New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1847-04-10

daughter OF an Under Governess of the Princess
oil Orleans and, as q very natural consequence.
the first recollection the Poet has Of his father is
that he visited him in prison The father, however,
was released and the family retired to the little
village OF Milly, where the young Poet passed his
first years in the enjoyment OF humble quiet Look
in his works and you will often find reproduced
there In poetic forms his aged father his gentle,
sunny mother and his fair sisters You will find
the old castle and the shady trees and the lofty
mountains and the sleepy valleys and the murmur-
ing streams Thousands love TO think OF the scenes
Of their childhood, but how few can tell tue story
of them like Lamartine
The young Poet received his education IN the
College " Des Pkres de la F0i" at BeDey. After
leaving College he spent short time at Lyons
made brief tour in Italy and came TO Paris when
, the Empire was tottering to its fall
He was in q new world where Folly wore its
most enticing forms and the strictly religious edu-
cation he had received is said 70 have been bar
rier too weak to Withstand all the temptations by
which he was beset on every side But dissipa-
ton in Paris does not involve the same moral and
social degradation as in the United States and
Lamartine cherished his ambition pursued his
studies and made many friends
In 1913 he made his second tour in Italy and
most of the F" Meditatlons and at least the 4" Pre-.
mier Amouy" in his Harmonies were inspired
by the sun and the eyes of Italy. But Lamartine
has not chosen to explain everything. Why should
we seek to lift the veil from his heart ?
/ At the fall Of Napoleon he entered into the
| Body Guard Of the Bourbon-but there are pas.
sions stronger than love Of king or country The
close Of the Hundred Days found Lamartine in
love, but it was love for the dying. He saw his
adored Elvire laid in the silence of the tomb, and
the agony Of that hour woke his soul to song
Her death made both herself and her lover i'm
mortal and gave to France her purest sweetest
Poet
/ The maudlin race OF Poets who sprang up imrne-
diatey after the evolution had disgu sted the pub
lie with their trash-and when in leo, young La
MARITIME attempted to sell his first manuscript, for
a long time he could find no one to buy. Just re-
covering from a long sickness and still bearing on
his pale, sad face the token of heart broken by
the recent loss of being whom he adored, he
carried his packet YEARLY from house to house
until his soul was sickened by repulses. At last
publisher named Nicol-more discerning or more
generous than the others-accepted the manuscript
that was everywhere stained with tears, and it
soon appeared, without the support OF a name or
even of n Preface. Lamartine's wish respecting
his work seems to be expressed in the invocation
in the last verse of the "Medtations:"
Quand Ia feuille des bois tonbs dams IA prairie
lie rent du sol So lers a rdrrdchs air rdisns;
II moi je suis se,nbldble Ia (euiLie fsfrie
Emportei-ploi CONNIE ellie, oraseu1 Aguiil0ns
When the leaf of the wood falls In the meadow,
The night wind rises and blows it to the valleys
And mel am like TO the withered leaf
Bear me away Ike II, oh, stormy North Wind
1t is quite certain that the valley to which the
wind of popular favor bore Lamartine very
snug one. Everybody read his book-everybody
read it again. They wept over it-they cried
bravo--they wondered who could have written it
until they knew, and then they wondered how he
could have written it. The several pieces were
learned by heart, and the very boys in the street
repeated them. The Poets fortune was made and
so was the publishers, who sent out more than
fifty thousand copies of these " Medtatioas Po-
eti9uss"
The Government saw that he was able to live
without patronage, which induced them to give it
to him, and he was attached to the Legation at
Florence. There another change in his life took
place He had sung in his " Med'tations,"
PEAT are rdrenir 9driditA encore
Tn de bOnhew don't respotr est periu;
Pemare dams k toale NHe dne que ignore
AITdI oompris dr7e Il M aarGh rtpoHdE
1t may be the Future has kept for s
return of the happiness of whom the hopeis lost
II may be in the crowd soul of whom am ignorant
Win have understood my soul and will have responded
to me.
A soft and gentle voice repeated the verso in his
ears One understood and responded to his soul.
The second Elvire, one Of Englands beautiful and
wealthy daughters, stood with him at the altar
few months after.
He was aiterward appointed Secretary to the
Embassy at Naples--then at London, and was
finally sent back to Florence as Charge des Ahaires
Meantime his marriage and the death of his uncle
had given him wealth, and the means Of quietly
pushing forward his favorite studies
The " Seconds Msditations" appeared in 1923,
and soon after the Dsrnier Chant du PILGRIMAGE
de Chade Harold, in which bitter and eloquent
outburs on the fallen state Of Italy was terminated
in these words:
" Js rails ehsTeks aiSl1s (pardonRs 0pbrt r0mdins
Des honmes ct non pas de Ia poussere hEndiRe.'
Forthess words Colonel Pope, Neapolitan off,
GER Cnhuengeu nlIn iney
was wounded so that for a long time his life was
in danger. He showed his generosity, however,
by interceding with the Government for the pardon
Of his adversary
In 1895 he published the Chant de SdCre and
in 1899 he returned to France and gave to the |
world the Harmonies PoetiqWes et Re',gieases.
The public mind was all taken up by the troubles
of the times and there were few, except literary |
men, who paid any attention to this last work al
though it has its great excelsnces with its defects
1t is book which will. doubt not, outlive some OF
his more popular works.
He was now received into the Academy and ap |
pointed Minister to Greece bat the Government
which had appointed him fell in the Revolution OF
July, and ne refused the place under the new con-
troll Yet after it was apparent that there was no
more hope for the Bourbons, he threw himself into
the affairs of the new system and another phase OF
his life commenced. The poet was in the Forum
and the simple lover OF Elvire who had written
Aime, prisr. ehonier, rola tour wa rie
To love, to pray, to sing-there is all my life
,fa md n tha hoonrs of the |