, 1876-02-12
Rural Life in France.

| Mr.. HamertOn, in his IN Otes of Rura
Life in France" just from the LondoI
press, gives one remarkable instance o
the low intellectual character of some o
the French peasantry:
Before quitting the peasants, maj
tell an anecdOte which throws some ligh
upon their intellectual condition. A
very intelligent young peasant of a su
perior class, whom l knew quite we'll
came to see me one day on little matter
Of business, and was shown into nv
writing-room, where ythere are good
many books. His curiosity was awak-
ened by the sight of these, and he began
to ask questions. | encouraged him by
kind answers, and at last he began to in
quire about my own occupations, which
were very strange mystery to him. l
tried to make these as plain to him as
possible, showing him a printed volume
and volume in manuscript, but here l
encountered singular and insurmounta-
bic difficulty. When he held the printed
volume in his hands, he said "YOu
have written this beautifully, it is as
we'll written as if bookseller had done
it, but the other is not so well done, and
will never be as pretty" His impress
sion about books was that each copy was
a manuscript made by the bookseller,
and he believed that was one of those
booksellers who made the manuscripts,
only l was a sort of amateur, because
| did not keep shop. 1t was impossi-
BILE to make him understand that my
rough manuscripts would look neat
enough in print, and equally impossible
to make him comprehend that my printed
works were not beautiful autographs. In
a word, he had never heard of the inven-
ton of printing, or did not know what
was meant by it. And yet the young
man was decidedly intelligent in all
matters connected with his daily life,
and had about four hundred pounds of
In own.
The pursuit of landscape painting here,
as everywhere else, is one of the things
which puzzle the uneducated most, and
there is really no means of making them
understand anything about it; their
minds are not prepared tO receive the
idea that there is such a thing as fine
art. Notwithstanding the fine natural
aptitude for art which distinguishes the
French race, the great majority of the
French people are really ignorant of its
existence, except in their little religious
prints, and the pictures in the churches,
which seem to them only the same prints
on larger scale, the provincial ait-gal-
leries having really done nothing to en-
Tighten the peasants, who do not visit
Contrasted with this singular intel
lectual obtuseness, however, is the fol-
lowing striking instance of an educated
proprietor-peasaDt:
have selected instances which seemed
most in accordance with common every
day experience; but l will mention, y
iose aoseeliu,dllii = I,elsaHt 'zha : a,
known to ms for sps rs Is YhS SeI +
come guest at my house whenever he
chooses to visit it. He belongs really to
the true peasant-proprietor class; he cul-
tivates hissown land, follows the plough
himself, wears the blue blouse, and is Of
genuine peasant family. Like all the
superior peasants, he keeps his pdtOis
separate from his French, but speaks
both very purely, and is not, as others
are, limited to a small vocabulary. The
first time met him was at the house of
a country squire, where happened to be
staying for two or three days. Our host
said to me one morning: II owe you
some apology for inviting peasant to
dine and stay all night while you are
here, but you will find him an interest
ing person. The guest presented him
self in his blue blouse. His manners
were the perfection of good breeding, he
was quite at ease, took fair share in
the conversation, and soon interested me
more than any other person present.
When we separated the next day, he
asked my permission to call upon me,
and l gave him my address, which was
at some distance from the house where
we had met A few days later he paid
his call. To my intense amazement he
began to talk about English literature
and English newspapers, gave his opin-
ion about the way in which several of
the leading newspapers in London were
conducted, talked about the Times, the
Daily Neass, the Pail Mall Gazette, etr.
In our book-literature he had read sew
eral of our best classic authors in the
original and some contemporaries.