New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1854-09-26
AN AMERICAN WOMAN IN PARIS.
No. xxxIv.

PARIS, Thursday, Aug. il, 1854.
The Institute Of France embraces Eve Academies;
the Academic Franchise, the Academy of Inscrp-
tons and Bellies Lettres, the Academy Of Sciences,
the Academy Of Fine Arts, and The Academy Of Moral
and Political Science.
The first is the Academy par excellence. Ii 10 spe-
cially charged with the composition of the National
Dictionary, and the publication and extension of the
French language; and naturally admits no foreigner
10 membership. II s the solemn reunion OF the forty
sages Of France. Antiquity searched through ages
to find its seven wise mem France has lease Of
forty Of them in perpetuity.
Their recen, distribution Of the Montyon prizes
for virtue may lot be uninteresting to my country
men, especially a. it gives glimpse into the interi~
life of that venerable body which processes to be,
not only the srbter Of literature but the judge and
rewarder Of virtue.
"Recompepss virtue" you exclaim. " 1t is the
! L" Attribute OF Deity alone r. and 60 seems to have
tboupbt the Count de Salvandy, Director of the
Academy in his discourse on the occasion Of the last
distribution.
sliebt sketch of this discourse may give you the
academican idea of the spirit of the times in which
hose prizes had their origin and of the moral rei
eious and political changes which France has under
gone since that epoch Immediately preceding the
French Revolution.
A contemporary Of Mon'yon, in speech delivered
some years ago before the Academy, said " II ha.
taken humanity three thousand years to pass from
the Olympan prizes to the prizes Of Mcnyon. But,
"ssys the orator of the present year. all the world
knows in what consists the victory in such games.
"By what signs shall we infably decide those inner
"eombats and that victory of soul which constitutes
VI 4 oil al uir If uhat
"precise elements is it composed What mixture of
human imperfection it bear without losing its
name and its rights"
These are questions that it might puzzle even the
forty to answer. But they their difficulty in
awarding their prizes not to the enduring the suffer
ing but to The self-sacrfcing Of the virtue of the
former God is the arbter and remuneration. Their
Judge nallible their merit certain their recompense
infinite; and over the latter he might still have re-
tanned his rerogatives, but for the Utopanism OF
previous age. o Temporal! o mores groans the
spirit of Asademus in launching his nvectives against
that disputed Eighteenth Century, which, according
TO Interpretation il the glory or shame of France.
age" says he, unforseeing, which commenced IN
"chimeras continued in sophsms, and ended in hol-
ocsusts, always in the wrong, and in consequence
"aways calling itself with fearful efronery the age
of light and virtue age all French in wit and cour-
"age; ase prosperous and free, as no other IN his
tory has been; age brilliant, generous, deceptive
cage making, during eighty years pastoral on the
Glove of nature the love of man, the love of light
land virtue, ard ending it with the reign OF terror;
"aye miserable, which could hope no other destiny
since it desired to stfe m the need Of faith and
"tbe need OF God
Never was human thought go bold-never 30 con-
founded. Religion was set aside for morals-Virtue
became the mark Of the prize Of llumantys high
calling AT this epoch, in 1882, Montyon proposed
prizes for virtuous actions. Utopia was believed to
be approaching The quick abolition of repressive
laws was prophosied The necessity Of punishment
was coon to be replaced by the recompenses OF vr-
tue The Court Of Louis XVI was in ecstacies. The
benefcent Due de Penlievre. father-nlaw OF the
Princess de Lauballe whose beautiful head ten years
later dripped with blood upon spike before the win
dow of her captive Queen; the young and noble
Duchess Of Chsrtres; the august Marie Antoinette,
"Queen Of all enchantments, of all heroisns of all
martyrs the pious and vrtuous Louis XVI, ex-
pressed with eclat their appreciation of the new cre
ton. The reign Of Astraa about 10 commence
The generous Montyon rende red bis creation more
popular by contiding to the Academy the adj udica
ton of his prizes. Academcians men Of letters
and letters the great powers Of the age. They
had had kings and the greatest of them, Louis XIV,
for courtiers.
Such was the spirit of France the eve Of the
Revolution, when the Marquis de Condorcet entered
the Academy to congratulate it on the prizes OF vir-
tue and at the same time on the birth of to the
Young king He thanked the destiny of France for
according TO their vows descendant Of Henry ~ and
of Leopold of Lorraine who should grow up to bless
the nation. " The son Of Louis XVI" said he,
"~iH be the benefacter Of his age" Alas! we shud-
der at such blindness on the brink Of that awful
abyss. That son of the unfortunate King, thank
Heaven, died before the disasters Of his fathers
house; but another came to deave history-more
touching, more cruel more horrible than that OF
Prince Arthur, in King John; at least, unless Mr..
williams is able to contradict it. This year the
Academy has accorded prize of $500 for work en-
titled Louis XvII-his life, his agony, his death"
The Revolution passed; change came over the
spirit OF that awful nightmare of civilization. The
Nineteenth Century awoke with another destiny.
Every age" says de Salvandy, has its role-lts
special spirit Half Of ours is past without taking
"a character-a name-unless they be found IN the
moral reparaon Of the old waste places and in the
future rebuilding of the temple Of God and Faith
can only give the spirit not the letter OF his re-
marks.
During the last half century giant ends have been
attempted, attained, and seen to vanish. Napoleon
tried the impossible work of monarchy, made unver-
sal by conquest; Louis XVIII and Charles es'ayed
the difficult and glorious task of constitutional
monarchy; Louis Philippe the more difficult and
perious one OF Government founded on the rights
of die peope;-all had the same destiny, the same
admirable success and sudden fall
In spite of all this seeming instability the Aeademi-
os,,s moral nvantorv Of the last half century shows