The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1873-05-15
FRENCH TRAITs.-rT.
BIT PRoF. WILLIAM MATTHEWS, or THE
UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO.

BIZ PRoF. WILLIAM MATTHEWS, or THR
UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO.
This anxiety about appearances. this fond
mess for display, has marked ths French char
acter In all ages. I'm this country = wrote
Laurence Stern, at the close OF the eighteenth
century. ''nothing must he spared for the
back and If you dine on an onion and live In
garrett seven stories high you must not be-
trSy 1t in your clothes" Here" continues
another traveller, In France, "things are es-
timated by their air watch may be a mass
teipiece Without exactness, and woman
rule the whole town without beauty, If tAey
have an air. Her LIES dance, and awkward
ness Of step Its greatest dlsgrace" This van.
ity q: the French causes them TO boast even
OTthose things which would cause an Amer
lean or EnglishmaA to hang down hls head
with shame. For example, an Engisbtnan
ehaUced to be in the ysian FEEDS, at q
grand review of the Prussian aud English sol.
diers who occupied Paris in 1915. From q
feeling of dellcacy he shunne all allusion to
Of deep humiliation 10 France. But Par
isisn came up TO him, and said iauu,ily !;
s'Look here, sir WHAT magnificent spec
taclel It's only in Paris that you see stch
sights ~
The moral gulf that separates the French.
man and the z Ellshman is illustrated by
nothing more wildly than by the different
motives addressed by Napoleon and Nelson
to their respective followers. SOLDIERS I"
exclaimed the former, forty cepturies are
looking down upon you from the SUBMITS al
those Pyramids P'-"Eugf&nd, |" teiegraphec
the latter to his feet, expects every man To
do his duty" The fact that the word glory"
perpetuasly occurs in B0rsparte's despatch.
es, while in Wslington's, which fill twelve
enormous volumes, 1t never once occurs, but
''duty" is invariably IA med as the motive for
every action, is also intensely significant re-
gard'ng the characters OF the two peoples
GtOry.-that word forever on u Frenchmsu's
lips,-has been In all ages The Will 'o-the-
Wsp witch has led France astray tie gold
On cae before which, as Strauss lately re
minded Renan, she has danced for centuries
the Faia Inorganic which has allured her
again aud again from the prosperous fields
Of labor into desert, often to the very brink
of an abyss. Il is this -'stagiRess"- this un-
truth this lack of loyalty TO naiure-that
provokes the dissatisfaction we feel in The
4sst analysis OF French character. We find
that the qualities which iazzled us are
sham The promise of beauty held out by
external taste is not fulfilled the fascins-
zion OF msnner-the courtesies, bows. ano
smlles-bear, as another has said. a vastly
unique proportion o the substantial kinduess
ADD trust which that Immediate charm sug-
gests The gruffness of an Engllshman, whea
stranger addresses him does anything but
awaken expectation of courtesy or enteftalp
ment; yet, If he consents TO entertain Won.
with what a princeiy hos ality does be vel.
come yon TO his home and, il he calls you
friend, how does he gIaPple you to his heart
With hooks OF steel On the other hanS, the
protusion Of courte, les with which French
man greets woman as she enters q public
conveyance is not followed ty the offer OF
his seat while the toughest back oodsman
in America, who never touched his bat or
crooked his body to a stranger, will guard the
poorest woman from insult and ipcommoGe
himself with respectful alacrty to promote
her comfort. So generally is the lack of sim
plicity recognized as an essential element in
the French character. that when we wish TO
express the opposite of natural tastes, we can
find no word more significant than French
field ~ The morbid self consciousness whic,,
characterizes the French which Guns IN ioug
their oratorY, their conversation, and their
manners, is fatal to the highest excellence,
intellectual or moral Simplicity and earn
estness-self-forgeiiul and abandonment
The ability, as ColerIdge terms 1t, 'to lose
self in an idea dearer than ser,"-is the con-
ditiOn OF all greatness It is this which has
distinguished pre- eminently the heroes and
martyrs ofevery age all who have bIed or
died to main' ain principal all who hive
electrified US by their orai DRY, or charmed US
by their numbers all who by deed or word
have won lasting place in the affections or
memories of mankind.
Another popularity Of the FreDchman is,
that he is not self-centred and se't contained;
that, more than other men, he is dependent
for happiness upon things without himself.
The famous song of Sir Walter Raleigh "My
mind to me kingdom isl we may be sure
that no French men could ever bave written
It is certain that the sentiment, Never les
alone than when alone, 4" came rot from the
pen OF a native of France While the English
man shrnks like The turtle within his shen
the Frepchman is gIegarous the former i