New-York tribune., 1902-05-04

to turn the scale; the result is well knoun ,
flung myself headlOng into the fray to serve a.
q shield to liberty revivinS against tyrannv s,jT,
Subsisting. with it's strength increased threeSoI.
by despair. 1 spoke in the name Of the Lett;
macy. in order to add to my words the authoritv
of positive affairs 1 taught France what ~
Old Royal Family was; i told her how TnaDT-
members of that Family existed, what Their
names were, and their character; il was a.
though l had drawn up list of the children of
the Emperor of China, to so great an extent
had the Republic and the Empire encroacbed
upon the present and relegated the BOurbons To
the past Louis XVIII declared, as have al
ready often mentioned, that my pamphlet was
of greater profit to him than an army of one
hundred thousand men; he might have added
that il was a certificate of existence to him
1 assisted in giving him the crown second
time by the fortunate issue of the Spanish War
The preface to the memoirs contains Passages
which read as though intended to be proclaimed
by some medieval herald Chateaubriand loved
a picturesque antithesiS After enduring pow
erty, hunger. thirst and exile he writes. Il
have sat. minister and ambassador. in a gold
laced coat, my breast motley with stars and
ribbons. at the tables of kings. at the feet OF
princes and princesses. only to relapse into in
digence and to receive taste of prisons He is
proud OF having been at various times in his
career a soldier and traveller. Il have meddIed
with peace and war;" the preface runs on; Il
have signed treaties and protocols. and pub
been a close observer of the rarest miseries the
highest fortunes. the greatest renOwns. . O..
have made history. and 1 could write it."
Could he? The memoirs give an ambiguous
answer to the question They are full of history,
but il is history wrapped in the atmosphere Of
imagination OF romance. He had not read
Rousseau for nothing. He was a sentimentaIist
all his life long. Also he the slave of his
art. a writer deIighting in the literary handling
of life. He has been called a master Of revery
Also he was a master Of literary impressiOnism
and in describing some of his emotional expe-
riences he paints the situations in which they
found him with a beauty of style which would
be perfect if it were not tinged by that arti-
fciality which is insepa-able from an author Of
doubtful sincerity. All the scenes of his life
dealt with in the memoirs are realized in wonder
full vividness- The Chateau de ComboUrg. in
which part of his youth was spent is put before
us in all it's bleak pcturesqueness and the
family life therein, in the earlier and hum
bier home at St MaIo one Of those provincial
interiors such Balzac drew. is handled by
Chateaubriand with a pictorial skill that the
famous novelist himself could not have sur
passed. This incUrabIe TomanticisJ, like Victor
Hugo. had the visualizing gift. and whatever
he wishes his reader to see. whether it be land
scape building or a human figure, the reader
cannot help but see, as though il were thrown
in color upon canvas by the hand of a great
painter. Side by side with these sharply out
lined sketches of thoroughly tangible things are
those little descriptive episodes in which ne
loved to indulge. episodes of fact heightened by