The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1869-01-23

The following article was published in late
number of the London Atheneum:
The French will not read their classics. The
Young man Of the present day has never mas
tered page of Oorneille. find, for my own
part, that the Rabelais is more talked about in
English than in French society. The classic
dramatists are known only so far as they are
acted; and there are plenty Of young gentlemen
on the Boulevards who shrug their shoulders
at the Theatre Francois, and crack their little
Jokes when Racine is on the stage: They are
for Ofenbach and Schneider, and are more
pleased to get ut the scandalous memoirs
OF the Grand Duchesse than they would be to
hear that q couple Of new masterpieces by
Moliere had been discovered. Romance fills
the salon, the boudoir, and the bedroom. Ihe
bridal chamber is the comic scene. The hus-
band is the bufoon. The children are the
privileged and malignant observers OF their
mothers peccsIdilloes. These are the lngre-
dents which arc served up in hundred forms,
and supply all the reading OF the mothers who
are pictured, or the husbands who are the
habitual subjects OF dishonor, and Of the lover
who makes his friends wife his mistress. The
poisonous, pestient stuff is presented to the
neighbors; and they are far from repudlating
it. Amateur and professional immoralty are
the dishes, in the preparation OF which NJ.
Alexander Dumas fits ia the Jules Gou6e OF his
epoch-leading crowd Of minor ctgs.
Whatever may be said OF the political time
Of Nap ,leon III, the popular literature OF his
day will, it is fondly hoped. be repudiated by
an indignant p1sterity as almost incredibly
coarse and pIoaigate. It must, however, be
accepted as painting the living manners. Re-
garded as no ding the mirror up to living ma
ture does it net explain why it is the learned
salons have passed away why audiences
laugh instead of kissing when amusing forms
and whims Of adultery are set befor them-and
why feminine cheeks do not fame when Mar,
rooms with the creations Of your younger Du-
mas, and would You expect to find Montaigne,
Corneille, Rabelais, MolIere and Racine upon the
tables You might rather incline to search Tor
Faublas in a cupboard?
If not in Paris-s catered in odd hooks and
corners OF France; living on hermit fare 10
petty colleges aud seminaries; keeping school,
there is still o goodly public OF French scholars
lovers of the essay, the philosophical trea,,
tise, the scientific speculator, the historian and
the moralist. This public is the salt Of the
French soil. Without 1t society would have
the livid hues Of death. warrant that the
publisher of the Almanac of the General Cs-
clopedia will not sell copy along the Boule.
ward Malesberbes, save, mayhap, to one letter.
ed Englishman who lives there; but over the
water, in very dingy professors apartments,
and among the few students whu mean work, it
will command the expenditure OF franc. 1t
is written by serious men for serious men.
The attempt to produce such work In these
days is most pralsewortby because most
adventurous one. It will gauge the intellectual
depth of the rising generation, ana discover
how many young men there are left in France
with ideas beyond the Bos, the Cafe AuRlals,
tho Jockey Club, and Mabile for til cir youth,
and the orthodox prodlgacy OF p)lte society
for their middle life.
Henry Fouquier, in his dialogue on the
Morality of Yesterday and To-Day, says as
"Noi:" "That which enrages me is to see that
our CITY has been made into q U,lle er,tretenue,
where the vices Of the world come to make
themselve comfortable" And again, contrast
ing the Mable of to-day with the Porclerons
of Diderot's time, he remarks: 81 hat which
saddens mo to-day is the GOODNESS OF your de-
bauchery. 1t is as regular as your streets anu
barracks, with governors aud subjects" Inc
peep into the picture shops is not without
refection across the Chanuel where, am
sorry to hear, some shameless beauty is on
everybody'a hps, and in the albums OF many
who pretend to the homely virtues.
"Let us look about US In the shop WIN
dows, next to the portrait OF the Pope, we con-
template tho faces Of the droIesses whom We
adore. Here they are, with dabs OF red upon
their hollow cheeks, as boys; legs IN the or as
AI LQe Dullb, W WulCu buCJ oUOAuSo
ers. We enter the theatres. We shall see two
hundred nude Jigurantes, with shortest - petit,
coats, with false calves, which cheat the au-
dience as indicating beauties that the poor
girls do not possess All this lily lives cannot
not at Fort PEveque, as in our (Diderots)
time" Further: AT the rate we ore going, we
shall have Justine read to our children"
Henry Fouquier declares French society is
not quito so vicious, however, as most obser-
vers imagine it to be. Education has s. s;read; eao
the stain is deepest. He says: ''Clreumstan-
cs have compelled the mass OF dEsn the naioa @ve
which IS SQUAD aoorlons and mofairio give
seekers see ss These are the folk to whom attcn-
ton is exclusively given, and ID, who M Ill.,. I'LL the
"Cultiyate tho domestic virtues" Charles
LAMP writes they will bring yHa PEI peace enya as tne
@ tion OF tho vices bringP This is the question
which gives bad quartcrs-of-an-hour TO the
sober and lettered Frenchlnan at this moment.
-NARR1w EsoAPE FROM SHPwaECK.-ihe