New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1895-08-13
LOUIS XIV.
THE FAILURES OF THE HERO OF EURO
PEAN ABsOLUTISM

LOUIS KY ASR CHE z Fl IsoS OF H.s maE
Nations)
From the modern point OF view, Louis XIV was
not the best Of material out OF which to make a
hero. He incurred the hatred of the Reformed
Churches and at the same time weakened France
by his trea tment Of the Huguenots. He was al
ways at war and yet was believed with some rea-
to be lacking in personal courage. When
everything ready for the siege OF fortified
town that was sure 10 fall. he took ostensible
command but more than once. when he had the
best OF opportunities for battle in the open field,
with every chance Of victory he hesitated and In
Cured the hidden contempt Of his generals The
military successes Of his long reign were In larger
part due TO men who had been trained under his
predecessors The ideas in government and finance
which actuated his time and gave II the sem
bance of wonderful prosperity were the out
growth Of preliminary experiment and OF ante
cedent failure. Of which he knew nothing more
than others might have known also from tradition
and history When ne came 20 choose officials for
himself he exhibited 10 the full the vice usually
attributed to democracies and republics, that Of
setting mediocre men in high places and suppress
ing all the possibilities Of genius. His whole per-
eonaity and his conduct throughout his life were
dominated by the fixed idea that he must rule
without the shadow OF a rival. Nevertheless. 10
this day the query is what the first part OF his
reign would have been without Colbert and Tu-
renne. or the last part Of 1t without Nine de
Maintenon. AS II was. his progress grad
ual descent in which France. seemingly at the
most brilliant period Of It's existence. with ex-
tended territory and a splendid outward show.
was devoured by discomfort. He found royalty
the height Of European fashion. he left 1t mort
bund and ready to be cast aside.
But to people Of his own time the Sun King pre-
sented a better appearance than to the keener
glance OF the present day They had not yet got
" the reverence for kings expressed In that
untimely phrase Of Shakespeare about the dvn-
~ that hedges king. Mr.. Hassall might. per-
haps, have made out a better FOR his hero
than he has IL he had prefaced his book with
chapter on the growth of the royal idea IN Chris
tendon after the destruction Of the Eastern En-
pire. Accustomed to the rule OF a single chieftain
people formed the opinion that monarchy and
tionality practically synonymous terms. AS
the inchoate separate kingdoms Of Western Eu-
rope began TO harden from mere political proto-
plasm into something like self-centred. self-con-
trolled organisms, who felt in themselves
the new emotion Of pride In their country mstook
the real meaning Of their sentiments. What
would now be called patriotism they called loyal
~. Men died FOR their king in those days, not
for their country they do now. they did
IN the days Of Horace The struggle against the
suprema cy Of the Church of Rome took the form
OF king-making, so that every attribute of power
lost to the Papacy seemed TO gravitate at once to
royalty. Absolutism became the fashion exempt
fed in Charles v. Francis 1, Henry ". Henry
VIII and Elizabeth Now just as the arn1or was
brightest. the swords keenest the lances most
graceful. at the moment when knighthood was
about to fall into disgrace, royalty most
brilliant. most ornate. most glorious in all It's
externals at the moment when it about to be-
come an anachronism. 1t the good fortune Of
Louis to dominate this melodramatic period when
king must above all be superb actor. when all
the forces which he had to WELD were ready to his
hand. but when there were no longer latent any
Of those living elements which had made absolute
royalty possible.
Louis played his part to perfection 1t was the
only part which he could have played Mr. Has
sail alludes 10 a remarkable incident Of the kings
infancy. When he about four years old he
carried to the bedside Of Louis XIII. VINO was
about to die. Now I Louis XIV" said he
The name had been used at his christening and he
remembered 1t. Not yet" said the dying king
But the child had used the one phrase that was
TO be ever in his thoughts until it came to be time
for him also die. In his whole life he had hard
~ a Renaissance OF time when he was not a
king. His habits TO the smallest detail were royal
He lived on ceremony. No trife that concerned
the show Of dignity on his part or on that
OF his court, or that of his kingdom, escaped
his vigilance. Egotism IN him excusable for
II was political not personal. 1t was as a king not
as a man that he said. The state--it is l." Be
hind this saying there profound knowledge
OF France and Of the French people Whether
from instinct from habit from penetrat ton Of
thought-surely few would imagine the last-his
course as ruler In harmony with national
sentiment. Even in the tyrannical revocation of
the Edict OF Nantes and In his other devices Of
persecution he had the overwhelming majority
Of the nation with him. He thought the thoughts
of the France of his time as no other man could
1t took two disastrous reigns after his to convince
the people of France that they could think their
thoughts for themselves IL they chose to do
But they had begun to think Of something other
than answering loyalty to absolutism even in
his time. Long before his death they were weary
Of him, and the moment Of his demise was hailed
with o.ninous cries Of JOY. They expressed per-
haps unconscicusly. says Mr. Hassall. the gen.
eral sentiment in favor of greater freedom Of life
and thought and a widespread desire for some
change" The exhaustion of the nation was i'll
compensated by military glory that had in the last
years Of the old king been clouded by defeat
People In general began to what the king
himself must have been conscious of, that the
royal routine was proitess thing II had never
been more thoroughly tried. Louis had done pain
fully ard methodcally from day to day what he
considered to be his duty as king He had
reigned. children might say. just hard as he
could. And the upshot of it all was that it could
be said Of him. said of his contemporary
Aurungzebe, Every plan that he formed came
70 be little good. every enterprise failed" From
the narrow base line Of an earlier time he had
projected many things for the good Of his countr,,