Worcester daily spy., 1872-05-04

terror impression, choosing ike painter among
several contours the definite line. Often, after
having completed the terrible toll with that in
tensity of application of which he alone was ca
| pable, he perceived that the thought had become
warped in the execution, that an episode pre-
| dominated, that figure which he had wished to
be secondary for general effect projected beyond
| his pans and with a stroke of the pen he erased
courageousy the result Of four or five nights of
| labor. He was heroic in these casualties. Six,
| seven, and often ten, proofs went back to the
printer erased, done over again, without satisfy
ing the desire of the author for perfection. The
great novelist kept changing his colors, just like
| painter does when he can not get the effect he
/ wishes. His powerful will seems to have acted
| in the place of patience. n
At this proud period of his life he met with
| George Sand, who was his junior in literature.
| She brings out, with marvellous yividness, the
salient points In a most ineomprehensible char
acter. This is her description Ofhim; "Puerile
| and powerful always enYious of blbelot, and
| never jealous of a glory; sincere TO modesty,
| b0asting to lies, confident in himself, and in
/ others, very expansive, very good, and very
foolish, with an inward sanctuary of reason into
which he retired that he might reign supreme
in his work cynical in chastity, drunk In drink
ing water, Incorporate in work, and sober in all
| other passions, positive and romantic to equal
excess, credulouS and Sceptical full of contrast
| and OF mysteries, such was Balzac." An anec-
| dote which Madame Sand relates of him is also
very characteristic of his caprieous carelessneSs
| and dreaminess: Gone evening when, in a
strange manner, ne had dined with Bazac Il
| think that the dinner was composed of boiled
beef, melon, and ehampagne) he went to put
on fine new dressing gown, on purpose to
show it to us, with all the pride of young girl
and thus arrayed, and with a candleStck in his
hand, he insisted on accompanying us as far as
the railing ofthe Luxembourg. 1t was late, the
place was deserted, and | observed to him that
he might be assassinated on his way home.
Not at all, said he; if meet thieves they will
take me for mailman, and they will be afraid
of me; or for prince, and they will respect me.
1t was fine calm night. He accompanied US
thus, carrying his wax candle alight in pretty
silver gilt chiseled eandlestick, and talking of
four Arab horses, which he had not then, which
he never has had, and which for some time he
firmly believed he had. He would have recon-
Quoted us TO the other end of Paris had we al
lowed him to do So"
When Balzac had gained some income from
his works, he bought little estate called "Les
JardieS, on the road from Sevres to Vile d'Ay-
ray. Of course he Immediately began new
series of his usual castles in the air with regard
to this property He was going TO plant vines
| of a peculiarly fine qualityf he would grow pine
apples in enormous profusion, which he would
sell at Paris at five francs each, instead of the
ordinary price of a louis. He calculated on the
gain of 100000 francs from this project. A shop
was to have been rented in Paris for the eXclu-
Sive sale of this remarkably grown fruit. The
sign board was contain nothing but these words;
"PineappleS from the Jardies." Alas! Balzac's
nostrils had opened wide to an imaginary breath
of tropical air which was to be the food for his
pineapplesj and one day the snow fell silently
on the beds where they were to have grown,
| taking away the dream of southern climes and
| of profit from the pineapples at a blow.
| On this piece of land he had a house built
| after his own designs. Its architecture, there
| fore, partook more of the nature of that prac-
| tced in dreamland than of the sober charactel-
/ iStips OF earthly buiIdarg tba
| consisting of large airy rooms, commanding a
| view of the surrounding country, was finished
| one of the masons chanced to suggest to Balzac
| the question as to where the staircase was TO be
| placed. Alasl a staircase had not entered into
Balzac's dreams, and, consequently, there had
been no part of the building prepared for its re-
ception. But Balzac's mind rose TO the emergen-
cy. "Since the staircase is inclined to master
me in my own house." said he, 81 will turn it
out of DOORS" This he did, and it is doubtless
to this house that Gauter makes allusion when
he says that it offered an architectural dlsposi-
ton of an extremely singular kind, for one had
to enter it little after the fashion that wine en-
tiers bottles. The entrance door was at the top
of the house, and it was necessary to descend
three stages in order to arrive at the first floor
The furniture of the house, too, was as singular
as the architecture. 1t was magnificent in a
way. In one place were wainscotings of violet
ebony, in another tapestries from the
Gobelius, in another Venetian glass; here
WcIG duDTUHtuts VI 1dTl1u marble, there
was a pedestal of cedar; above, a ceiling
painted by Delacroix, below, a carpet of Aubus.
