The Arkansaw traveler., 1885-12-12

lifetime is now the assassin of his re- noWn. The sonorous statue which tYum. pets to the future the secrets which gen. ius succeeds in wringing from its womb, is wanting to the grave of Desplein.
 Perhaps, however, Desplein's talent was of piece with his beliefs, and conse. quently mortal. To him the terrestrial atmosphere vas generative envelope :; he regarded the earth as an egg, sur. rounded by its shell; and being unable to determine whether the egg had come before the hen or the hen before the egg, he declined to believe either in bird or egg. That there was an animal anterior to man, or spirit that survived him both these propositions he met with a blank denial. He was not a skeptic, he had no doubts upon that point-he was sure. His atheisu1p was perfectly pure and frank, like that of so many savants- from a strictly moral point of view, as worthy fix as ever stepped but invincibly athelstic, atheistic to degree bsyond the conception of really reli sious people. Ac. customed from his earliest youth upward, as he had been, to dissect the b sing of beings, before life, in lite and after life, and to probe it's every organ and appara- tus, without discovering the one insepara ole soul which is the indispensable basis of religious theory, he had naturally, if not inevitably, fallen into this attitude of dogm atic atheism. That which his knife could and did reveal to him was brain. center, a nerve-center and an aero-san. guine center of which the first two sup plement one another so effectually that, as Desplein learned. from personal ex. perience during the last forty eight hours of his existence, the sense of hearing is not absolutely essential to hearing, nor that ot sight to seelng-the solar plexus undoubtedly being capable of acting as their substitute. Hence Desplein, ind. ing that man is endowed with two souls, outressed his atheism with this fact (al- though it in no way affects the question of the existence of God), and died i'm penitent-at least so common Tumor runs like many highly gifted men, vho, nevertheless, may, perhaps, find mercy with their Maker.
 The life of this great man was marked by many littlenesses off one must adopt the language of the foes who en. viously sought to diminish his reputation l 1oA SOChAtuk (Ouh dQt(kiODS WOulQ be more becoming phrase. Ever igno- rant of the motives which influence supe- rlor minds, the envious and the foolish promptly seize upon any superficial in- consistency in their conduct, and make it the basis of an indictment, on which they are condemned out of hand. Even 1t the measures thus attacked should sub- sequently be crowned with success, some portion, however slight, of the original calumnies will be sure to cling. Thus, in our days, Napoleon Bonaparte was blamed by his contemporaries, when he would have overshad adowcd England, with the pinions of his eagle. It needed 1922 and St. Helena to explain I8o4 and the gun boats of Boulogne.
 As no one could assail D esplein's pro. fessional reputation with the slightest chance of success, his enemies fell foul of his character-singling out for special at- tack his whims am d oddities, which really amounted 10 no more th An that which the English term eccentricity. At times su- petbly clad as Crebillon, the tragedian himself, Desplein would suddenly affec, the most exaggerated negligence in his apparel. Now he wou be seen in a car rage, now on foot. Alternately brusque and affAble, outwa, dly grinding and graspins. while inwardly prep Ared to lay his whole fortune at the feet of his exiled sovereign-who, indeed, once did him the honor to borrow it for time no man ever was the subject of so many conflict ing judgments Although quite capable of presenting himself at the ruilerles wi,h prayer-book in his pocket, and slyly slipping it out, in the hope that his as- sumed piety would procure him the bit of blackribbon which no doctor oug to cov- ct, he was, beyond doubt, as thorough paced a scoffer as ever breathed. ttis contempt for mankind, after having ob- served it both from above and from be- low, and watched it when engaged, free from all disg uise, in the performance alike of the most solemn and the most trivi al acts of existence, was profound and i'm. measurable. In the case of many great men it will be found that their qualities go hand in hand. If, among these giants, oue presents himself having more talent than wit, even he will have more wit than the man who is distinguished above his fellows for that quality. Genius of any kind implies mental vision. This percep- tive faculty may be specially directed to some particular subjec.; but the eye that sees the flower can see the sun. The physician who heard the diplomatist, whose life he had saved, exclaiming, How is the empsror?' and remarked, "rhe court.er returns; the man will soon fol- low "-this man was something more than a mere surgeon or physiciau-he was prodigiously witty into the bargain In like manner, the patient and assidious student ot mankind will sanction the lofty pre'ensions of Desplein, and will deem him, as he deems himself, to have had in him the making of minister, potentially as great as the actual surgeon.
 Among the many enigmas which De- splein's life presented to the eyes of hls contemporaries, we have chosen one ofthe most interesting, not merely because i, is one of the most interesting, but also be. cause the solution will be found toward