The New York herald., 1921-04-10
Paris Reads Chadourne's Study
OF Schoolboy's Development

emotion, II is open 10 every appear, ~
would embrace the whole world; 1t
would beat till it broke. pour out all
the power Of it's blood 1t seems to
you that you can never give enough
love, nor TO enough other hearts. You
carry like a burden the need of giving
yourself. You go like the Levite who
offered his ravens at the altar: your
naked heart is held out In your hands.
My poor child, what dangers threaten
you along the route!"l
But that which makes the portrait
true is the union with the sensitive
spirit perceived by the priest OF love
Of adventure, apparently inconsistent
but nevertheless an essential element
Of the unity of youth. This bolder
trait comes out in Paul's friendship
with Jacques LortaI Friendship is
the touchstone of the adolescent pc
riod
Jacques Lortal imposes not only
upon his fellow students but upon his
| masters, by an assurance of manner,
an irony of expression. which take
| nothing from his winning appeal. His
character has a marked individuality
and it is evident that he cherishes the
| independence of his personal life,
which the uniformity of school dis
! cipline cannot take away. When Paul
discovers his friends secret love for a
cousin he becomes conscious of his
own need of an object of alteration.
| For the time being the dream figure
of Woman is enough to fill his reverie.
He does not hesitate. however, to put
into words his longing for adventure
and his~~boyish loyalty to the friend
and leader.
| How ! would follow you," cries
Paul to Jacques, IF you set out, All
the ways are open. Tramp, sailor, !
don't care what, so long as we go side
by side and | feel the weight of your
nand on my shoulder Com
rade. we are made for big things. for
the road without an end With you |
feSl like being a mani"
Then follow the escapade outside the
walls. the breaking of all restraint in
a town resort. fear. remorse and at
| last return to school over the same
road. the scaling of the walls and the
rebuke of the Father Superior.
"The Father opens a door hidden by
a tapestry portiere and / found my
self in narrow monks cell, with
white walls, hard bed, crucifix. and
two intertwined branches.
fell on my knees, broken with fatigue
and emotion. my forehead against the
plank bed. The portiere fell again
into place; the stern look of Father
Fourmelier behind his spectacles never
left my face" With all its sternness
the figure of the priest is sympathetic
ally presented throughout.
But Paul loves life He saws: 81
'yant 10 know all. 10 love all. to i've all
! want to be happy and | am not
/ here"
The story is irresistible. told with an
accent that is the authors own. in a
highly decorative style-no less exact
Ian statement for all that. In psy.
chology II is at once clear. discriminat.
ing. sensitive. Paul Souday OF L.
Temps finds in il the promise of 2
brilliant career for it's author" To re.
turn to the novel itself, it closes ir
this lofty strain:
have come TO realize that i'm the
time given US the unsatisfed spectato,
of day must draw unto himself the
beauty scattered to all the farthest
corners of the earth. know that the
law II not that which they taught me
the law of sorrow. of expiatioa. ot
mutilated flesh and soul austere. The
law was other than that: IL was to
spend oneself TO the limit of his
powers, 10 give all the flower of his
being and take his part in the uni
versal joy and the universal grief. Ia
rejoice that in the free working OF
cause and effect he can he no more
/ than a blade OF grass, bending under
the wind but nourished by the deepest
riches of the earth"
This final passage seems to me a
kind of hymn of life with something
| that recalls clearly the music of your
great poet Whitman.