Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1848-12-02
NATIONAL INTELLIGENCER.
NOTES ON NEW BOOKS.

presenting 10 the public some OF Inc portraits which
CoRMENIN has there sketched the most happily.
That Of LAMARTINE is hit off excellenty, with mix
ed indulgence and sarcasm, praise and banter, such
as that vainest OF great men seems to us emlnenty
10 deserve We must translate in part for our
selves; for our Magnus Apollo of translaors has
not followed the text before US, but out of several
different characters patched up composite one,
such as Cormenin himself protests against being
required TO draw:
g Dear reader" says he, al have come you, to
the difficult Of all my portraits. Twenty times have
touched and etouchcd it taken down from my easel and
put up again. What reProaches, too, have not received
nom all who have done the honor TO examine 1t 'yon
make him too handsome you make him too ugly He
is more the liberal ! he is the royas You do not
paint him enough the You make him too lit
Gle the radical He more OF socialist preends
he is less socialist, protests another. He is e
gous, insists this he has religion at ali, AYERS
that, What shall do To whom hearken have more
than half thrown away my brush the portrait has been
the plague of my palette. How to satisfy, will not
the poets, who nsaae Of prase) but the public
that public which asks for unity in that which would longer
be likeness it had any unity; and content less my ad
versses who reproach with having changed my coors
every time that Lamartine has changed his face What
] TO do There is but plan LEFT me here it is
which have made of Lamarne, at various periods poet
orator. politician To each sketch shall be attached its date.
Let any body tell then, if he can, that Lamatne
such that date Am to paint people anywise but
Just they when they sat to me Observe then, that
ii paint him, more, he is in ls47 am not
be held responsible for the unkeness Of s4s and there
after"
Then, after touching little upon the difficulty of
defining public man of purposes and principles so
shadowy and evanescent, he suddenly seems to
yield 10 the solicitations OF the poet for there
people that would rather stand in the pillory than
not be in the public eye. " But comet says he,
:. since you will have il and since, perhaps, that
is all that be DONE will see if cannot excuse
you, by explaining you"
But look now they will give the time they
interrupt with fresh objections How say they at first
follower Of Legitimacy then OF Socialism then Con-
sentative then adkerent OF the dynasty then Liberal
then almost Jacobin' then Catholic, and then Ration
alst what has he been What has he not been What
IS he now Must reply that can't help it that know
nothing about ii that WON'T be questioned No choose
rather to ask what all that signifies Can the poach of in
consistency, whether political, social religious, seriously
reach poet, and lyric poet especially
a. To define the yric poet is 10 define Lamarine. poet
above all the poet in him, bears away the deputy, the poll
ticisn, the statesman.
He sings when he speaks; he sings when he writes; he
sings when he medates he sings when the day rises when
night falls he sings when the wind moan when the bird
MARBLES; he sinss when he Sings he sings always.
'What transformations in this man, unparalleled and apart
years defending policy which
then combating and he makes the boundess
domain Of Socialism dahes plunges, that Brighten Then,
he prose heavy, difuse, cloudy; and he writes
great masters At that time he declamer from memo
~ present. he extempOrzes upon any given subject with
a warmth, boldness grace, proprety, wealth Of inn
age, abundance Of emotions happiness Of expression
which no living orator approaches"
He next praises Lamartine's generous purposes
as public man, his devotion TO the cause of hui
mainly by which he means (he says French
humanity, such as the relief Of the poor, the Free
dom Of education, the care Of foundlings," &c.
By French humanity, Monsieur Cormenin no doubt
that special sort, not peculiar to France but
OF which she has given many shining specimens
the demagogue humanity which talks like Howard
al home, and acts like Atila abroad which pirates
in Paris OF fraternity with the whole earth, and
glories in having under Napoleon desolated half
Europe; which weeps over the woes Of Poland,
and burns five hundred Arabs men, women, and
rhidren) in a cave, because they would not come
Jul. ous yes we hHO" lul well HOW humane
some people to their own land, phere humanity
as good TO get them rotes. Monsieur Lamartine' I
would seem, according TO our portrai-painter him
SELF, rather Of that sort, for Cormenn proceeds:
But the Of humanity in general Of Justice in
general regret that Monsieur de Lamsrne has let himself
least once, be infected with that shameful nalady thai
scabby som, that dry and hesr,ess national seshness
which would sacrifice The interest d our own country all
the Of the earth. SO much Of false and fatal empire
minds the mos, generous and hearts the christian
has the passion for conquest
Thus Monsieur de i. DESIRED in $780, tha, we should
seize upon Ancous the East (sainJohn Of Acre. for
exsmpe) and this without the slightest provocaton on the
part Of the Sultan. Why well Malta from the
English Oh, because the English strong Why,
then, the Sultan Of 81. John Of Acre Why but be-
be weak uness, indeed, he be stripped
because be Turk. Admirable morals
Had England seized and kept AeIandr,, not hers it
would have been shame and shame thrice over upon her
But had France seized and kept they would had her
do Acre. hers, would have been glory glory thrice
over France. II Is with the weight Of such EXPLANATIONS
Lsmsne with whatever Of best ministers and orators
and soldiers and journalists, and morass and ay.wrghts
then had weighed the public actions Of the European Go
Glory and shame thus judiciously awarded,
hgh-sounding words what do you Oh mighty scep-
TIE Of empty sentences when shalt thou TO rule
This is, indeed, bringing Lamartne's celestial
theories IN a rather decisive test hlter All an