Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1860-01-13
TnE French, we perceive BY tho cour'e''


TuE French, we perceive by the Co~r'e''
des Etats Unis have almost completed the
subscription intended to pay the debts OF
Lamartine. We are glad of it. If only
for the sake of novelty, that most crFatie
of poer politicians should bring one fash
of quiet into his lifci His biography,
when it is written, will be but brilliant
series of Kaleidoscope views. We know.
by the way. of no living man of notoriety,
whose character and career offer as Curl
Gus n study TO the student of human ma
lure. as this very Lamartinei as perfect an
example of the fate Of the man of nero
genius, as that of his quondom rival, Louis
Napoleon, Is of man Of mere talent
The latter Flooding, sagacioGs, cold, scoFn-
ing no snbterfugc. no meanest art, which
wonld build solid stairway for his ambI-
ton; seated at last, crowned, upon
throne won by fraud. The first, lifted by
the innate force of his own genius, to
glittering height, aud falling by his own
innate weakness to pitiable depth. Cir
cumstances too, conspired to give Lamar
tines life the varied grandeur and gloom
of a romance unstable as water; he achie-
we'd fame in three of the highest paths OF
life-politics, war, and poetry, and the ba-
ton of success inhis hand he let it fall from
nervclcss Incidence. His history, rs we
imperfectly recall it, is a series of contra
dictions. OF noble birth, his first years
were passed in common Jail. Educated
in a convent, he entered the army after the
fall of the Empire, and when conquering
distinction by his dauntless courage, sud
denly ronounced arms and wandered
through Europe, lost in passionate dream
of love and poetry. His volumes of "Med-
itations" were published when the Vol
tairian school of poetry, didactic, keen,
analytic, was dying out. The unuttcrable
pathos of Lamartinc's hymns, simple and
tender as if they had issued from the most
hidden depths OF q woman's heart, thrilled
through France Ills "Lost Elvira" be-
came famous as Petrarch's Laura. at one
bound. he placed himself upon the pedes-
tai where stood Gothic, Chateauhriand and
Byron. While still bemoaning his lost
love, he married, conFessedly for her for
tune, an English lady, but still continued
his lamentations, more, we suspect, to the
increase of his fame than his wi:e's COM
fort. He was now the poet of France
1'.In loving, praying, singing, see my lIte,'
he exclaimed. Suddenly he bctook him
self to politics-accepted the post of Min
lister to Greece, and shcn appeared in the
Chamber of Deputies for the first time, we
think, in 1894. His career was brilliant.
Cormenin, we remember, describes him as
occupying high anomalous position as
poet and statesman, a leader of the fashion
surrounded by the train of great prince
with sumptuous hotel, horses of purest
breed and magnificent chateaux. He was
the first leader of the late revolutions; in
the cause of liberty exerted splendid olo-
quence in the House of Peers; opposed Ma
poleon in the candidateship for the Presi-
dency, and after his defeat, sat down, and
with childlike cgotigm, wrote the whole
story. 1t is most gorgeous apOthesis Of
81, Lmartine" Forsaking politics, he
undertook second voyage to Asia, to Hc-
complish prediction made BY the insane
Lady Hester Stanhope, that he would die
there. Since that time, as he increased in
age, his whims and chimeras have grown
more trivial, until now, at the age of sew
enty, he accepts, unblushingly, the nations
: aims. We remember no instance in his
: tory of life SO varied-so paradoxical.
The sudden ascent of man made up of
imagination and feeling. unballasted by
principle or common sense. The fall was
inevitable. No fall could be more pitiful,
nor more pitiable.