Year: 1874

Causes of the National CheerfuIness


At each repeated visit to this coun.
try, am newly struck by the irrepres
sible gayety of the French. HapIv. II
is more visible In Paris, and In the
Latin Quarter than anywhere else. I,
has been often said that their hahitual
gayety is rather external than internal
that they spontaneously assume it in
order to hide q temperamental meIan-
choly though how the opposition be-
tween spontaneity and temperament can
be reconciled, il would be hard to de-
termine. 1t IS mad rubbish to talk OF
the sadness OF modern Saula. whether
manifest, or secrets. Sadness does not
enter into their composition. Sadness.
IN any true import, is something that
belongs to the constitution, something
which by indulgence grows habitual /;
and this is alien to their nature. Moody
they are; frequently cast down but
they are extremely energetic in ridding
themselves of such feeling. If it
won't leave them, they leave It by self
destruction, which if not philosophic,
is assuredly in consonance with their
character.


Why they should be on so much better
terms with themselves than other people





The cause, as I infer, is that, princi-
pally, they have sound digestion dys-
pepsia having more to do with discon.
tent than is generally thought The
worst dyspepsia is that which is not ap-
parent to the sufferer, who believes him
self entirely well, because he is not per-
ceptibly i'll. The French, as a rule, are
completely eupeptic, thanks to their
cooking their usual simplicity of diet,
and their freedom from excess of every
kind.


Secondly, their vanity is so great, so
pervading. so ineradicable that it keeps
them in perfect favor with their own
minds. They are vain on account of
their nationality they are vain on ac-
count of their individuality they are
vain on account of their personality.
Others may be more fortunate; but no.
bodySscan be better than they or they
might be under propitious circumstan-
ces. Each one of them is a potential
hero to himself spanning the present,
however narrow, with the rainbow of
hope.


Thirdly, they perpetually look on the
bright side of things-not from philos-
Ophy or self-discipline, but from an in
herent incapacity to see the dark side.
In the worst condition they hope for
the best, and by their very hope, the
best Is apt to come to them. Any en-
terprlse they may engage in shows them
only its fairest result; its darkest result
is, in their appreciation, reserved for
somebody else.


Fourthly, their innate and uncon-
querable paganism helps them vastly.
Excessively as they relish life, they
have no craven fear of death life hav-
ing once ceased to be attractive. Death
is something which they feel they can
seek with indifference, If not with sat
isfactiOn, when the purpose of their
creation enjoyment of some kind
fails. They do not deem it
their duty to stay in a world that has
lost its charms for them, and, accord
ingly, they go out of it logically and



They have a tremendous advantage
over other nations in this. As they
were placed here without their consent,
they hold nationally enough, that they
have a right to take themselves off,
without other permission than their
own. Roman Catholic as France is.
nom1nally, very few educated French
men believe any more of the Roman
- al AAS-t AAOo VIII 0L10AA AOeSOA5
Severely as the church condemns sui
eide, they feel privileged to commit it,
if their existence be out of tune. Even
the ignorant and superstitious French
forget theological dogma and denun-
citation, when their small portion of the
planet is in eclipse, and they seek the
light-or the eternal darkness beyond
the grave, without waiting for nature to
them. Secularly, they are ad-
constituted for terrestrial exis-
tence-and who knows what there is be.
side? Good digestion, entire self f-love,
temperamental capacity to see only the
bright side, and the consideration of
death as entirely desirable, should for
tune play false, seem so beneficial, in
the case of the French, that we may
feel tempted to initiate them.