The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1890-06-23
MARIE B%ASHKIRTsEFF.
Tho Rev. j. #. Thompson on the Ell
of a Young Artist

The Row. j. #. Thompson on the sLife
of a Young Artist"
A large congregation listened to the
Rev. J.. +. Thompson, of the Church of
the Good Shepherd, last night, when he
preached on marie Bashkirtseff's Jour
nal.,'
$50 eminent a critic as w. e. Gladstone
has characterized it as "a book without
parallel" said the speaker, land this
otherwise extravagant praise is truthful
to the extent that nowhere else will you
find SO complete and honest a record of
the inner history of a human life. The
author was a young girl of Russian par
entage, but whose life was chiefly spent
in France and Italy. The journal was
begun when she was only twelve years
old. The introduction tells us the mo-
tive which induced her to write it. From
her earliest recollection she had cherished
the desire to become distinguished dur
ing her life. The two vacations which
seemed to offer the greatest promise were
art and song, bu these required years OF
toll and intense study, and she decided
to write a history of tie thoughts and
feelings inspired by her hopes and dis
appointments, her successes and failures,
10 be published by her friends in the
event OF her. premature death. She died
at the e of twenty-four, just when her
ambitious hopes appeared about to be
realized.
In criticising her work let us speak first
OF her moods. These are varied and con-
hicting. There are glorious hopes and
dismal f~orebodings, anthems of Joy and
dirges of grief, exalted religious enthusi-
asm and frank avowals of atheism
coupled with the inconsistant confession
Ihat she expects God to punish her UNI
hQi1Af IVhaQn difPaMnnf 0,I 4~uasZ4r- =
emotions follow one another in bewilder-
ing succession. Marie does not belong to
Lnat class that excuse their faults by
saying they are not worse than those of
others. Sh neither blames herself nor
attempts any justification, because
she does not perceive the necessity.
She hopes that her readers will pity her
as a person whose genius was obscured
by circumstances, and she breads that
they may regard her as conceited rather
p talented; but it nevers occurs to her
that any one will condemn the absolute
s~elflshness which is the unvarying in
spiration alike of her joys and her sor-
rows. This is because she has no more
idea OF what unselishness is like than a
blind man has of color.
Her creed il written out would con-
lain just two questions and
tional object of human existenceP The
rational object of human existence is
selfish employment What do We be-
lleye concerning the worship of God?
We believe that we ought to worship
Him in order that He may grant us our
hearts Observation-Disclosures that NAV be,
AS for her opinions, that is, her criti-
cisms upon art andiliterature and the Gus
toms n manner of people in different
cities u countries, it Is sufficient to saw
that they reveal anintellect at once bril-
liant and profound. I think, however.
that In this respect her later thoughts do
not fulfill the promise of her childhood.
This l attribute to the fact that in
proportion as her intelligence deepened it
narrowed. She comprehended every
thing, not in its universal relations, but
only in its relation to herself. In order
TO understand the world of human life
one must have the gift of sympathy, and
that was the one quality which Marie,
Bashkirtseff did not possess. Her genius,
such as it was, must have been short;
lived. She did not either love literaturei
or art for It's own sake, but valued them
as means to an end. and such an inspira-I
ton seldom produces the highest