The daily national Whig. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1847-1849, 1849-01-31

On motion of Mr.. Vinton the committee lose,
when that gentleman offered resolution TO terni-
nate the debate in ten minutes. The question being
taken, it was adopted,
And then, at half pas, three o'clock, the House
adjourned
A l. IL A + r II ON THE LIFE IF
LA AR TINE.
A new work by Lamartine is announced 10 be
published by Lamartine. II Is called "The Conf
dences.n
The Courier DIES Etais Unis publishes the follow
ing letter from NJ. de Lamaiine toa friend, which
serves sort Of preface 10 the work, and gives the
reasons which have induced the writer to publish IL.
If any man can read II, letting as il does, one into
the secret history OF the writer and not feel his own
heart moved and his respect for the great French
patriot increased 10 love, however high that respect
may have been before we only say that do not
| publish IL for such. We do not remember 10 have
| read more interesting personal sketch, certainly
none which so moved us by exciting our respect Tor
| the author;
| Letter NJ. PRospER GuIcHARD DEBIEa AS
sIs.-TO come TO the subject of your letter. You
ask: What is the nature OF these Condolences" OF
which journal widely circulated in Europe and
4 America, announces the publication, in its pages
| You are astonshed, as il is reasonable you should
be, to see the domestic pages OF any obscure life,
given MP BY me in this manner, during my lifetime,
10 the Indifferent eye of some thousands Of Fueil-
Teton readers, Why do you commit this fault, you
say, with the frankness little rude, which is the
stoicsm of true friendship. Is 1t to feed upon your
own feelings, They will be less your own when
they belong TO the world. l. it for gloryl There
Is never glory in the crate 1t Is found even on the
tomb Of but very few. Celebrity is only the glory
Of TO day, II lie not OF tomorrow, Is II for money
That is pay dear and seek for II too deep in ones
own veins. Explain to me all this, stop, If there
is sill time, for | do dot understand 1t all.
Alas, my friend am going to explain myself, but
| begin By eonfessng with humility that you are
heard with an little partial my xpanation per-
haps you, in your turn, will confess sadly that am
not In the wrong. Here Is the naked fact this Ia
confidence also, and not perhaps one of the most
discreet
You remember the period of our youth, Of those
autumn days which passed with you in the solta-
~ chateau of your mother in Dnuphlny, on that
mieux like falling wave which brings ship to
land still see the terrace covered with Its arches
Of vine the spring in the garden under the weeping
willows which your mother had lust planted, and
some branches. of which are doubtless hourishing
/ now on her tomb; the great forest behind, where
in the morning heard the voices of your dogs; the
parlor ornamented with The portrait of yonr father
in the uniform of general officer with red Gordon
Of the old regime tho little turret finally all filled
with books of which your mother kept the key,
and which was not opened except In her presence,
for fear our hand should take the hemlock instead of
parsley from amidst that iuied and deceitfui veg
citation Of the human mind, where the panacea
! grows 30 near the poison.
You remember alio your vacation journey to Milly,
WnerE YOU became acquainted WIN my InOtner VINO
loved you almost like son-he graceful figure, her
ewes filed with the tenderness Of her soul the feel
ing and moving tone of her voice. her smile OF peace
which always beamed with goodness whose lips
were never contracted by the llghtest raillery-do
| you remember all this?
| What connection, will you say, between all this,
the Chateau Of Bien Assis the little house of Mly,
my mother and yours and the publication of these
pages of your YOUTH
You shall see: .sg
My mother had the habit, which she had acquired
early In the somewhat Roman education she had re-
ceived at ST. Cloud, to put interval of meditation
between day and sleep, the sages sought 10 do be-
tween life and death. When every body had gone to
bed in her house, when her children were sleeping
| in their little beds about her own when there was
no longer any sound heard in the room excepting
their regular breathing the noise Of the wind against
the blinds the barking OF the dogs In the court yard,
she would open gently the door OF a cabinet filled
with books on education, devotion and history; she
would seat herself before little rosewood desk, in
laid with ivory and pearl whose compartments were
marked by buguets Of orange flowers, she would
take from drawer little books bound In gay paste
board like account books; she would write on these
pages during or two hours without once raising
her head and without the pen being once suspended
over the paper to await the fall of the word in Its
place. II was the domestic history OF the day, the
annals Of the hour, the fugitive remembrancer Of
things and Impressions, caught on the wing and ar
rested In their course, before the night had come to
put them TO flight; happy or sad dates, domestic
events; the fall Of the sand of time fixed the clep-
sydra, pouring ot Of anxiety or of melancholy ebul
litions Of gratitude and Joy, prayers all warm rising
from the heart to God, all the feeling notes of ma
ture which lives, which loves, which enjoys, which
suffers which blesses, which inyokes which adores,
! of soul finally which writes
| These notes thrown thus at the end Of the day
upon paper like the drops of her existence, finished
| by accommodating, and forming nj her death an inn
mense and precious reservoir OF memorials for her
1 children. There were twenty-five volumes OF them,
1 ] have them always at hand and when would find
again, hear again the soul Of my mother open one
iHfs l,aaa .,nl,,, taha
| But you know how hereditary these habits are.
! Alas, why Is not virtue much sol Thi. habit of
my mothers, early became mine. When left col
lege, she showed me these pages and said to me;
| "Do as do, give mirror TO your life. Give an
hour registering your Impressions and 10 the ST.
lent examination Of your conscience. II is good TO
think during the day, before doing such such an
action shall have TO blush this evening before my
self, when write It down. II ia pleasant also TO fix
the Joys which escape u.s. or the tears which fall from
our eyes, that we may find Them again, some years
nfter these pages, aud be able TO say. Here then
] was happy there wept! This teaches us the In!
stability Of feelings and of actions this teaches us
how 10 appreciate Joys and sorrows not of their val
ue al the moment which deceives us, but Of their
value In eternity which alone does not deceive US.
heard these words and obeyed. Only did not
obey to the letter. did not write every day, like
nv mother, of the day which had passed. The ex-
elements Of lfe the fire of the passions, the atrac
ton of places, OF persons OF thoughts OF ihngs me
not have contemplated without humiliation and
pain prevented me FROM keeping this register Of my
steps through life with the pions regularity Of this
holy woman But FROM tune 10 lime In those hours
Of calm in which The soul reposes, q, those epochs
of solitude In which the heart recalls to Itself the
tenderness and Images OF the pasi, ~ those sun lines
In existence when we sec only the departed, wrote
without care and without thinking II ever another
eye than my own should read these pages) wrote
say, not all but The principal emotions Of my inward
life stirred with the point OF my pen the cold or
warm ashes Of what was passed. breathed over
those extngmished Goals Of my heart TO keep alive
for few days longer their light and their heat In my
bosom. did this at seven or eight periods In my
life under the form Of notes Of which has con-
nection with the other except the Identity OF the
soul which dictated them Having sald this, follow
me moment farther, and pardon the length of this
letter
Five or six years since had gone, during sum
mer TO hide myself in order TO work In peace on my
History Of the French Revolution, In the little island
of Ischa, In the midst Of the Gulf Of Gaete, which
separated from the continent by that beautiful sea
(without which no situation is complete for mel
the sea that visible infinite which represents 70 the
eye the bounds Of time and halt reveals an existence
without bounds. Ischia, rs you will see In reading
,l,a k.n Ia. tbat