Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1852-11-27


Voltaires tragedy Semramis:
New blasphemy, Nsught comes amiss
Old piety, In Ssmiramisi
Cheap fnery There was neer, wis,
And foolery; Such hash as this
1t would seem if he had raked up the ashes of the
dead in hopes Of finding in them their 'swonted fires ]"
he goes through the annals of generations long extinct
picking up he passes along all the chronique scandal
leuse that men on their deathb hope win be inferred
with their pous WISH however which win never
be grated as long there feuetons to be written
by Houssaye, or sermons to be preached by Rev.
Theodore Parker The feuetonist is indeed sort Of
literary ch8oaiv hunting after rags in the muda
enger gathering into his the garbage of literature
He is iackal that must prey for the appetite of the
many headed monster.
Hence it is that NJ Houssaye deals so extensively in
the foibes' of great and the frates of great
women. lie scents the scaaddlum nagnatln, like Jobs
warhorse the battle, from affair." and the buzzard does
not surely light his than he his quar-
ry When he writes poetry he harnesses his Pegasus to
the chariot of Venus and makes him pull along with
swans and doves and sparrows. NJ. Houssaye tries to
be witty, but sober Dutch burgomaster to
all his saes he tries to be pathetic it is the bathos
he reaches rather than the pathos he tries be face
tious, and find his mirh melancholy than
his
NJ Houssaye reads Plato-in French translation, we
hope for should be 10th to believe that any body who
has read Platos Greek could have the heart write
Houssayes French. He analyses in the work before
The Republic" He distils from it little socialism,
and good deal Of sensuaity. Our readers would do
well to remember that ts feuileton indited when
I'D Rtpublque deocraaque socale dreamed of
the approaching millennium now, however, the direc-
tor of the Theatre Francois finds it profitable to
write complimentary to Napoleon ILL., to be mouth
| ed by Mile Rachel, the Ninon de Lenclos of modern
France. While Nj. Houssaye had his hand Plato, we
wonder that we were not RECALLED with some elegant
extracts" from dialogue which Socrates and Phedrus
once held beneath the plane-tree a summers day in
the olden tme whle the stream rolled at their feet
and the cicadas chirped overhead You do not remem
Der it, eh NJ Houssaye We suspect you never read so
far in Plato If you had you would not have missed it
for fifty francs. THE price of daily feuilleon such as
| Monsieur writes does not command more and is worth
less.)
We hasten to part company with casual acquaint-
If welcomed the coming certainly speed the
parting guest He is not after heart: it may
be very vain in u.s. but do not think him good enough
company for He is too intimate behind the coulisses
Of the opera house and the of theatres
proptate either respect esteem and them too he
is fond of hunting adventures in the Place Mauber'
and the "Quarter Latin" districts of Paris in which
decent people do set their foot He lays the scenes
ofhis Romans Phlosophiques Philosophical Romances)
among the washer and seamsresses Of the Rue
des Layandieres. As long he kept among the "men
and women of the 18th century thought his society
instructive, if not very agreeable We amused with
the little abbes in gowns and the periwgged philosophers
of the Encyclopedia the shallow lords of the court and
the stately marchionesses with their hoped petcoats
patches, and paint the literary gentlemen talking epi
grams and the blue-socking ladies talking scandal
$50 true is it that what call society is only collection
of whatever is most light ungrateful and frivolous in
the world" The words those of one who was him.
self part of that society," the Baron de Grimm. Bat
bad this society was is that of the present day
any better We hope and believe so, but no one would
surmise it from NJ Houssayes associates In conclusion
we would respectfully offer word Of advice
thor The censorship of the press has again come back
to France Let him initiate the example Of Chamfort
described by himself, who always had something tc
say but any thing to write There already
in his time" he sagely remarked, too many books b
did want to give the royal the pleasure a
proving folly the more He contented himself with
scattering his wit like small change did Rivarol Ru
HERES and others He and talked in the celebrates
saloons in the middle Of a circle Of pretty women II
the way in his time of making up a feuleton, but
this feuieton thought TT to be printed Can
Monsieur take hint