The Rutland daily globe. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1873-1877, 1874-07-23
MAILS ARRIVE.
From the London Atheneum.
Edmond About on Jules .Fanii.

From the London Atheneum.
Edmond About on Jules Ianin.
The death of Jules Jann and the COM
motion it has caused not in France only,
but also, and in even greater degree,
abroad, remind me of an Italian proverb,
ITO endure is to win the game" Happy
the writer who reaches seventy; whatever
faults he may have been guilty of, whatever
the inconsistencies of his life and the
changeablencss of his politics and criticisms,
even if he has had the misfortune to out
live his talents, he can say, on quitting the
scene, "Victo.y l have won the game
His opponents, his seconds, his judges, are
dead, routed, or worn out. The generation
that buries him has read only fragments of
his writings; its acquaintance with him is
founded on small number of anecdotes;
it knows little of him but his name, and as
the name has made some stir in the world
the world pronounces it with a certain
respect. 1t is little short of mi acle it.
among the crowd, single person, more
impartial or less prejudiced than the rest,
takes the trouble to weigh the merits of the
unhappy defunct. Why seek for the truth
or tell it? Is not the public. like other
sovereigns, indifferent to justice and truth?
1t prefers of all its advisers those who say
it is right and applaud even its errors. 1t
sometimes approves of the critic who is
sufficiently bold to attack openly living
and working demigod. Such ebullitoas
y,1n hal,N al,
mediocre majority, who feel Inundated by
the fame more or less legitimate of some
few persons. But when demgod is dead
and buried, when his bust is placed in the
national atrium. inter sigma mgjorum. i, is
not only impiety, but the height of inn
prudence, to demand that his bust should
be removed to the garrets. Why make the
collection less complete? The dead have
no enemies. they make nobody jealous,
they are even useful at times, for their
reputation, henceforth unquestioned, may
serve to diminish the merits of the living
| should, then, have the best possible
grounds for singing the praises of the old
Academician who has just done dying. If
prefer to tell you frankly what think of
him. it is because in an age of free trade
and international coinage it seems to me
dishonest to give foreigners a copper-glt
COuUttI IOI IL lWcHly -ITduC piece. I)tlllc
Europa, who is ever fond of plying us, and.
finds it to her interest to do so, is already
purchasing immortelles, and / hear her cry
with arrant compassion, " Poor France
After so many disasters, only this was
wanting, that she should lose Jules Janin."
Many thanks for your pity, my dear cam
rates de pension; but really it is mis-
fortune of no consequence child's balloon
which has broken its string and got spiked
on the garden ratings. The explosion took
you by surprise. Calm yourselves and re-
sumo your usual pursuits, as we did ours on
the very day of the accident.
The originality of Jules Janin and his
chief merit can be explained in few words.
lie was the first journalist who introduced
6aodrddge into criticism. Thrown by
stroke of good luck among distinguished
writer's who were fastidious, cor ect and
dull, who used to weigh tragedies and, If
need be, vaudeviles in the scales of Eacus
and Rhadamanthus, he took gay view of
the sacred profession, gave reins to his
fancy, and put into his fouillet0nS every
thing that came into his head. This game
astonished the public without offending it,
and people acquired a taste for rambling
articles, W. ich were one series of parcn-
theses, where the topics that ought to have
been subordinate were the ruin of the
principal theme, and the subject was lost
among heap of paroles t0utUeS. Like
those takers of the salons who shine at
small cost because they pick neither words
nor ideas, he achieved by strategem the
character of wit He used and he abused
his reputation for good, for bad, encourage
ing and discouraging true merit, exaltng
the true and the false, according to the wind
that blew. His eulogiums, which few
readers took seriously were greatly sought
after by artists, for he borrowed from the
journal des Debats some portion of its
great and legitimate influence. For over
thirty years Janin talked sense and nom
sense quite at his ease, before the most
select public of France and of foreign
countries. He spoke about everything
under the sun, apropos of the stage, carcssed
his friends, worried his foes, told all his
little affairs, even his marriage, with great
minuteness, quoted Horace in season and
out of season, and took liberties with the
Latin tongue, his knowledge of which was
but indifferent Thanks to all of this he
could proclaim himself the prince Of critics
without exiting any great storm. Fortune
smiled on the naive vanity which had entire
possession of him This great spoiled
child to whom all was forgiven, was one of
the happest men of the day. His importance
pulled him out visbly like La Fontaine's
frog. To the last year of his life he
reigned absolute; he received embassies,
he Derused petitions and applications, as
he lay on the sofa to which gont and obesity
had nailed him. Authors journcyed to
Passy to read him their pieces, actors to
spout their parts before him. The French
academy came to seek him in 1870, after
having long and justly closed its door to
him. The indulgence OF the public allowed
him to criticise new works, without quitting
his villa, upon the reports of certain aides
de-camp whom he used to send to the
theatre. 1t was only last year that the
editor of the Debats put him on the retired
list in consequence Of the unanimous re-
monstrances Of the subscribers. The most
patient gave up deciphering that senile
drivel
The true critic does not wholly die-wit-
ness Sainte- Beuve, who has left strong and
lasting work and the poet, too, who, like
TheOphile Gautier, has abandoned his true
vocation and writes dramatic .felilIet0n,
still leaves some undying pages which out
live the men and works whom he crticises
But what survives OF baUoriage, even the
most happy. the most admired, the most
famousp The echo of a name. The heirs
of the name of Janin are quite rich enough
to reprint the thousands of .teuiitet0ns that
hc scribbled; they cannot get them read
Even his books, and God knows he pub
lished dozens, will not be reperused, for