, 1873-05-04
FRENCH TRAlTS..-.It.
By PROF. WILLIAM MATHEWS, or TIE uS1vER-
grrY 0H f.r41cAGn

all ages. I'm this county, wrote Laurence
sterne, at the close Of the eighteenth century,
"nothlng must bo spared for the back and Il you
dine on an onion, and Ivo in q garret seven
stories high, Jou must not betray it in your
Clothes" "Here," continues another traveller
in France, "things arc estimated by their air !;
| q watch may be q masterpiece without exact
ness, and. woman rnlo the whole town
without beauty, If ney hare an air. Her
| life's q dnnce,' and awkwaraness Of step
1 it's greatest Disgrace" This vanity Of the
French CAUSES them to boast even Of those things
| which would cause an American OF. English
man to hang down his head with ahane. For
example, IN Englishman CHANGED to be in Tho
Elysian Fields at d grand review Of the Prussian
and English soldiers who occupied Paris IN 1876
| From feeling Of detcaoy he Stunned all allr-
sion to an event which he fancied must BE- q
SOURCE Of deep humiliation to france. But q
Partisan came up to him, and saia jaunt1y:
"Look here, sir What magnificent spectacle
| It's only in Paris that you see such sights"
The moral gull that separates the Frenchman
| and the Englishman is illustrated by nothing
more wildly than by the different motives adj
! dressed by Napoleon and Nelson to their re-
| spective followers. "9oldie1s }" exclaimed tho
| former, forty centuries are looking down upon
| you from the submits Of those Pyramids -
England" telegraphed the latter to his feet,
| "e1pects every man to do his duty" The fact
| that the word "glory" perpetua1ly occurs in
Bonaparte's dispatches, while in We11ngtons,
which I'LL twelve enormous volumes, it never
once occurs, but " duty " is invariably named as
the motive for every action is also intensely sig
niicant regarding the characters Of the two peo-
pies. glory-that word forever On q French
/ mans ips.-has been in all ages the wi1l-'o-the-
wisp which has led Franco astray; the
golden cali before which, as Strauss
lately reminded Renan, she has danced for
centuries; the Fata Morgana which has allured
her again and again from the prosperous fields
of labor into the desert, often to the very brink
Of an abyss. It is this "staginess '-this un-
t1ath-this lack Of loyalty to nature-th pro-
vokes the dissatisfaction Wo feel in the last
analysis OF French character. We find that the
qualities which dazzled us are q sham The
promise OF beauty held out by external taste ls
not fulfilled; the fascination OF manner-the
! courtesies, bowa, and 6miles-bear, as another
has said, a vastly undue proportion to the sub
/ stantial kindness and trust which that immediate
charm suggests. The gruffness of an Engliah-
mnn, when q stranger addresses him, does any
thing but awaken expectation OF courtesy or en-
| tertainment; yet, If he consents to entertain
| you, with what prince1y hospitality does he
| welcome you to his home! and, il he
calls you friend, how does he grap-
| pie you to his heart with hooks Of steell On
the other hand, the profusion Of courtesies with
which Frenchman g1eets woman Is she' en-
ters public conveyance is not followed by the
offer Of his seat while the roughest backwoods-
man in America, who never touched his hat or
crooked his body to q stranger, will guard the
poorest woman from insult, and incommode him
self with respectful alacrity to promote her COM
fort. So generally is the lack of simplicity rec
| ognized as an essential element in the French
| character, that when We wish to express the op-
posite Of natural tastes, We can find no word
more significant than "Frenchihod." The NOR.
bid self-consciousness which charaeterizes the
French, which runs through their oratory, their
conversation, and thair manners, iB fatal
to tho highest excellence, intellectual or moral.
Simplicity aud earnestness- n-forgetfulness
and abandonment-the ability, as Coleridgo
terms it, "to lose SELF in an idea dearer than
ae1f,''-is the condition OF a11 greatness. It is
this which has distinguished pre-eminently tho
heroes and martyrs Of every age all who hare
bled or died to maintain principle; all who
have electrified us by their orato1y, or charmed
Us by their numbers all who by deed or word
have won lasting place in the affections Or
memories Of mankind.
Another peculiarly Of the Frenchman is, that
he is not seH-centred and sel-contained; that,
more than other men, he is dependent for hap
piness upon things without himself The
famous song OF Sir Walter Raleigh, "My mind
to me- kingdom is,' We may be suro that no
Frenchman could ever have written 1t is GER
tain that the sentiment, ".Neyor less alone than
when alone," came not from the pan Of
native Of France. While the 'Euglishmnn
shrinks like the turtle within his shell,
the Frenchman is grcgarious; the former ia hap
piest when he shuts his door on the world, and
hugs his firesido; the latter, when minSlng NTH
his fellows, in the crowded theatre or the noisy
street. 4 life spent in diecharging the plain,
homely duties Of his calling, with no altana-
tions but domestic joys and recreations,-With
no Fictitious excitements or public diversions, -
would be to him the ideal Of taneness and in
sipidity. Give an EnglishmAn q home, and he
can easlly forego society. Even the solitude OF
the wilderness has no terrors for him, and he is
happy on tho very borders Of civilization The
French, On the other hand, have failed almost
utterly as colonizers because OF their intense
social instinctg,-the secret, no doubt, Of their
exquisite courtesy Of manner,-and because
they can never forget that they are Frenchrnon.
4 French writer has justly observed that in
America tho individual absorbs society; in
France, society absorbs the Individual It is not
q meaningless fact that the French language
has no such words as comfort and home. Hence
it is that in Paris tho triumph Of material nice
ties reaches it's ac1ne-that, for superficial
amusements, that city has grown to be the
capital OF the world. Paris is the theatre Of the
nations; vast museum; place Of amuse-
ment, not OF work; an Elysium, to which all
tho worlds idlcrs and triders-au who are
plethoric with wealth which they are puz-
zled to spend-al who are dying Of ennui,
and seeking for new devices to kill time
naturally flock. Hero a1e the appliances, null
tiplied and diversified with tho kecnost refine
ment OF sensual ingenuity, for keeping tic mind
busy without labor, and fascinated without sen
sibility The eenses Of tho Partisan are every
where captivated with piQuant baits as he steps
into tho world, he finds D life all prepared for