MERIT AND POPULARITY.
What is popularity? By what indications is it known? Who ratifies its
titles? And do those titles, conferred by favoritism, error, influence,
prejudice, interest, or flattery, possess more value or more durability
than the scattered leaves on which the Sybil inscribed her oracles? Is
merit a positive thing or a relative--a matter of conversation, or of
proof?
What, we say again, is popularity? How is it acquired? How forfeited? Is
it the result of merit, or a capricious out-burst of opinion impersonating
itself so as to enjoy its own homage under the traits of a living statue?
To these questions, it is difficult to give a definitive and conclusive
reply. Popularity is often the privilege and shield of a fool or rascal;
while genuine merit of a real and indisputable quality seldom secures it
unless from some accidental cause. Those who aspire to popularity care
more for the amount of suffrages, than for their specific worth. They
delight in being the object of popular excitement; and hearing their name
re-echoed, assign their personal qualities as the cause of these
capricious demonstrations. True merit heeds not such fulsome
acclamations;--too well aware that the man who becomes the tool of
popularity, ends in being an object of contempt.
There are numerous ways of achieving popularity. But we must not forget to
distinguish the difference between the popularity of men, and the
popularity of their productions. Both are variable; being subject to the
influence of events, the vacillations of parties, and of human
inconstancy. Popularity is, however, less fickle as regards the
masterpieces of the mind of man, than as regards individuals whom it
frequently raises to the sky, the better to fling them down into the dust.
A man may sometimes be popular in spite of himself; dragged from his
seclusion, elevated above his natural position only to sink for want of
appropriate support.
How many examples are to be found in our history, of such ephemeral
popularity; the idol of to-day being proscribed on the morrow of his
ovation! On such occasions, the public resembles a mind obeying by turns
two directly opposite impulsions. In such perplexities, the scales are
rarely held with a steady hand; and when they discover a man to be
deficient in the merit they have gratuitously attributed to him, they
avenge themselves by unnecessarily depreciating that which they have
capriciously overrated. The man who delights in popularity is as much
subjugated as the veriest slave in Rome. He must obey those whom he
desires to command; must adopt measures he wishes to repress; and if for a
moment he venture to pause for the admeasurement of the abyss he is
approaching, is taxed with cowardice and treachery!
How great was the popularity of the brothers Lameth, when Mirabeau made
the terrible allusion: "And I too could command a triumph. But from the
Capitol to the Tarpeian rock, there is but a step!" How great was the
popularity of that very colossus of eloquence, Mirabeau himself; who died
in the nick of time that he might not survive the public favour which was
rapidly declining.
What King was ever so popular as Louis XVI.? Yet his popularity had passed
away long before he ascended that throne of revolutions, the scaffold. The
popularity of Henri IV. lasted during his life, and was renewed by his
tragic end; but lay torpid for a century after his death, to be revived by
the genius of Voltaire. Under Louis XIII. and Louis XIV., the name of
Henri IV. was never mentioned; and had not the poem of the Henriade
refreshed the memory of the only King of whom the people are said to keep
holy the recollection; Henri IV., like Louis XII., and other excellent
Kings of France, would have been forgotten.
After repopularizing Henri IV., Voltaire became in his turn the most
popular man in France, especially in the regions of the social and
intellectual world. Voltaire was the prince of flatterers. He flattered,
at the same time, kings and the people, but reproved as skilfully, so that
he delighted kings by their personal praise, and the people by general
reproaches against kings.
Voltaire enjoyed immense popularity during his life, and high honours
after death; but in the sequel, he reaped the bitter fruits of the tree of
evil he had planted. All but forgotten during the Revolution, quite so
during the Empire, Voltaire only renewed his popularity at the
Restoration. The official censure issued against the reprinting of his
works, served for a time to restore him to importance.
Voltaire so completely absorbed the attention of his time, that not one of
the great geniuses moving in the same sphere, arrived at any thing
approaching his popularity. Montesquieu would not compete with him; and
even Jean Jacques Rousseau, in spite of the superiority of his style,
barely acquired popularity.
