New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1875-07-20
LIFE IN PARIS.
ET-rER FROM ARsENE HOUssAYE.

OF THE OLD IIME-coRoT's sALE-coNsrANT
BIGAMY.
lrsox A REGULAR CORRESPONDENT OF rHH TsfBuNE.l
PARIS, June e.-We have in Paris man of science
who knows something. extraordinary as TINS
may appear. His name is Claude Bernard. lie
belongs TO both Academies which proves nothing.
but he writes in French and he EFFORTS truth from
science, which proves good deal. lie does not
despair of Selling tie mystery of life. lie would
thus suppress all legends and say to Nature, Thou
only are the great Gods He has just written twenty
pages which have cost him twenty months of labor.
tormented by the idea OF discovering the divine
spirit or the human SOUL but after all he has only
set up Interrogation points In place of beseglng
that great capital Of idea he has thanked 1t, as you
may say in military phrase. But thanking city IL
not capturing it.
NJ Claude Bernard develops more the opin-
ion that we undergo a complete metamorphosis
every seven years. Is il for tins that we have crea-
ted the septennates This would be the best of
political institutions if humanity started on given
day to complete its evolution in years. But if.
after this space of time, there remains not single
corporeal atom of the man. the soul persists in IFS
folly or its WISDOM which Is all one. NJ. Claude
Bernard may demonstrate that all the cells of my
brain live die and live again through the action OF
the blood and Of thought, bat he does not explain to
me how l think He dares not say it is because am
merely well Organzeu iIidchiEc Ana Dcoiuos, WIZ
organized the machine So welf
Lenancourt said, 'Therc IL an infinite distance be-
tween what | am and what want to be (" May we
not say that tore will always be the infinite between
asavant and q God, between "A Creator and q critic
Great doctors of science who deny the power OF the
soul tell why a moral pain has ten times lvelier
action on the blood than a physical pain. You say
that the blood is tine flax aud re1ux of human life,
but the blood obeys the soul az the sea
obeys the universal harmony. You reply, what
of apoplexyT The soul has its moments Of
sleep it is all light. but it is subject to clouds.
Condemned to this ordeal of earth. it mast
journey along with the body its companion How
ever well it may lead this blind comrade he stnm
bles into eternity some careless day.
Apropos of all these high questions l will mention
saying of Napoleon III. While was Director Of
the French Iheater was working upon a History
of the Soul" which have not set flushed. When
ever the Emperor 20 the play to see BrOhan or
Rachel, passed. the evening in the Imperial box.
He was kind enough to ask NE the last news of.my
pen. He was a great writer himself, AID when Alex
ander Dumas called him My dear confrere" lie
took the compliment literally. Speaking one even
ing of the Immortality Of the soul he said. And
your book ~ Sire! am always on the last chap
ter" "Ahl yes" he said "a man who has trayersed
all the abysscs of thought, is q book that begins
always aud never ends
with Prince Napoleon. Arthur de la Guerronniere,
Nestor Roqueplan the Ab56 Deguerry. without count
ing the ladies' whose corner the good Able loved.
The subject of the soul came again on the cloth.
Everybody had his word to say. When IT was the
Abb6 Deguerrys turn. he said, bOwing to his fair
negl,bor " have reelected great deal on that, aud
my deliberate opinion is that ought to live in this
world as long possible"
Poor Abb6 Dcguerry. he would have lived longer
a.. 70
make an example by shooting at the same volley
Mgr Darboy and N. DegneIry, the learned Arch
bishop Of Paris and the witty Cure Of the Made
leine.
While awaiting a better acquaintance with the
sOu think very little is known of the country in
France. Chivac the Duke of Orlesus's physician.
was an original clever to the last word. lie never
noticed that he i'll, being anxious about the
health of Others but day he felt his own pulse
and said The devil He's dead man. lhaye been
called in too late" Society to-day is feeling it's
pulse and uttering the cry of Chiyac. 1t magnes it
is ruined and that it is late 10 send for the doctor
Society appears TO me to be wrong 1t is like a
woman in the vapOrS who is tired of her own happi-
ness and who wishes to 90 off in search of adventures.
All nevertheless for the best in tho least republican
Of republics. 1t il only the lucky people who c"nl-
plain Only the millionaires think they are poor aud
dread the morrow. Virtue does not consider its own
reward sufficient As you make your bed you
must lie n it, is lame prOyerb. Society has gone
to bed upon gold and now wasts to turn over. do
not despair Of seeing within year whole Arcadia
in bloom. For they talking of encouraging
horned cattle an unlimited credit. What would you
do with world where the | is everywhere pre6Inpt-
M more than la share. IL il tho despOtisn of the
first person. You hear liberty continually talked
about by people who wish it only for themselves
The is a merciless despot.
Yesterday Of my friends. the best fellow in the
world from hisOwn account, gentlemen thrown
from his dJgcart on the asphalt OF the Champs Ely
sees "Oh, mon Dieu,' said my friend looking at the
fainting man, "w what a dreadful sight Ii is lucky
that always carry flask Of brandy" and he drank
Off his nacon at draught. If il had not been for
that" be said with emotion. might have been ILL.,"
Is not this the cynicism of the moments
Society says that it to he saved and calls all
sorts of doctors It's aid doctors Of politics. of
morals, of theology. and Of atheism. 1t reminds me
OF that great lady of Normandy, who being bored to
death in her castle, tried every day some new drive.
Her coachmen and positions all wild do what
they could she was never satisfied with their driving.
One day she said TO her gardener Mathunn, you
drive me this mornngf" "Of course l can; has
Madame la Duchessc forgotten that it was who had
the honor of splitting her ont OF the carringe year
sgo~ Society is like the Duchess.
Political anXieties. the spccters of and the
Commune the fatasm of the French character
which continues to say, After US the end Of the
world" all do not prevent the lovers of pictures
and engraving from disputing at any price the
session of works of art J. who speak to you. bought
twenty COrots at the sale which has just followed
the death of the great painter. COrot was a man
after my own heart. For obstinate Parisians. like
myself who DO not wish to take Tie time to go and
gfya