The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1894-07-22

mopols, which may be entitled Les
Americans a Pari-'"
I ask him what ne thinks of the Amer
leans.
'They are most active people of great
energy
.Of great energy in the 1abors of life.
l believe. But is their power as great in
the domain of thought? Have you not
| remarked in the Maitland of 'Cosmopo-
lis a facility in allowing himself to be
carried away by the most diverse 1nfu-
the local stamp, that flavor OF the soil
which gives a peculiar ZeSt even to
painters of the second order, and, in a
word, is he not ever in pursuit of fleet
ing individuality?"
'Quite so. This is connected with the
fact that the American people is a people
lad time to acquire by long heredity that
consistency of mind which makes an En-
glish writer so wholly different from a
French or a German writer But the fu-
| ture is there" land he adds, as if
speaking to HIMSELF there lies the fu-
ture of the world
the master, and depart from the quiet lit
| tie hotel in the Rue Monsieur. Walking
down the Rue de Babylone, / dwell on
the gracious welcome which have just
received from NJ. Paul Bourget. / recall
| the charming kindness and sincerity
which breathe from his entire personality.
| Lenaitre says of him: He better than
any other of our writer's can endure soil
| tide" And again: He never leaves un-
| answered the letter of any youth in trial y
A book recently read comes to my memo
ry, with its preface full of respectful sym
1 pathy for NJ. Paul Bourget, whom the
! writer had met very briefly at Palermo :.
| There are works which one simply adj
mires," she says, '-but as for yours, 1
| love them"
At this noon hour the square of the Bon
Marche is empty of the going and coming
| of shoppers, ] sit down there to reflect. |
look back to the time when Paul Bourget
had first come 70 Paris, Withdrawing
from every eoterie' to devote himse~ to
already the man who should write {: little
later, ut is not amidst the bLstle of in
ward excitement that the mover writer
must look for the coming of inspiration,
| but in the asSiduouS application before his
Workable" For the sake of withdraw
ing his individuality from influence which
might prove dangerous he does not hesi-
tate to undertake long journeys, ito come
to himself again." He is aware that his
own genius is the resultant of the ideas
of preceding epochs. In two volumes he
draws up a strict balance of that that
has been contributed or subtracted by
Tame. ,Renan, Flaubert Stendbal. Dumas
ard others He endeavors thus to arrive
at an exact knowledge of the latent ten
denotes stored up in him by the date of
his birth. he says to himself, II think
and feel after certain manner, but
around me, in England in Italy, in Ger
many, do the young men love as 1 do or
have they faith in the same doctrines?
And he condemns himself to long resi-
dences in foreign lands, to study the
souls of the races.
Afterwards, strengthened by this great
preparation, in imprisoned tales he dis
cUsses the most burning moral questions
of the present day.
If we reflect that this concern regard
ing the moral life, this visible sympathy
for his characters is like lost note
found again after these later years OF
reigning naturalism, that his disdain OF
empty style is reaction against exag-
| gerated disciples of F'laubert; if we re-
fleet, L say, on the most rigorous applica-
ton which he has made of scientific prin-
ciples in explaining man, not only by
physiological tendencies, but also by the
thousand influences of hered1ty educa-
ton and circumstances; what vigorous
initiative of mind must we recognize in
this man who has expounded such a
mass of fruitful IDEAS