National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1873-07-21


Above oil literary characters Of our time,
Heino Ind throughout the calamity OF false
position. With so acute sense Of classical
forms and antique grace rs TO make him often
well content to live
"a Pagan sucked In q creed out-worp,"
he was regarded as o chief Of the romantic
school; with genial and plcasurc-loying tenn
permanent, he was mortified by physical In
trinity and moral disappointment Into harsh
and sometimes cruel sntirist; with deep re-
ligious sentiment, and even narrow thcologi-
cal system, he was thrust into the chair of an
apostle Of skepticlsm; with no clear political
convictions or care for theories OF govern
mcnt he had to bear oil the pains and penal
ties Of political exile, the exclusion from the
commerce Of the society he best enjoyed, and
the Inclusion among men from whom he
shrank with an instructive dislike. Tho i'm
mediate cause of his Punishment from Ger
many has never been clearly stated. He
does not seem to have been the object
Of any particular prosecution, but he had
made himself sufficiently obnoxious to
the authorities TO make his exist
cnce In Germany insecure. When ques.
toned In France as TO his nationality, he used
to call himself Prussicn There, and he write.
that he had been haunted with unpleasant
visions, had seen himself In the attitude Of
Promethcus, and had fancied tho sun turned
into q Prussian cockade." high lega
Iunctionary had also told him that spandar
was very cold In winter; that no oysters cam,
there, so far from the sea, and that the in
habitants caught no game, except tho fliei
which fell Into tho soups" SO, on May l, 1881
he bctook himself TO the fathcrlaud Of cham
payne and the 'Marseillaise." From thi
time forward we see him doing all he can :,
make himself Frenchman, but without sue
| rRSa TharN Ia a1NxaNa n ptt -tr,
would say, Notwithstanding all his anti
Anglicanlsm, English humor--which stand
between him and the French mind, with IL
clear wit and Its hard logic. But the ingsn
uity, the readiness, above all, the gaycty o
the Parisiaus seemed to him almost neccs
sity Of existence, for which his Temperament
had hitherto yearned In vain; II was not tn,
old Greek life, but It was something like II
in its opcn-air livelincss Its alert passag
from thought to thought, Its keen relish o
sensual pleasure. In contrast to this, there
fore, his impressions Of England, whicl
he visited shortly after, were proportionatel
disagreeable. London struck him mightil
like the stroke Of c,ldgel over hi
shoulders" and he found In the astonishmen
Of the waiter at the Piazza coffec.house
when he asked him to bring him for break
fast one Of the fine caulinowcrs he saw be
fore him, q type Of the horror with which W
regard any deviation from our national man
ncrs. He called US a country 'where all III
machines moved like men; and all the me-
so like machines that he was continual
looking to discover where they were woun
up" and even In these later days, whe
calmer judgment and some relations Of pei
sonal affection had made him recant nue.
Of his distaste to us, he still suggested tina
"Bria, or Britinia, the White Island Of Soar
dinavian mythology, to which the souls Q
the heroes were transported after death, wa
nothing more nor less than that Albion whic
even now looks very dead.aliye to a
stranRors"