The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1873-05-08
FRENCH TRAITS.
BY PROF. WILLIAM MATTHEW'S OF THE
UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO.


globe there is no one whose character
is so full of seeming, if not real, paradox
ca. as that of the French. Always better
or worse than they are expected to be-
one day sinking far below the level d
humanity, at another soaring far above
it,-now electrifying the world by their
brilliant thoughts or deeds, and anon
provoking its indignation or scorn by
their servility, egotIsm, or meanness, -
the French are so Interchangeable that
their distinctive features may be recog-
nized in portraits drawn by Caesar aud
others nearly two thousand years ago
and yet SO tickle that one not familiar
with their whole career is often half in
clined to doubt their Indemnity. Cote
ridge says of item, with the usual En-
glish nlrrowness, that they are like gun
powder; each individual is smutty and
coptemp,iUle; but mass them together
aud they are terrible. intellectually,
they are equally sold and brilliant; do
everything thoroughly, yet display the
most exquisite taste in trlaes' We are
wont to speak Of them as superficial; yet
where do you find profuunder scholars
than IN France, or ~Orkmen who better
understand the rules and principles of
their art? Looking on ;his lively and
chatteriug people, one is about ready
to conclude that your profound bigwigs
are mostly shallow dogs-that it is only
your gay and frivolous fellows that are
deep? M peope have quicker or keen
er perceptions; meme probe more thor
oughly 20 the core everything which they
investigate. They are equally skilled
in cards and chess, and in marshalling
bat,alions on the field; they are alike
at home ia calcuIa Ing the revolutions
of planets in their orbits, and in cutting
pigeon wings in baIl-roo II. Taey have
their La Places and their Lubins; they
are alike unrivaled in fillagree and in
mathematics. Their profUundeSt thong ITS
are bon .mots; their jests veil deep phil
osophical theories.
1t is Paris that Is foremost in learned
monkeys and in learned scientists; Peris
that furnishes us with our latest theories
of philosophy; Paris that furnishes as
with our latest styles of fancy goods,
our latest fashions in dress. Oar cox
combs ape the Partisan manners; our nov
elists steal the French writer's plots; our
Generals borrow from Turenne AMI Ma
poleon their art of war. Sydney Smith
once said Of Lord John Russell, that he
was ready at moments notice to go up
in a balloon, to perform an operation for
cataract, or 10 take c0mmaCd of the
Channel feet. Bat Frenchman's gent
US is far more versatile; no can, in the
same hour, discover new planet, draw
a car cature that will convulse the pub
lie with merriment, invent new soup
thai will, make an epicure scream with
Joy, solve An enigma that would have
puzzled the Sphinx, and carry Malaknff
by coup de main. There is but ore
tning which Frenchman cannot learr
b. do we'll and that to q00erH and to
be goUerned, Byron hardly slandered them
when he pronounced them ~
people who will not bs ruled,
And love much rather to be scourged than
schooled.
France was rightly characterized by
De Maistre. in 1895, as republic With
out Republicans, "a nation too noble to
be en>laved, and too impetuous to be
free. Indeed, they are the only people
that ever existed, among whom a gov
ernment can be hsspd nff the stage like 4
bad play, and it's fall excite less constern-
alton than the violation of Ia fashion in
dress.
In what other people can he foun
snch union of genius ard childhnod
such fondness for routine, yet such a
proncness, when forced to abandon old
sustoms and principles, to pnsh the new
to their farthcst limit; SO profound a
love Of freedom in theory, and yet suc
Willingness to recognize such vast stand
ing army as the only basis of civil gov
eminent SO exquisite taste in the or
namen,aI, and so savage an Ignorance
of The comfortable; so much outward re.