Year: 1878




one side and a priest on the other, both
pushing him and asking him what he
was afraid of when he WINGED at the
sight of sleeps bristling below with an
ugly look. Read the history of luckless
Louis NEI. The poor man saw dam
gers thicken around him; he tried to
conjure them; he pointed them out to
his pretty wife, Marie Antoinette, and
to her good friend. Nine. De Lamballe.
but both these ladies were of opinion
that storm clouds always blow over if
you take no notice Of them. They had
never heard of forked lightnings and
thunderboltS, but had a good deal to
say about Ajax, who, armed with a
simple buckler, dared the elements to
come on" Ajax must have been
lady's man. So supremely good an
opinion of himself as he eyinced could
only have been developed by a long
course of feminine adulation, inter-
sper5ed with occasional naggings when
he yentured to doubt whether he could
withstand Joye's thunder all by himself.
For these fascinating creatures
queens, expresses. or she presidents
all nag until they make mans soul
weary; and if, as was the case with
Marie Antoinetta, they can get mem
beTS of the church-militant to help
them, their courageous spirit knows no
obstacles. Marie Antoinette had red
legged cardinals round her, who brought
encouraging letters from the Pope, and
these being laid before the tiInid King
at breakfast-time convinced him that
he could only hope to have Providence
on his side if he struck a combatiye at
titude. We know how all this ended,
and we know how it Jared with another
French monarch III our own times for
listening to an attractive lady now at
Chislehurst. Napoleon III. had his
doubts about fighting the Prussians,
but the Empress Eugene had none.
When Marshal LebPuf, the War Min
lister, came to tell the imperial pair very
frankly, as his duty commanded, that
he did not think the French army was
ready, Napoleon neryously twisted his
mOuStache; but the valiant Empress
flushed up and asked whether, forso0th,
a marshal Of France was not ashamed
Of himself for doubling the might Of
his own soldiers? The marshal stalked
out red in the face, and upon reaching
the ante chamber asked for q pen and
sheet of paper and wrote out his resig-
nation; but at this iuncture the Empe-
Tor Superyened with soothing words,
and pointed out that ladies must be hui
mOred. The marshal hesitated, but at
last gave in, because it is in the nature
of a Frenchman to let ladies have their
own way. So to humOr "Madame' an
army of Frenchmen marched over the
border. and soon had to march back
again faster than they went. Are these
lessons written in letters of flame on the
walls of the Elysee? Not they. There
is lady in that palace at this moment
who would have liked to see certain
modern Bayard emulate the feats of
Ajax, Louis XVI. and Napoleon III.





What is it which makes men in such
day as ours-a day so little disposed
to find eSOteric meanings in anything
50 unable to shake off superstition?
We imagine that it is the pale reflection
of belief Of a very much deeper kind
namely, that the issue Of every enter
prise of the least import to any human
being is ii some way predetermined
and foreseen, and that though men in
their blindness cannot decipher the
enigma of their destiny, the secret is an
open one, the key TO which might posi-
bly, be found by anyone with eyes to
read writings on the wall even when
written up in some c0nIaatl place
where 10 one would think Of looking
for the required answer. All the poor
superstitions rs to finding an answer to
your thought in the text of the Bible
on which your eye first alightS, or as to
finding it in the images of a dream, or
still more vulgar, tip sUpegat,tiGn us
to tie finding the initials Of some re-
quired name by throwing the peel of an
orange over your shoulder, imply sus-
picion that there is nothing anywhere
in nature. however far removed from
the glhj6ct u goul tl0ughts-Indeed.
many would say, The farther removed
the better for the purpoSe-from which
an oracle as to your inmost questions
may not be obtained, if only you have
the gift for understanding tha iluny of
nature. PeIhap5 the old Greek legend
that PToteuS, who changes into so MANY
forms, would answer any question you
saudi put 20 him, II, undiSmayed, you
held him fast till he resumed his own
shape, expresses in some way this curl
ously widespread notion that external
nature herself many-sided az she is, al
ways contains some symbol, if you can
but find it, that is intended to respond
toyour deepest questionings.


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