The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-10-14

and calm, excessively conventional; tenn
perate In all his judgments, a. in his life.
II seems TO have irritated Tame that
the Danish Minister In Paris did moth
ing for young Brandes and introduced him
nowhere. Again and again he reverted to
this neglect, though Brandes had never
mentioned the Danish Legation to him.
Taine's revolutionary blood was excited at
what he regarded as a slight TO intellectual
aristocracy. What do you call a man
like that. a Junker7" Brandes answered no.
Never mindi 1t Is all the same. One feels
that In your country you have had no revolu-
ton like ours and know nothing about
equality. A fellow like that. who has not
made himself known in any way whatever,
looks down on you as unworthy to sit at
bis table and does not move a finger In
your behalf, although that IL what he Is
there for" Taine went on to say, that when
he was abroad representatives OF the French
Embassy came at once to visit MIN and
opened to him every house to which
they had admittance. Our author says
that the outburst Of Indignation startled
him, first because he had never in the least
expected, or even wished. either to be re-
ceived by the Danish Minister or to be
helped by him; secondly. because It re-
vealed TO him the wide difference between
the point OF view in the Romance countries.
in France especially, and that in the North.
"In Denmark ] had never had the entree to
court or to aristocratio circles. nor a
l ever acquired IL since, though, for that
matter, l have not missed IL in the least.
But In the Romance countries, where the
sristocratic world still occasionally pos
sesses some wit and education, II Ia taken
as a matter Of course that talent lie a patent
OF nobility, and to the man who has won
himself q name all doors are open; people
vie with one another to secure him.
After the Franco-German war broke out
Tame eturned to Paris from Germany.
whittier he had gone to prepare a treatise on
Schiller. We are told that az early as Au-
gust 2. 1870. when no battle had as yet been
fought, Taine felt exceedingly anxious and
was the first Frenchman whom Brandes
heard taxi into consideration the posi-
bility Of the defeat of France. He ex-
pressed great sorrow that two nations such
as France and Germany should wage ma
tional war against each other as they were
doing Il have just come from Germany"
he said, where I have talked with many
honest workingmen. When 1 think Of what
1t means for a man to be born into the
world. nursed, brought up, instructed and
equipped; when l think what struggling
and difficulties he must go through for
himself to fit himself for the battle Of life.
and then reflect how all that is TO be flung
into the grave as a lump Of bleeding flesh.
how can l do otherwise than g~rieve2' Tame
added that with two such statesmen az
Louis Philippe war could certainly have
been averted, but with two qusrrelsome
men like Bismarck INT Napoleon III. at the
head Of Affairs it was Of course inevitable.
Philarete Chasles, whom also Brandes met
frequently during the summer Of 1870. Jaw
in the French defeats a confirmation Of the
theory that he proclaimed day in, day out,
namely. that the Latin races were on the
rapid down grade; Spain and Portugal,
Italy, Rumania, the South American re-
publics, were, in his opinion, in a state OF
moral putrefaction; France, a sheer Byzan-
tium. II had been, he thought, a piece Of
foolhardiness without parallel to try to
make the war Of 1870 a decisive racial strug-
gle between a nation that, as Protestant.
brought free research in it's train, and one
which had not yet been able to get rid Of the
Pope and political deepotism,