The Middlebury galaxy. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1848-1850, 1848-08-29

From the ~ Y. Courier and Enquirer
LAMARTINE AND CHATEAUBRI,
AND.
On Saturday, the 9Th, Chateaubriand
was buried The elite of France in lite,
nature and politics followed to the grave
this true chevalier-this man of genius
and of heart. Rerryer, Dupin, Decazes,
Mignet, Mole, Hyde de Melville, Victor
Hugo, Beranger, and many others-the
French Academy, the Institute in a body,
populations from the National Assembly,
and all the schools and colleges and lite
rary associations. We miss the name of
Lamartlne among those enumerated as
present-but the exceptionable position in
which the late political couvulsions have
placed him, may account for his personal
absence. But his heart was there, as is
proved by his noble tribute to Chateau
BRAND from the newspaper LIE Bien Pub
lie, to which Lamartine contributes, if he
does not edit
'Let US stand uncovered before this
coffin. 1t is that of a great writer, who
was also a great citizen-of magnificent
intelligence, of noble heart, of powerful
reason-with the fealty of chevalier,
the enthusiasm of a tribune, the princi-
plies of a plebeian wrapped up in the senti-
ment of patrician Such was Chateau
BRAND
'But that which strikes us most in his
existence, which must not yet be Judged
is the movement of ideas which it repre-
sents, and of which it symboIizes the
change and the progress
"Chateaubrand- almost a centu-
ry back in an old chateau of Brittany
died upon the frontier of democracy, with
his eyes cast forward TO the future, reioi-
cling almost in that republic which in his
youth he had combatted land which in his
old age he foretold.
"The chevalier became plebeian-the
courier of a monarchy became the ser~
want of the people. BY the light of his
genius he marched from station to station,
on the road which the spirit of the age is
tracing out; and starting from the tradi-
tons of the old monarchy. he had clear
ed, by his own impulse and the bound of
his genius, the immense space which sep
arates what is from what has passed away.
Often, doubtless, he got astray. He was
not always able to resist that voice from
ArmOrica-as it were an echo from the
souls of his ancestors-to call and keep
him back. Sensitive and faithful were
the broken idols of his youth. But the
poetic impulses of the bard were over
come by the sound sense of the states
man, until one cay the reformation
brutally closed its palace doors against the
eloquent patriotism which was importu>
nate in its blindness.
M. Cnaleaubriand hoped 10 be the savior
ofthe monarchy-he was only IFS Cassan-
dra. In vain from S25 10 1880 did he strug-
Gle 10 snatch royalty from the bonds which
tied it down to blind influences, 10 old tradi-
lions, and TO regenerate it with the life o.
bert, and progress. Royalty treated him
as an enemy and persevered in the path go
fatal 10 itself, 10 what finally ledIt 10 Cher
| bOurg.
From that moment the illustr;ous writer
despaireJ of The cause of Kings. He ie-
manned faithful 10 Them from sentiment Of
honor, and that he might not, as he said him
self, cut his life in twain. Bot though he
was moved 10 tenderness by their LOT, he be-
leved no longer in their destiny. HIS heart
cherished pious homage towards The last
of the race of St. Louis, in exile; his judy
ment acknowledged the legitimacy Of the de-
moc,acy, and parlook in the hopes OF Carrel
and Beranger.
In this lie which has ust closed, there is
not only the picture Of the transformation Of
a single mind-but of those ofan epoch.
'Chateaubriand, born eighty years ago.
brought up in the monarchical and religious
faith Of his ancestry, sitting in his bosom his
memories and his sentiments in order 10 list
en- 10 the political philosophy Of democracy
-Chateaubriand thus TRANSPORTED in old
France breaking with the past-taking lis
start-living with new life, and ascending
step by step in the scale Of progress towards
a Republic.
This is striking and signifcant-and Pict-
orally as it were, represents, in the person
and career OF Chateaubriand, The past, the
nrasent a nd The (ilfure of France