The sun., 1919-05-18


the great French novelist and ironist en-
bodies his earliest recoHectionS. The
book tells the story of little boy born
in Paris in 1874, seeing the sights of 1874
md asking the questions of 1894, of 1904,
of IoI<-of all the long and wonderful
years that Anatole France has lived
through and written about.
Professor Michaud, who tells about
II. Frances Petit Pierre" IS professor
Of French literature at Smith College.
French editor of Emerson's Journals"
and author of SuggestiveIy original
book, in French, on "Angio-Szxon Mys-
tics and Reaiists"
By REGIS MICHAUD.
nNCE upon time, during the reign
~ of Louis Philippe, King of France,
a little boy was born on Quai Malaquais
near Quai Foltaire in Paris. At that
time there were hardly any railroads in
France That was the age of the 234
as against the 10000 steam horsepower,
according to Henry Adams, with no wire
less, no radium, no airplanes, no monster
gun or mustard gas.
At that time people and things if
we believe Anatole France "were much
nearer each other than to-day. A fehci-
tous intimacy was the rule :" Then
little child was born with fairies around
his cradle and washed in kettle to make
sweet preserves, "un ~chaudron de con-
fiture,' as truly as Plato was fed with
honey by bees from Hymettus mountain.
Two hostile parties of fairies sur
rounded the little boys cradle. Some of
them carried in their hands wand of
ivory wreathed with roses. They were
the fairies of sentiment and passion. The
other fairies with set faces and wand of
ebony in their bands were the powers
of logic and reason. The fairies with
the ivory wand spoke to Petit Pierre as
follows:
Chime will be the spirit of the
eighteenth century, of Voltaire and Wat
teau; thou wilt glide on the surface Of
life; thy path will be flooded with sun
shine. Not an atom of the universal
beauty will escape thee. Thy nimble
spirit, like Ariel, will fly from flower to
flower, up TO the cornice of ancient
temples, to pluck acanthus and laurel.
In mouldy books thou wilt revive the
soul of yore and the lore of most ancient
times. The garden of Epicure will be thy
kindergarten
And then the fairies made an offering
to the Three Graees.
The other danes also made q predic-
ton:
Thou contest too young In a world too
old. Thine will be the mind of twenti-
eth century Heraclitus, to perceive at
the same moment the value and utter
meant and vanity of all things. Thou
wilt lack faith when IN need of belief.
Thou wilt be a true representative of
thine age, with eyes to lead astray the
hand, with thought to betray the win.
After a long journey through knowledge
and life thou wilt still be left looking for
d reason to choose, like man unable to
market his treasures"
Then the dark fairies departed leaving
70 the child a tiny image Of the goddess
Nemesis.
II.
Little Pierre has been true to the pre-
diction. His life is the story Of a child
born in the twilight Of romantic France,
but who reflected upon his life in the
dawn of the twentieth century. As in
the case of Walter Pater The. Child in
the Ho&sel or of Pierre Lott The Ro-
nance Of a Child, We see how impos-
sibly old and sophisticated nineteenth
or twentieth century dilettantism can
make child.
Here is a little fellow born in Paris
under Louis Philippe, king of France
by the grace of God He has seen NJ.
de Chateaubriand and Beranger pass I'M
der his fathers windows. In the salon"
of NJ NoziSrc Erencb anoiap rsrirpa uac