The Morning herald., 1875-10-02
Y HNTN NTYAT Gr6 hAA 4 j
howeyeH leav1these l,alicro.s repreetas. anS

howeyeF leav{ these luilicrops regret, an
kith thsmJ let Us leavssaatoushed- he pt
li,ical fiascs of Chateaubriand's ministeria
career. It is lot assuredly in the states
Cnhnihip ftAii ,ulh4 4Bq4bsnlsl xBohal
nevertheless. paid courtliest court to tn
mighty C9rsicap, and then, turned agains
ths hand he had kissed, but who, with al
his Bourboaism, couldhardly speak in pri
vate with decent respect Of the royalty hii
public declarations proclaimed as the sal
vation of France. 1t is not in Chateau.
BRAND the Minister that the world has
much to admire. Chateaubriand is the
author Of the 'Genie du Christianisme,
the apologist special pleader, bard and
prophet of the Catholic reaction at the
commencement Of the present century.
This is the, foundation of his reput ,tion,
and never did reputation have its rise un,
der circumstances or amid surroundings
more propitious. There was a great part
to be taken in 1900, after all those convul-
sions and devastations Of society, after all
those guillotinades and noyades those ex-
ceases Of the Terror and frivolities of the
Directory. those vivacious assaults upon the
old faith, and those endless failures to SUBJ
stitute new one-and this part was that
of 'Poetical Advocate of Christianity" as
Sainte-Beuve has SO well expressed it.
Chateaubriand fell himself strong enough
to take it, and the "Genie du Christian
isme," or as he himself described it, ''The
moral and psetical beauties of the Chris
tian religion, and its superiority over all
the other worsllips of the earth," was the
result of his conviction. AT the same mo-
ment Napoleon was planning the Concor-,
dat with Rome, and on.the very day which
witnessed the solemn 1s Deum in Notre
Dame for the restoration of religious wor-
ship in France, the official columns of the
Monitor announced, by the pen of Fon-
times, the praises of the epoch.
making work Of 'the young writer
who dares to re-establish the
authority Of ancestors and the
of ages" Chateaubriand's ratio
cination, his logic, his erudition, were the
weakest parts Of the work, for in truth the
world was weary of ratiocination, of logic,
of erudition, of all that under tbs name of
philosophy" stood in place of a religion
o the epoch of the Encyclopedias and
he Revolution. And, as rule, Chateau
'liand did not trouble himself or lis
eaders with polemics. lie was the great
st master of description, the first of land
cape painters in words when the French
anguage knew, and all that wealth of color,
ii that ravish beauty of outline and form
'hlch dazzled and and melted the public
his pastoral romances of innocence that
as never insipd and passions that were
lways rare-all this and more were now
evoted to extolling the perfac.ions CT
hrlstianity, or as the theosopic ST. Mar !
IN complained, of Catholicism for with
Christianity and Catholicism
ere one. lie tells lis himself in the
penlng chapter the whole of his plan-not {
prove that Christianity was excellent be-
ause it came from God, but that it came
ON God because it was excellent. There ;;
'uld be no more complete appreciation of I
hat the social situation required. What t
'ough there were great faults, great gaps
ia hlatuses in the structure which Cha !:
raised, much absurd rhetoric, :
uch sickly sentimentality! The public {
this time had what it wanted, and the 8
ms OF the men who, from considering
absurd, had come to prescribe q
as noxious and frightful were now pre- i
'red to accept it as sublimely wise, be- t
use they had been taught to see associated q
'th it lovliness and harmony and majesty :
ID peace and poetry; the solemn chant 4
professions, the glorious roofs Of grand 0
thedrals, the Righteousness of monastic n
'spitality, the va'or of crusading heroes. J. 81
e virtues Of devoted missionaries; and
IT only these things, but relieving them 4
ID illustrating them, the numberless
arms of the animate and inanimate crea- n
'n' the foliage of the forest, the odor of el
e rose and violet, the thunder of the u g
taract, the song of the nightingale, the n n
usic Of running streams London .Spec el
TOR. el
Scene in Jersey Court, fl
Anna ('Onnett a ynup. ~; II - .. 4, u