, 1873-04-27

Francis l., by Luxembourg OF Napoleon, they
have burst like 3 tempest upon the pl1egmatic
people Of tho North, and, until the slower
energies Of their Gothic foes we're reused, have
swept all before them. The one croWning
quality Of. greatness which they. have
lacked, is patience. They could carry their
victorious eagles over the burning sands OF
Syria, or through the chilling SHOWS OF hussla !;
but they could never have stood all day IN one
place, and been moved down by All enemy's ar
ti11ery, or cut down by his cavalry, as did Wei
1ington's troops ut Waterloo. They could build
. road over tho Alps under the leadership OF
Napoleon, while another people would hare
frozen in despair; but in executing internal I'M
provements which require long md anxious de-
liberation to plan and years to complete, they
hive Jagged bohind other nations, especially the
English ..-'
Another striking peculiarly in the character Of
the french is what may be called tho his
t,ionic element their fondness for the
theatrical. Every F1enchman ia born
actor. Life is to him stage, and all his
plans and acts have more or less reference
to stage effect. French human nature is not
like English Or German human nature; it is hu-
man nature elaborated and adorned by art.
Hence the matchless excellence of the French
vaudeyilles, which are so many photographs Of
the national manners !; and hence, also, the in
sipidity OF French tragedy, which, scorning to
be natural, and striving to be classical, neither
satisfies the Judgment nor grapples with the
heart. The proofs Of this peculiarly are seen
everywhere in Paris ; in the open street and 1n
the brilliant salon in the House OF Parliament
and in the judicial halls in the artist and in the
author; in the garcon and in the graybeard
from the Prime Minister down to tho gannin. No
occasion is too solemn, no scene TOO
impressive, no object too beautiful, to
check this love Of display. Where but
in Ftanco do men twist tho graceful
forms Of vegetable life into artificial shapes sell
painted wreaths at cemetery gates, and pronounce
rhetorical panegyrics over the fresh graves OF
their friends? In what other city than Paris Ia
notoriety, even when scandalous, IS sure pass
port to social distinction as birth, beauty, or
.famo? Where else, when saudnt dies, do stu
dents drag tho hearae and scatter flowers over his
crave? Where elso would soldier commit sui
eide by casting himself from lofty monument,
or maiden and her lover make their exit from
ife's stage with last embrace and the fumes OF
charcoal? In what other country would me-
chanic, in p1aiaing fayorito living author, e1-
claim. as did Parisian in eztolling beran-
ger: "What mani what sublime virtue!
how is ho beloved! Could but live to
SEQ his funeral! QueNe spectacle! queue
qrande emotion!" In What English, Amerl-
can. or German cemetery can one lind
borrowing affection expressed as at Montmartre-
viz: By tombstone with colossal tosr carved
on it, and underneath the words, "Judge how
NO loved him r. In what city but Paris. when
triumphant enemy Was laundering at the gates'
would the newspapers, as lately in the French
Capital publish Hsts Of citizens who swear TO a1e
rather than surrender !? A correspondent OF the
New York Tribune, writing from Paris during
the late sioge, tells us that tho bourgeois, when
he vent to the ramparIs, embraced his wife u
public, and assumed martial strut as though he
were vory Curtius cn the way to the pit. Jules
Vas perpetually embracing Auguste, and raV'ng
about ss the altar Of our country" which ho in
tended to mount while every girl who sripped
along faucied she was maid Of Saragossa.