Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1872-11-22
Il. WHITMOBE,
Publisher and Proprietor.
THEOPHILE GAUTIER.
From the Paris Correspondence Of the Man
chester Guardian. ~ 49, -

chester Guardian.J ~ M
M. Theephile Gautier was quite con-
trast to NJ. Babinot; words" was the
maxim of the former, things" that Of
the latter. Reality alone had charms for
the one; only imagination could satisfy
the other. M. Gautier was Indifferent to
matters form was his idol. The die
tionary is the pedestal of his reputation
the column consists of carefully chlseled
and painfully fled words. His sole am
biuon appears to have been to become
the first word-painter of his country. He
had attained it, and left multitude, OF
imitators behind him. On leaving, col
lege he strove to become a painter, not
with the pen, but with the brush, and
failed in the attempt. He then took to
poetry, and became fanatic of the ro-
mantle school and an ardent partisan OF
Victor Hugo. He even shed his blood
in the cause during the memorable row
in the pit of the Theater Francais the
first time Hermann was played.
From 1880, the year in which his first
poems were published, to 1856, he wrote
literary, artistic and theatrical criti'
cisms, chiefly in the journal La Presse,
then directed by NJ De Giradiu, con
tributed articles to different other pa
pers and reviews, and published besides
a vast amount of poetry and romance.
In the midst of this literary activity M.
Gautier found time to travel through
Spain, Italy, Russia and the East, each
journey giving birth to new book. AS
an instance of his talent at description,
| may mention that when the Crimean
war broke out Marshal st. Arnaud read
Gautier's Constantinop!e on the voyage
out. When he reached the Turkish cap
itaI he was astounded to find that, al
though he had never been in it before,
he was as we'll and as minutely ac-
quainted with it as if he had lived there
all his life, thanks to the descriptive tai
ent and word-painting of his author. In
1856 Gautier left the Presse for the
Moniteur, which was then the official
journal and when the Moniteur ceased
to be official, in 1869, he left it for the
newly-created Journal Ofliciel.
The Empire made him an officer Of
the Order of the Legion OF Honor, and
Princess Mathilde appointed him her
NC IlnCCoo iChoAhSA hAo
friend to the last, and she was one of the
few who spoke with him during his last
moments. He never mixed in politics,
however, and in that respect, as in al
most all others, he seems to have made
Goethe his model-sil purea magnis
componere licet. Like Goethe, he was
of athletic build, with broad chest and
a vast forehead. He had the same eye
to picturesque effect in dress. In his
romantic days he actually forced his
tailor to make him doublet and hose
after the most i'm proved pattern of the
Middle Ages. To the last he particu-
larly affected the loose flowing costume
of the 0rientals. When he returned
from his African journey he appeared on
the Boulevards dressed as a son of the
desert and accompanied by young
lion. He likewise affected Goethe's in
difference to popularity, but very unsuc-
cessfully; and on more than one occa-
sion he publicly betrayed the pleasure
he felt when public applause made itself
heard in favor Of any OF his productions
He was very far, indeed, from possessing
Goethe's Olympian serenity. he felt
most keenly the refusal of the Academi-
clans to admit him into their company.
Yet it must be added that, however
straitened in circumstances, he still re-
mained faithful worshipper of pure art
in times when he had only to abandon
his pen to the taste of passions OF the
day 70 become millionaire, like scores
of Others with but a tithe of his talent.
The great obstacle to his beng elected
a member of the French Academy was
his novel, Mademoiselle de Maupin, and
particularly the preface te that work,
which contained principles. of criticism
and morality extremely shocking 70 the
majority Immortels. Gautier, indeed,
belonged to the same Epicurean, not to
say Sybaritic, as Eugene Sue, and with
Sainte-Beuve was one of the pillars OF
unbelief in French literature. he was
not. however, so skeptical as the latter,
who reproaehed him with believing in
the devil. Gautier, still treadine in the
footsteps of Goethe, had converted him,
self into a sort of modern pagan, and
sighed for the restoration Of the mythof
ogy and artistic religion of the Greeks.
Ii is easy to understand, why the writ
ings Of such a man are not popular.
They do not contain that touch OF ma
ture which makes the whole world kin.
Gautiers creations are artificial, his
world is a conventional world, with no
attractions for the many. His produc-
tions smell too much Of the lamp. With
him the drs celare drfeni does not exist.
He ever despised that maxim. and glo-
ried in his skill as word-sculptor and
pOlisher. It is for these reasons that he