New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1857-09-19

home Irepest, therefore, teat It - absurd 20 SEQ
thorough Freedman pretending 70 est,ma'a
American .rsts and sendescies, 70 ses the dairy
eerIer little shrptic 80 shifting seou. mat .<sat
Majestic towering Of al the centuries, AL 6r no
other purpose than to pronounce IL at iast Nvod ci
all form and cOmeliness.
Mr.. Frederic Gaillardet does not SHIRE this opln-
ion. lie lived for some time in Nr.~-Yorh, where
he edited the Courier ds Eats CkiS, and now tba,
be has got bodily baA again to that eheTe France
whence he never 70. All INFANT spiritually sIayed,
he awuses bimseE and the readers of In PTesse
With occasional dissertations on things American
Thus last TUESDAY evening, be expatated on i~er'-
ran Suieides. making a text OF Senator Rlihs un'
happy end The peculiarly of American SUICIDES
ie ne says, NAT they take place no. among soc.a.
ostcasts brit among the rich and respected. Anu
Er this bed generalization he alleges as V1.i''
l. the name Of Senator Rusk; z, the heid OF arg
financial concern in New-YOrk, who died many
years asro; and s. Dameless fhiitdeiPhi" 9aiecn'
who in spite OF riches, beauty, goodness, and apPa'
reptjy pratifed affection fell victim To heartpreiA
and s1icide. How French all this is not merely
that go mearer statistic should be y0uchsaled
for IN EXPANSIVE conclusion bnt the implied judg-
ue-t also. that any one who is rich and respected
bytbe monde should not fail to be perfectly happy.
There are real mon, no doubt, IN France, as there
must be everywhere, to keep the world a-goihgi
end these men unquestiOnaby suffer as men do IN
America and elsewhere, simply because what Is Of
God in them--tO wit the selfhOOd, because Wha. IS
above all deGIement and unrighteOusness in them Is
not vet authenticated by msttutons-ls without inc
sanction of any large scientific doctrine caPabe OF
appeasing the intellect, but, Oh the contrary,
is left d prey to the rudes. traditional deia-
nation and TO the scOrn and aversion OF all our
seEriabteous rulers Of public opinion. No doubt III
France. as elsewhere these men feel an aching void
in their hearts which no outward homage or abun-
dance can sOOthe-feel that commanding need OF an
inward Divine authorization which alone lusthes
outward abundance and keeps it sweet and eDjoya-
bic; and no doubt that pressed by ignorance, har-
assed by all the phantOms OF the reignlng unbeliet
and superstition, these men there AS elsewhere
sometimes fall into despair and go unbidden out Of
nature But the distinctiyely French MAD does not
comprcbepd that Give the Francois full stomach,
faithful wife or mistress. and an hOnOred name,
and be will agree TO live forever in immortal JOY.
Life to him is not the commerce or play OF
an Infinite inward ideal with responsive out
| waId organization; it is rather the commerce
or play Of finite outward organization with
what is still more finite and outward than itself,
viz the universe Of sense. God forbid that should
| updeIvalue mental constitution 30 pronounced and
in IFS way 30 admirable only alege it TO show that
| the Frencbmhn commits suicide only when some
| tangible possession takes its departure from him
only when poverty or some other papable calamity
comes to shake him out of his easy gong routine,
| aud that lie can't imagine any Protounder source OF
! disgust
Bat what. according to Mr.. GaiIardet, is the
| cause of our peculiar slucdesf Tie pTerdtence o.
| The sentiment Of indiciduaiSm. l had hopes, when
| read this sentence, that we were going to hear
| something to the purposes but no, Mr. l.. means by
| Dd.ydualsm nOthirg more than selfIshness, or the
| absence OF the social sentiment. was not prepared
| for so superficial criticism. In America he says
| ipdiyduasm regDs, and he goes on TO explain what
lie means by say ing that there the motto is, Every
"pne for himself and God for us al'-that material
prosperity ia the sole aim Of man, to the promotion
Of which eI he will indeed associate himself with
others but only to the extent of his intellect aud
| hands never to the compromise of his heart The
heat is always left out Of American compacts The
| consequence s that, the heart being unemployed,
| the American feels himself driven to the hercest
activity, by way Of STAYING of ennu: and the mo-
ment man ceases TO work. he ceases to enjoy life,
| or takes TO suicide.
Twill not pause on the palpab'e contradic ion in
yOlyed in this criticism, III making the people OF inc
least hear. in the world renOunce life itself IN order
to escape the tyranny Of tie intellect; for have
better things TO do. wish to point out to your at
tention one of the vulgaest Of which is the
concluding of individualism with seishness with
defective social sympathy. No error is more COM
mon, none more gross and silly. In this aspect In
dyiduasm is convertible with lying, swlndllng,
rocuery with all that low bred cleyeIness Of which
it is strictly true, to say, that for every
inch supplied by the rest OF tAe NofIu, L aris
will give you an ell. Individualism, in the true and
phosophc sense, which is the only sense Mr. Gail.
iardet had logically to do with it, is heavenhgh re-
moved from seltshness or roguery, or heartessness
under any name. One ouid say that the obvious
contradiction in his premises might have struck
him. Docs the man who has got all the wealth he
coyets the selfish man. betake hnselft to death fol-
relief? What nonsense Does the young maiden,
eaten up with selfishuess, rerounce life simply be-
cause she is blessed with everything that the selfish
and I'LL social heart craves-that is, complete indie
pendence Of the world What desperate pucrility !
But the question does not need to be argaed In
dyidualism means nothing more nor less than that
new mind of the race which is developing under the
auspices Of science. We see its indications more
declsiyely proIOunced in America, because in Amer
lea there is no established Church State t. con-
troll the popular life. The regime Of authority is
forever done with there, and all things subjected
to the exclusive sanction OF reason Bat II is be-
coming developed over all Chrstendom IL England,
in France, in Germany, in Italy, in Russia eyen is
said 1t Is suTgiDg up from the spontaneous depths OF
human nature, mensciDg all merely traditional and
arbitrary usage with permanent overthrow. There
is nothing unhely about it; and il is Incapable,
therefore, of Wounding anything bat blind aid ab.
ect prejudice Ii 49, the contrary. the saeredest
Outblrh Of human histOry-the proioundest boon
humanity ever receive from Divinity: for it
proceeds upon the strcteSt reconciliation OF evil 20
gOOd-LpOn the complete scientific subiue alton Of
stlfoye To brothery love. No doubt there are still
very selfish men 10 be- found in America, as in Luz
rope, who tabituay violate II cir neighbors rights;
.ut one DIRT ans Of these men as types of indi.
yidualism. They are exclusively moral types
types OF a. immense class Of men. iudiyidualisui
necer expresses the stste CT man al with so.
ciety; il expresses rather, and always, 4 gOried
a. he M la. hos