Evening star., 1915-02-28
FRENCH VIEW OF GERMAN GENIUS

Tho war of 1914 recalls the war OF
1S70-1s71. NJ. Leon Daudet, in long
article in a recent re-
Leon Daudet's view under the head of
~ ''wagnerism and Its
"esAeW. Ramifications.'' treats
his subject politically, and he Will be
read with interest by the French and
by the German alike.
The intellectual foreign influences. II
they are strong and penetrating. dis
mantle a country in the same way tnat
non-preparation for war does. to which
besides they contribute. The writer is
entirely frank in saying that it would
be absurd to ignore systematically what
is engendered In the mind by a power
full neighbor.
"It Is in the French temperament to
welcome warmly and even with ex-
travagance artistic manifestations COM
ing from without. But 1t Is dangerous
to give oneself over body and soul to
genius enemy. above all when that
genius had given proof that he was an
enemy and an irreducible. uncompro-
missing enemy and opposed in every
sense to the French national tempera-
ment. This was the case of the mu-
steal dramas of Richard Wagner"
And the writer explains the express
sion musical dramas" as opposed to
music for the prescription. Schubert
Schumann or the immense Beethoven
of Flemish origin would be stupid. with
Wagner it is different thing: a me-
thodical gloriflcation of Germanic leg
endary annals; an effort to transplant
antique tragedy in the German people
and for the German people. of a con-
~ 80 - ~,
the nerves in German sense. Origin
and Development Ursprung und En-
twickelung are inscribed on the portico
of what many enraptured French called
yesterday only the Temple of Bay
reuth." And NJ. Daudet adds: From
the point of view which interests us
Richard Wagner has ethically and po-
lftically an Importance comparable to
that of the sonorous Fichte. Wagner
is poet, whether we wish it or not;
absorbing intentions of German i'm
perialism. Wagner opened the road to
armies"
NJ. Daudet confesses that he and some
Of his comrades were victims of the Wag-
ner vogue in France
Wagner Vogue in 1893. He says: 'I
:. E assisted and l mani
tested in a pro-Wag-
merriam sense at the famous representation
Of Lohengrin at the Eden Theater in the
Rue Boudreau. My father, although ar
dent patriot and soldier of 1911, appla uded
Wagner as did. Hughes le Roux had
published the day before an interview
with Alphonse Daudet In the Temps, it
was the mode then, which would be most
interesting to read today when the ad-
mirer of Lohengrin signaled nevertheless
the conflict In that affair of the German
and Latin spirit"
NJ Daudet would guard against past
error. At all crossroads in knowledge
and art he would erect the statue of a
Frenchman in place of the German, MAIN
tanning in mind the indispensable of the
Hegel. Marx, Wagner and Nietzsche should
be broken. But he would not prevent
their admirers and fetichists from pre-
serving the better part of their fragments
IN their show windows. 1t is sufficient
that their ideal may not be methodically
sown in the ardent Imagination of the
French youth.
NJ. Daudet is severe on the govern
ments which passed in France after
the debacle of 1870 down to the period
period" of 1se7-1so5. when there oc-
Tangiers. NO watchman, no lookout,
no pilot-thus may be resumed the po-
litical history during that long reign"
The unconstraint was such that it ex-
ceeded the alarm at Tangiers and sub
sisted even after Agadir (191D, even
from 1911 to 1913, when there were
ample warnings.
-
In the university world the uncon-
strafnt was no less than in the po-
litical world, in which
University decay was apparent.
n...d.... How many professors
undertook to teach all
sorts of doctrines unrecognized and
unauthorized by the faculty, the re-
suit Of what was termed international
socialism" In 1900, for example, one
could count the professors at the Sor-
bonne, men in the laboratories. pro-
fessors at the School of Medicine.
writer's of renown, who practiced
toward Germany the system of de
fensive watchfulness" great crisis
recently permitted the making of a
catalogue.
It is interesting to look over the re
port on German influence" which was
published by NJ Jacques Morland in
lSU5. II OHeFS an exact account o.
fantastic errors and illusions in which
a great number Of Frenchmen thought
themselves well informed.
NJ. REM Quinton, celebrated physiolo-
gist, resumed his views thus:
1.-THE principal biological sciences are:
Chemistry, comparative anatomy, pale
ontology, zoology. embryogeny, his
tology, physiology, microbiology. Now
one man founded chemistry. Lavoisier;
man founded comparative anatomy
and paleontology, Cuvier: a man found
ed philosophic zoology, Monet de La
marck; a man founded embryogenie.
histology, Bichat; man founded phys
iology, Claude Bernard; a man founded
microbiology. Pasteur.
ITO Lavoisier we owe all the knowl
edge we possess on the fundamental
constitution of the world; to Cuvfer the
method and the laws which permit the
classification Of beings living today and
the reconstruction of those that peo-
pied the world in past epochs: to La
Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire the notion of
parallelism between the embryonic
transformations and the anterior trans
formations of the species; to Bichat
the revelation of organic tissues; to
Claude Bernard the introduction of de-
terminism in physiological phenomena;
to Pasteur the conception of a malady
and at the same time the discovery by
the only induction of an invisible uni
verse; thus all the fundamental knowl-
edge upon which is placed our concep-
ton of the living world have one ORR
gin, which is French.
*
R,t aipp p,,lar IN reIafa rho u,,par;or