, 1873-05-11

His literature is rich, exalted, copious, and pre-
found. The researches Of his scientists exhaus
thesecrets Of nature his travellers scour th
| globe his acoumnlations Of wealth surpass tn
tabled boards OF the Roman patricians !; and hi
countless fleets teach the world to stand in awe
| his gigantic power. But in his Judgments O.
! other men, he is the nauowest Of. men, hi,
! eyes cannot pierce beyond the thick fogs which
| surround his island into the regions beyond
"Our country" acknowledges 4 late Englist
| writer, t' is m Island, and wo despise the resi-
OF Europe our county is IN island, and we
despise the other shires our parish is an island
with peculiar habits, modes, and institutions :;
our households are Islands and, to complete the
whole, each stubborn, broad-shouldered, strong
backed Englishman is an Island, surrounded By
misty, tumultous sea of prejudices and hatreds,
generally unapproachab1e, and at all times utter
ly ropudiative OF permanent BRIDGE"
The exquisite perspicuity Of the French ntora-
ture shows further that in the French mind the
reasoning faculty predominates. Implicit bo-
ievers In logic, anxious to sonnd all the depths,
and to scale all the heights Of human knowledge,
the French arc mortal foes to obscurity, and
wage an unending war against. all the powers OF
mental darkness. The most subtle OF analysts, y
says Sir James Stephen, "the Frenchman dis
sects his ideas into their component parts with a
touch ut once SO delicate and so firm as almost
to Justify his e1uIting comparison Of his own
vocabulary With that Of Athens The most
perspicuous Of e1perimentalists, ho explores
with the keenest glance all the phenomena from
which his conclusions are to be derived The
most precise OF logicians, he reasons from such
premises with the most undiscolored mental
vision The most aspiring Of theorists, he
fixes an eagle. gaze on tho highest emf
nences Of thought, and passes from one
.nountain-top OF speculation to another
with yigor and an easo pecu-
liar to himself. And hence 1t has happened that
tho writer's Of France have become either the
teachers or the interpreters OF science and phi
losophy to the world at large; that their civil
jurisprudence forms the most simple and CON-
prehen,i7o Of all existing codes Of law; and that
their historians, their moralists, and their poets
breathe freely in O transcendentafa atmosphere too
rare and attenuated to sustain the intellectual
life Of gTosser minds than THEIRS"
On the other hand, this logical structure Of
the French understanding, while it lnsures the
highest clearnesg and 1uminousness Of style, Las
led to that tendency to push every conclusion to
its utmost consequences,-to TINT remo1Reless
Ergoisne, as they have happily termed it,
which is so striking feature in their intcllec-
tual character. The slaves OF syuogisn, they
march with unfinching intrepidity to any con
sequence, however. absurd, which seems to
follow from what they regard as we'll estab-
1ished premises while they reject any doctrine,
however strongly it conmends itself to their in
stincts and to the instincts Of the race, il it can
RI I'm md in md Ty%,
fortunately, there are aomo ideas which cannot
bo expressed in terms perfectly transparent or
unambiguous, because they relate tosubjecta be-
yond the range Of human observation and Of hu-.
man experience. There ara certain superaenBu-
ous notions and doctrines which command our
implicit assent, but which cannot be explained
with the clearness with which one can define
material things, and the proofs Of which cannot
be adequately stated in sy1logisms; Jet these are
condemned by the intellectual lenders Of France
as senso1ess and superstitious-. Hence we find
that, from Abelard to Montague, from Rabelais
to Bayle and Voltaire and from Voltaire to enan.
The acutest thinkers. s.of that country have been
skaptics; and this Pyrrhonism iias pormeated
Ill classes, from the noble to tho peasant. It is
! striking fact that the French language has no
such word spiritual; while, On the otherh hand,
,piritue1 and esprit express what tho French /
7eem the highest glory Of the human mind No
highly civilized people Of; modern times, have
,een SO destitute Of profound and unchanseablo
convictions as the French and Of this the popu-
arity Of their akeptical. teachers has been both
he effect and the cause. The French passion
or logic is we'll illustrated by comparison OF
-,uther's method Of reasoning compared; with |
1alv1n's. While the :reuton, though ho fights
be Romish doctrines to tho extremity, yet paases
Ehen confrunted by conclusions at which hia. |
moral instincts are shocked, and, believ- |
ng that tho, 'bcst-Ieasoned is not always
he most. reasonable doctrine, il content |
o., be illogical rather than !: advocate |
doctrines from which his whole soul recoiIs,tt
7renchman bows aubmissively to the DEGREES Of +
lis logic, and accepts unhinching1y any conclu-
ion, however revolving, to which his premises
conduct him. Closely connected with. this logi-
al habit Of the French, is the dogmat1sm1 for !
shich they ere so notorious. No man, wo arc
ure who ever argued with Frenchman, can fail |
10 sympathize with Prof, Mason in his state
d ent that it is hard to look On and seq French
nan generalizing to the utmost Of his national
manner, when it breaks loose, without longing
o knock him down and put him in q strait
"There is such confidence about
lin, such systematizing rapidity, such, an un-
tesitating snreness aboutthings, whore We Goths
70 clogged and restrained by traditional consd-
rations and sense Of difficulty aud complexity!. |
But there is something superb, nevertheless, in /
he speculative moments OF f1Bt-class French |
Intellect" ...,- .':
The same qualities Of r1ind which have re1- |
[ered the French pro-emineut as logicans and |
hetoricians have also made them pre- eminent !
orators,-- what is true oratory but '.ignited
ogic," or g reason permeated and made red-hot !
= passion ~ The EngiBh historian, Hume, |
ong ago acknowledged, with shame, that ..
French orator pleading for the restoration Of q
orse is more eloquent than the: orators OF |
treat Britain discussing the graSest interests Of
be nation in the Houses of Parliament The |
ebates OF tho French Assemblies. parliamants,
nd States Genera, tho: eloges Of her acade- |
lies, the discou1ses Of her Judges, the sermons
+ her Massillons, her Bossuets and her Lacor- |
aires, may, even the fiery declanaations Of her
revolutionary Clubs, her Mirabeaus, her Dam |
DIS, and her Robespiezres, ALI proclaim TINT, |
l every age and On every platform, her orators
ave been: gifted: with almost superhuman
overs Of rouaing and swaying the crovds that
ave hung upon their lips. :: -.
Thu fortApes..rn ddrooate has returned to its At
.ck upon the editor Of THE TRIBUNE, but still naain-
.ins uminouA silence far Us tina Times is con-