New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1875-10-23
LIFE IN PARIS.
rrrrR EROM ARSENE HOTSSAYE.

FLORENCE.
trRoM A REGULAR CORRESPONDENT or THE TRin Me-
PARIS. Sept. 1--we had in France, hundred
wears ago, two men of wit, fine gold without alloy,
who ere daily pilagcd by our journalists and re-
po,ters; mean Chamfort and Rivarol 1t was once
sajd 10 me "Your comedians of the French Theater
have infinite Wit Yes answered and the Sc
cret of il TO sleep with ChamfOt and Rivaro I'M
der the pillow" new edition of Rivarol is to be
pnblishcd i'm ore volume. which will be a charming
companion on journey or By the tireside.
Rivarol regarded nothing seriously except literary
labor lie knew every thing but considered himself
too ignorant to write. If there were more Rlvarols
IN literature. there would he throughout the world
fewer volumes and more ideas. He said that TO
write il was necessary to be armed at every point,
like Minerva springng from the head of JOve. He,
who was born naked and weak, of an innkeepers
wife, never signed book He wrote a few formal
discourscs laboriously eloquent, and he uttered a
great many maxims which are elegant truths. lie
died young leaving only fragments here and there
Of the work which he had not done. He would
have been the finest talker of the sixteenth century
II he had never listened to himself
subjoin a few thoughts of Rivarol:
Reason is a historian, but the passions are ac-
tTeSses.
There will be always two worlds submitted to the
speculations OF philosophers: that of the magma
ton where everything is probable and nothing is
true and that of nature, where everything is true
without being probable.
Ideas 60 around the world. They roll from ace to
age from tongue TO tongue, from verse to prose,
until they become developed in a sublime image
living and luminous expression which never leaves
them and ii is thus they enter into the patrimony OF
the human race.
Speech is the yestment of thought, but expression
is its armOr.
Makers of phrases remind me Of that Greek VINO
lighted torch to behold the dawn.
Political life is like the sphinx of the fable; il
deyours all who do not explain its riddles.
War the tribunal of Kings, and victories are its
vcrdcts
Memory is content with hangings of cloth; but
imagination insists upon Gcbelin tapestry.
Memory is always at the service of the heart.
Time is the shore of the spirit: everything passes
before it, and we think that i passes.
You see that Riyarol was not merely man of wit
he was a thinker as well but in truth no one has
the right to be called Of wit ii he only lets off
all occasional re-cracker to make the darkness more
perceptiLle. True wit should always leave lunin |
his w.t. Rivarol came to nothing. The Able de Vol |
sin said " am too subtle l must attach myself
10 earth by something stupid He was right. A
reasonable stupidity is a good quality, becoming
daily more and more rare.
One of the silhest flights of French ceverness was
that Map of the Tender" drawn up by the Pre-
ceises Rjdiculcs. NJ. Amptre, who was Ridiculous
Prude himself, though member of the French Acad- |
eIny once gave a lecture which worthy of pro
~, 1,..N al
modern art, and characterized the different geniuses
who have appeared since the Renaissance 10y COM
pairing them to peaks and MOUNTAINS and hillocks. |
Dante is "a mountain whose slope is the hillside
Tasso. Cervantes is a summit al the base of which
we observe the mOlehll GarcilaSso. Button is the |
Chateau of Montbard Montesquieu IS the Castle |
of La Brede. j. J. Rousseau is distinguished by not
being a castle How unerateful VIII France be if she
does not rear TO NJ AmpeTe castle or the lOftest
summit of ChimboTazO OF KilImandjaTo.
man Of another sort who was witty in more |
muscular fashion was Michael Angelo. He no |
Ridiculous Prude. He carved his words as largely |
as his statues. They celebrating his third CEN |
tenary with all possible Italian splendor. Kings |
should be ica ous that the true royalty genius
1t Is recommendation to those who govern us tenn
porally 10 govern also spiritually. What man |
was this Michael Angelo! He well understood |
by the Pope julius H., who said "Ihat devilish |
man is god Vasari has preserved for por |
trait of this divinity. the head round, the fore
head square and spacious, the temples prominent |
the nose broken the eyes rather small than large of
a dark brown, spotted with yellow and blue points
the eyebrows scanty, the lips thin, the chin well
proportioned, the beard rather thin and parted in
the middle of the chin This face the mask of
the grandest soul of the sixteenth century.
Michael Angelo, at once painter, sculptor, architect
and poet, has inscribed his name, for the admiration
Of the universe, upon THE Last Judgment" the
Mausoleum of Julius H., on the Basca Of st.
Peter, and upon a book of splendid sonnots where
be has shown the same power Of expression in verse
as in marble, in fresco and in architecture
Whence came TO him this grand gennsf His
father, BuOnarOtti, descendant of the Counts of
Canossa dwelt peacefully IN his castle, hunting,
dreaming not half living, as his son said, not
being able either to live or die Happily for
Michael Angelo nature his nurse. They
gave him the breast of stout peasant
woman in region of quarTes. The first
sound he noticed was the roar Of blasting.
He learned to work in marble before he coud talk
plainly He was rebellious the study Of Languages.
He who was TO be the first man of his century was
the last in lis class. u don't want my son to hear
of this for he is at the foot of all hs But he soon
changed his studies. His father, ashamed of having
brought into the world boy with the tastes of Q
stonenason intrusted him to GhirlanGajo, who was
to teach him at least the language of design But N
this language he instinctyely 50 strong that he
soon began to give lessons 20 his master.
do not wish to repeat TO you the epic story OF
man of genius struggling with everybody, even with
himself fighting against his passions, his jealouses,
anu his angers His admiration was terrible fIs
great rivals Leonardo da Vnci and Raphael were
never at ease in his neighborhood; lac admired them