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

NE SU
20 much a. q blockade Of the ports such
a. the Danes had successfully carried out
six years before.
Il IL a curious fact that In 1870 the eyes OF
the Danes were fixed upon Franco in hope
and confident expectation that their ma.
tional resuscitation would come from that
quarter, and they made no distinction be-
tween France and the Second Empire.
Although the shortest visit at that epoch to
Paris was sufficient to convince a foreigner
not only that the personal popularity Of the
Emperor was long since at an end, but that
the whole Government was despised. people
in Denmark did not and would not believe II.
But, although the Danes were so full Of the
French, the latter did not return the COM
pliment, II struck our author at the time
how difficult IL was to make people in France
understand that Danes and Norsemen were
not Germans. From the toughest 20 the
most highly educated, all Frenchmen looked
upon IL al an understood thiAg. and you
could not persuade them Of anything else.
As o as they heard Norsemen exchanges
few words with each other. and picked up
the frequently recurring ia" they we're
81 iciently edited. Even many years after
100 our author caught the most highly
cultivated Frenchmen-such, for instance,
az Edmond de Goncourt-beleving that,
at any rate on the stage, people spoke
German in Copenhagen. Brandes recalls
that one day In June, 1870, he began chat
ting on an omnibus with a corporal of
g~rcnadiers. When the corporal heard that
his intertocutor was Danish, he remarked;
German, then" Our author said: NO"
The corporal persisted in his assertion,
and asked cunpingly what "oG;" -as n
Danish. When Brandes told him. he merely
replied philosophically, -Ahl Then German
Is the mother tongue"
~.
u was in july. 1870. that our author saw
John Stuart Mill for the first time. Mill
had arrived in Paris the night before from
Avignon, and paid a visit to Brandes. unan-
nounced, In the latter's room ia the Rue
Masarine. He stayed two hours and won
the young nane's affections completely. Il
was" our author says. "a little ashamed to
receive 50 great a man IN 40 poor a place,
but more proud OF his thinking it worth
his while IN make my acquaintance. o
Of the French savants had ever had an oppor-
tunity OF convcrsing with him-a few days
before Renan had lamented to me that he
had never seen him. As Mill had no per-
sonal acquaintance in Paris, I was h only
person he called upon" Our author goes
on 20 say hat to talk to Mill was a new
experience. The first Characteristic that
struck him was that, whereas TIE French
writers were all selt-assertive, Mill listened
attentively to counter arguments; 1t was
only when his attitude on the woman ques-
ton was preached that he would not brook
contradiction, and overwhelmed his adver-
saries with contempt. At that time Ns70
Mill was. without any doubt. among Europe's
distinguished men. the greatest admirer OF
French history and French intellectual life
TO he found outside of France; but he was OF
quite q different type from the French men
OF letters. Tn latter were comprehensive
minded men, bold and weighty like Tame,
or cold and agile like Renan. but they were
men OF intellect and thought, having no
connection with the practical side of life.
They were not adapted to personal action
and felt no inclination 70 direct interior
ence in public affairs. Our author recoe-
nized at once that Mill was different. Al
though he was more OF a thinker thar any
Of them, his holiness was not OF the merely
theore.ica! kind. He wished to interfere
and remodel. Zone of those FTenchmen
lacked firmneAs; II, from any consideration,
they modified their u~ttersnces somewhat,
their fundamental views, at any rate, were
formed independently; but their firmness
lay in defence. not in attack; they wished
neither to rebuke Ior to iDstigate; their
place was the lecturers platform rather
than the tribune. Mills firmness was OF
another kind-hard ~ steel. both in
character and expression. he was relent-
less, INC he went to work aggressively.'
Thus il seemed to Brandee that in John
Stuart Mill he met fo- the first time in his
life a figure who was the incarnation Of
the ideal which the young Dane had drawn
for himself Of a great man. This ideal
had two sides; talent and character: great
capacities and inhexibility. The men of
great reputation whom Brandes had met
hitherto, artists and scientists, were men
richly endowed with talents; but never
before had he encountered a personality
combining talents with gifts Of character.
In Mill our author learned to know at least
a man in whom the powers Of action. dis
turbance and accomplishment were de-
voted to the service OF modern sociological
thought. The men OF action whom he
had previously met had repealed him by
their lack Of a leading principle. The
so-called practical men whom he had
known in Denmark, lawyers and parliaman-
~tarians, were not men who had made them
selves masters OF any fund Of new thoughts
that they wished to reduce to practical
effect; they simply were dexterous people,
well informed about conditions at their
elbow, not thinkers, and they only placed
an immediate goal in front Of themselves.
Mill, on the other hand, was at once a man
OF thought and a mar of action; a man, too. |
willing to SOW the seed the fruit Of which
long afterward should be harvested by
others. At this time ds7O Mill was "a
years old, but il seems that his sdn
was as fresh and clear as a child's, his deep
blue eyes young. He stammered a little.
and nervous witches frequently shot over
his face, but there was a sublime nobility
about him Mill asked Brandes to visit
him frequently when he should be in Eng
land, and a few days afterward our author
was In London.