The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1899-04-02

Let us look now at the social status OF DAN
toms parents. His father was Procureur. or,
70 name the nearest American analogue. Dis
trict Attorney. in the bailiwick OF Arc,s. 1t was
bis business to present" cases and accused
persons to the local criminal courts. Added to
this function were many duties and privileges
OF registration. of stamping. &c. The position
re luired an accurate and even a minute knowl-
edge OF the royal law and provincial usage. the
complicated Customary system of the old
regime. Belonging. as he did. to the lower
branches OF the legal profession. and placed in
q minor borough of Champagne. Danton's
father held about the same social rank as
would belong to a small country solicitor in
an English market town. with whatever
additional dignity might attach to a per-
manent Office in the municipality. As
regards the pecuniary resources of Dan
tons ami!y during his boyhood. al. that can be
learned is that the office which was subse-
Quently purchased for him was worth some
nfteen to twenty thousand dollars that the
money was obtained largely upon the credit Of
the legacy received from his father, and that
the house in which the family lived. a substan-
tial building standing in the marketplaee. was
their owl. His mother was of a somewhat
lower rank. She was the daughter Of a builder.
and her brother was Il master carpenter in the
tpNHs VI y i"o SioltTS. O4tb nhu mdTEl6l "a
and the other a shopkeeper. both
In Troyes, Her brother was the priest Of Bar
berey. near Arcis. The father died when Jacques
Danton was ., years old. leaving four chill
dren. Two were girls. one of whom died a nun
At Troycs in tho middle OF this century. We
see. then. that on both sides Of his family
Danton was Absolutely separated from the
lower and from the higher ranks Of the old
regime, Only by an effort Of imagination
could he subsequently understand the work
man or the peasant: only by daily conversa-
ton could he appreciate the strange mobiles.
with their absence OF national pride. whom he
met at Paris in 1870. IN n word. he came out
OF that middle class which has made the mod
ern world. and which still insecurely sus-
tains 1t.
The boy jacques was taught the rudiments
OF Latin in ArciS. and il his 9th year was sent
20 the Lower Seminary at Trpyes. where he
went through the training which no amount II
social change or new theories in pedagogy
has been able TO uprout from the secondary
education oi France. Little Greek. much
Latin, two years entirely devoted to the litera-
ture OF the late Roman republic and the early
Roman empire gave him thu requirements
which impart to educated Frenchmen an
almost medieval familiarity with Roman
thought. Such wasthe course which the bour-
Eeoisie went through. and still goes through.
in the French schools. II is pointed out by Mr..
Belloc that the French scheme OF instruction,
founded. as 1t is. upon the humanities of the
sixteenth, but developed in the classirlsm of
the seventeenth century. has lost the HelIenism,
the subtlety and the breadth OF the former. while
It has preserved the rlGidity, the strength and
the c'earness which the latter owes to the in
huerce OF the Jesuits. 1t fails to develop the
initiative. coupled with originality. To which,
In England. much importance is attached il
imparts. on the other hand. a strength in con-
~victlone. and, above ali. a soundness in Judg-
ment which the English public schools often
iai. to produce. From such a curriculum came
the exaggerated classic,sm al Robcspinrro AMI
the more brilliant. but equally Latin. style OF
Cornelius Nepos. while the second Is at times
course OF Danton. in his later life. was not
singular freedom from the spirit Of his
rounding things and living men and to inti-
macy with the English and Italian languages.
II is. at the same time. noted that. in a famous
/. tech on public education. Danton makes a
I reference to the influence OF the trrdi-
.lal schooling upon the mind Of his contem-
llries. and marks correctly its tendency TO
} amen republican. Very few data relating
4 SAW life at the seminary are obtainable, but
>" A m from one of his schoolfellows that in
2 year he ran away TO Rheims. seventy
n / h,nISkes distant, that he might see the
nnnsSnTaol-y OF Louis XVI. whom he was after
e Nh stAethrone.
a" at the age OF 81. Danton entered the