son; to one room doors like those of Trianon.
to another a mosaic floor, inaid with all the
rarest woods of the isles But alas! all this was
ideal, and the places of these splendid articles of
furniture were but indicated by their names
| being inscribed in charcoal upon the walls
| which were bare, or covered with gray paper
/ M. Leon Gozian, an intimate friend of Balzac's
being his guest one day, took charcoal himself
| and wrote upon the stucco in larger characters
| than marked the places of the other ornaments
| "Here is picture by Raphael, beyond all price
| aud such as the world has never yet seen"
Balzac, in his garret years before, had been able
| so completely 10 invest even its scanty squalid
| furniture with an ideal aspect proceeding from
| his own dreamland, that his ehimeras were now
| too deeply rooted for his friends pleasantly TO
| excite in him anything else but laughter. Is,
| then, the world of imagination Just as real as
the world oflact? To natures so constituted as
to be able to acceptit as such, certainly it is;
but here we are verging on Berkeleyism, and
must stop before we become too metaphysical.
Balzac's furniture was magnificent, though
imaginary. The tea which he offered to his
friends at his social board was equally recherche,
and possessed, in addition, some foundation in
fact. His tea and his coffee, not to name the
onion puree, made after this receipt, and pos
sessng virtues both hygienic and symbolic
were exquisitely fine in the admiration Of his
iflends. ms tea, we learn, fine as Latakieh
snuh, yellow us Venetian gold, was never given
| 10 the proiane. IL was necessary to submit TO a
species OF imitation before enjoying the right to
| taste 1t. IL was kept in precious box, like A
relic, and enveloped in silken paper covered with
| hieroglyphies. While unfolding the paper which
| contained II, Balzac would always begin to tell
It's history. The sun did not ripen it, except
| for the emperor of China. First class manda-
rims were appointed, by privilege of birth TO
water ii, and to nurture it while growing
| Young girls, virgins, gathered it before SUNRISE
| and, singing, carried it to the feet of the emper-
| or OF China. This enchanted tea was only pro.
| duced in one sacred province in Chra, aud this
sacred province only produced a few pounds of
| It for the use OF his imperial majesty and the
| eldest sons OF his august house. BY special
| grace the emperor of China, on his gift days
| sent some rare handfuls TO the emperor OF
| Russia. From his minister had Balzae obtained
his precious store, and the last quantity Won
| HUMBOLDT had supplied him with. Balzac's
| wines, too, had wonderful histories attached to
| them, each bottle possessing its own. This Bor-
| deauX had been three times around the world |;
| this rum came IRON cask that had been tossed
more than n century by the sea, and which had
| TO be cut open with an axe, the madrepores and
| seaweeds had grown so thick about it To sit
at Bazacs table and listen TO these stories told
| with serious air and every appearance of
reality, must have been sore trial of the rsible
faculties. He believed in the pers1nages who
| peopled his rOmanees in Just rs absolute u man.
| ner. A friend OF his addressed him one day on
| the subject of some individual then living
| Let us talk OF realities, rather" said Balzac;
."what do you think of Eugenie GrandetH Eu.
genie Grandet was the heroine Of one of his
| novels. This was by no means afTectation on
Balzacs part; the world he had peOped with
| his array OF moving characters was the essen
TALLY real world 10 him. person once inn
| agined by him became no longer the creation
OF his own brain, but a living reality that he
might speak well or i'll Of, just as freely as of
any person who might be seen around him.
London Society.
MIsceIInneOus Htcnis.