The day book. [volume] (Norfolk, Va.) 1857-1867, 1866-07-05

man like LOUIS NAPOLEON, or Count Bis
MARX, can WELD with the unit power is Gully
purchased by the absorption of local liberty
by central force.
1t is only when the provinces boz ,r ~,
erless, that the subjects of ., Emn;re arc
helplessly bound to the wheels Of the imne-
rial chariot But, W. lien the central force ha.
overcome all oths,f s, then the masses of tho
people are u, better than clay in the hands Of
the sres..s diplomatic potters, who fashion
tne~. into vessels of honor or dishonor, as
V4eir interest may suggest In this condition
of society the individual is mere atom his
power no longer comes from within; the i'm
pulse which moves him CONES from without;
the interior forces of his nature have been
conquered by those exterior to his being. He
IL but little part of vast machine No
one, who has studied history to any purpose,
will deny these truths; and no man, who de-
sires to promote his own happiness or that of
his fellows, can fail to see that, in this coun-
try, we are rapidly tending in this very d.
rection
Shall the State be everything, the citizen
nothing? Is the Government made Cor the
man, or the man for the Government? These
are grave questions for us just now, all the
graver, because whenever you find the Gov
eminent concentrating all powers in its CEN
trail organism, there will you find that the
Government means small class; or even a
single despotic mind
Sirventes of Bertrand de Born.
Provence, which is still famous for its figs
and its olives, its roses, and tulips, its rich
fruits and fair howers-which still retains, in
the stately piles of its quaint old towns, the
remains Of temples and towers which the
Roman built-is district of peculiar at
traction to the poet and the scholar; and it is
among the remains of the literature of this
dreamy and beautiful land that Professor
TALIAFERRo found the original of the beau
tiful ballad which we publish to-day. 1t is
a curious fact, that the great mass of Proven
cal literature remains unpublished to this day;
all the more curious because of its scientific
value as the connecting link between the Latin
and the tongues Of Italy, France and Spain
The warrior poets of Provence, after the fall
of the splendid fabric of the Roman Empire,
were the pioneers of modern European litera-
ture, and the RIGHTEOUSNESS which too often
tinges their illusions, can offer no adequate OK i.
PLANTATION of the fact, to which we have
already alluded, that the great mass of Proven-
cal literature still remains entombed in the
cabinets and alcoves of the libraries of
Paris
The poem which we print to-day has all
the martial fire for which its author was lam
Gus, and will be read by all those who have
ever studied the Literature of Southern
Europe" with peculiar pleasure but it by
no means addresses itself to this class. 1t
will be read by all who love the true poem
and just now we can all of us understand it
better than in the peaceful years before we
had learned to understand and to feel, with
the Troubadour, some of the terrible fascina-
tons of war. We cannot conclude this brief
alluson to Professor TALrAFEKRo's admirable
piece of work, without expressing the hope
that he will not fail in the duty he owes
Virginia, to devote his genius to her service.
She has pages as noble as any which Scald or
1roubadour ever immortalized in verse
C0nrres.IoneI