The Madisonian. [volume] (Washington City [i.e. Washington, D.C.]) 1837-1845, 1838-03-29
PERSONAL DESCRIPTION OF
ARMAND cARREL,
TME REPupLIcAN EpIroR or FRANcE

Personal DESCRIPTION OF
ARMAND CARREL,
THE REPUBLICAN EDITOR OF FRANCE.
We would with pleasure lend our columns
to prove the high tone Of liberty.
Carrel was Of middle heie hit, slightly made,
and very graceful. Like all persons Of really
fine faculties, he carried those faculties with
him into the smallest things and did not dis
dain to excel, being qualified to do so, in those
things which are great only to little men,
Even in the details Of personal equipments,
his taste was watched for and followed by the
amateurs of such matters. He was fond of
all bodily exercises, and had, says NJ Nisard,
un pen de tous les gouis riffs, more or less Of
all strong and natural inclinations as might
be expected from his large and vigorous hui
man nature, the foundation of strength Of will,
and which combined with intellect and with
goodness, constitutes greatness. He was
human being complete at all points, not a frac-
ton or fiustum Of one.
The distinctive feature of his character"
says Nj. Nisard, was his unbounded gene
rosity. In whatever sense we understand
that word, the vagueness Of which is its beau
ty; whether it mean the impulse of man
who devotes himself, or merely pecuniary
liberality, the life Of Carrel gives occasion for
applying it in all its meanings. All the ac-
tons Of his public life are marked with the
former kind Of generosity. His errors were
generally acts of generosity ill-calculated.-
AS for pecuniary generosity, no one had it
more, or Of a better sort. Carrel could nei-
Their refuse, nor give little. l do not diminish
the merit of his generosity, by saying that
there was in it certain improvidence, which
was but his confidence in the future. He
drew upon the future to meet the demands Of
his libernlity. Exposed by his position to in
cessant applications, he often had recourse to
the purses of his friends to relieve suferngs,
perhaps not of the most authentic kind, and
ran into debt to give aims" There are sto-
ries told Of him like those told Of Goldsmith,
or any other person Of thoughtless generosity.
M. Nisard tells of his pawning his watch to
relieve person not in extreme necessity, and
of his taking the cloth off his horse on a winter
evening, to throw it over poor man whom
he saw in the streets, shivering with cold. As
is often the case with persons Of strong i'm
pulses, he was Of careless character when
not under excitement, and his inattention
sometimes caused inconvenience to himself,
and made him give unntentional offence to
Others But on occasions which called into
action his strong will, he had the eye of an
eagle: he seized with glance, as on field
of battle, the whole tarraim on which he was
placed; and astonished above all by the sure
ness of the instinct with which he OWNED the
significance of small things. "Smal things"
continues nj. Lit're, "are those which the
vulgar do not perceive; but when such things
have produced serious effects, pause, quite
disconnected, before the rrevocable event
which might so easily have been prevented"
Carrel was never reduced to say, "who'd
have thought it." Everybody says M.
Lttre, "thinks of great things j; superior
minds alone take proper account of small
ones" .".'
His conversation, especially on political
subjects, NJ. Nisard, comparing him with the
best convcrsers in country where the art of
conversation is more cultivated than it is here,
declares to be the most perfect he ever heard
and we can add our testimony to his, that Car
rel's writings in the National seemed but the
continuation Of his conversation. He was
fond of showing that he could do equal justice
to all sides of question: and he would " take
up government newspaper, or one OF more
moderate opposition than his own, and reading
the article OF the day, he would adopt its idea,
and complete it or develop it in the spirit of
the opinions which had inspired it. AT other
times he would in the same way recompose
the speeches in the Chamber. They have
not given he would say, the best reasons
for their opinions This would have been more
specious, and would have embarrassed us
more His facility was prodigious. And the
reasons he gave were not rhetorical fallacies,
but just arguments. They embodied all that
could be said truly and honorably on that side
Of the question. He wished by this to demon
strate two of his qualities, vastly superior to
mere facility in arguing for the sake OF argu-
ment: on the one hand, his knowledge OF
the interests of all parties; on the other, his
real esteem for what wos just in the views the
most opposite to his own"
We have marked all these traits of charac-
ter, because they help to complete the picture
of what Carrel was, and, while they give
reality to our conception Of him, and bring
him home to the feelings as a being of our
own flesh and blood, they all give additional
insight into those great qualities which II Is
the object Of this paper to commemorate
The mind needs such examples, to keep alive
in it that faith in good, without which nothing
worthy the name Of good can ever be realized:
il needs to be reminded by them that (as it is
often repeated by one of the noblest spirits OF
our time) man is still man. Whatever man
has been, man may be; whatever OF heroic the
heroic ages, whatever Of chivalrous the ro-
mantic.ages have produced, is still possible,
nay, still is, and hero of Plutarch may exist
amidst all the prettness Of modern cIvlliza-
ton, and with all the cultivation and reiine-
ment, and all the analysing and questioning