands each new generation.
These memoirs, divided in books and parts,
have been written at different times and in dill
ferent places; these sections naturally require a
sort Of prologue, which recalls the events that
have occurred since the last dates, and notifies
where again take up the thread OF my dis
course The various events and the changing
destines Of life, are thus strangely mingled to-
gether. 1t sometimes happens that amid my
prosperity am forced to speak of days OF mis-
cry, and that again in the midst of grief and
tribulation, am carried back by circumstan-
ces to my bright days of happiness.
The different feelings Of my different ages,
my youth mingling with my old age, the gravl-
sunshine of my lighter years, the rays Of sun
from its rising to its setting my crossing each O.
Their like the scattered rays ofmy own life, give
sort Of Understandable unity to my whole work.
| My cradle partakes of the nature of my tomb,
my tomb of that of my cradle; my sufferlngs
become pleasures, my pleasures pain; and no
one can tell whether these memoirs were the
offspring of a young or an old head.
| do not say this to praise myself; for do not
well know whether ii is praise worthy; only state
what is true; what has happened without my
knowledge, was owing to the INCONSISTENCY OF
the storms which have aSsailed my bark, and
which often have left me no place where to write
this or that paragraph, but the very rock wnich
has caused my shipwreck.
have revised these memoirs with sort OF
paterna affection. | should like to call upon
the dead to correct the proof sheet. The dead
60 quickly
The notes which accompany the memoirs are
of three different kinds The first, which are
put al the end of the book, contain the illustra-
tons and Notifications The second, at the bot"
tom of the pages, refer TO the actual time at
viii CHI the memoirs were written. The third,
also at the bottom of the pages. have been add
ed since the memoirs were written, and bear the
date of the time and place at which they were
penned. One or two years Of perfect quiet, in
some obscure corner Of the earth. would enable
me to finish these Memoirs but have never
been perfectly quiet except during the nine
months slept in my mothers bosom; and sup
pose shall never find that repose again until
am in the bosom Of our common mother the
earth.
Several Of my friends have urged me, even
now to publish my history; but could not &C.
cede to their request. In TIE first place should
in spite of myself in that case be less frank and
explicit; and secondly, ! have always supposed
that wrote as if seated on my coffin. From
that circumstance my work has received sort
of religious coloring, which | could not alter
without prejudice to the book; it would grieve
me to hush that voice from the tomb which per-
vades the whole of the memoirs.
1t will not, nope, be thought strange, that
retain some natural weakness, and that am
anxious concerning the fate of the poor orphan
which shall leave behind me on the earth. If
Mines thought had suffered enough in this
world to he az least in the other happy shade,
and would grant me beam of light from the
Elysian Fields to gid my last picture, it would
at least make the faults of the painter less glar-
ing. Life does not suit me; perhaps Death will
90 better.
We learn from the Mechanics News Room
Bulletin, that the Court at East Cambridge were