In general, popularity attaches rather to political than literary
eminence; inclining towards trivialities, such as songs and epigrams,
rather than to works of merit. A particular style of dress, or a cap of a
particular colour is often necessary to secure popular favour. Yet
popularity among the vulgar is not to be despised, being often the guerdon
of works of genuine merit; more particularly as regards the Fine Arts.
Barrel organs grinding the beautiful airs of our great composers in the
streets, stamp them with a certificate of popularity; while, as regards
pictures, their popularity is often insured by the intervention of some
unskilful engraver.
Popularity sometimes attaches itself to tyrants; and Caligula and Nero
were more popular in Rome than Germanicus. What mattered the slaughter of
senators and patricians, or the confiscation of their property, so long as
the proceeds afforded food and sports to the people? The populace delight
especially in the downfall of royal favourites; and the overthrow of the
statue of Sejanus, once the idol of Rome, was hailed with shouts of
exultation. We cannot be surprised, however, that the Emperors of Rome
were popular; since Louis XI. of France, and Henry VIII. of England were
popular because they humbled the great, and summoned into their council
men of the lowest origin.
Cardinal Richelieu completed the work of Louis XI. and destroyed the last
vestiges of feudalism. But in this case, the same course produced a
contrary effect. Richilieu was not popular. So true is it that popularity
knows neither law nor precedent. Louis XIV., though not individually
popular, was honoured for his conquests, so long as he remained
victorious. Louis XV. was popular only twice in his long life; once, when
a false report of his death had prevailed; and once, when he alighted from
his carriage in Paris to kneel before the Holy Sacrament. Popularity
possesses a somewhat loose morality; at times adopting the mistresses of
Kings; such as Gabrielle d'Estrées, Agnes Sorel, and even the infamous
Pompadour and du Barry.
Of the great men who adorned the reign of Louis XIV., few were popular
during their life-time, with the exception of Molière and Corneille.
Molière, because the power of his genius placed itself between the monarch
and his people, castigating the vices of all classes with equal ridicule;
Corneille, because he excited the heroism of the kingdom by exalting the
Romans. His popularity was, however, less the result of his genius, than
of the envious persecutions of Cardinal Richelieu.
Racine, Boileau, La Fontaine, acquired only posthumous fame, purely
literary, and likely to last for ever. Men of science are seldom popular;
their devotion to science, and the purity of their calling confining their
renown within certain limits. Those who benefit by the results of their
labours, think of them as lightly as those who enjoy the warmth of the
sun, without bestowing a thought upon its source. Few who use the barrow
and the truck are aware that for these useful inventions they are indebted
to Pascal; and what more popular than certain proverbs and quotations
forming part of every conversation, of which few of us are able to name
the author.
The Revolution of 1789 was popular, and men of the highest merit shared in
its popularity by their adherence. Mathieu de Montmorency was popular when
the representative of the first Christian Barony sacrificed his titles to
the love of equality. The Bishop of Autun was popular when he presented to
the Constituent Assembly a proposition for applying the revenues of the
church to make good the deficit in the public revenue. The Abbé Sièyes was
popular when he pointed out the rights of man, omitting to speak of his
duties; and no popularity ever exceeded that of Bailly, till the fatal day
of his death upon the scaffold. The taking of the Bastille cannot be
considered a popular act, if the quality and number of the instigators be
taken into account. But the remembrance of the act became popular; and it
was consecrated the following year by the first federation solemnized in
the Champ de Mars.
Never were there two more striking examples of the changes of public
opinion, than Rienzi at Rome, and Marat at Paris. The same populace which
dragged the remains of the former through the mud, afterwards assisted to
place his relics in the Pantheon dedicated to the illustrious men of the
country.
In like manner, Cromwell, whose memory was for more than a century
infamous in England, is about to obtain a statue in the National Senate.
Robespierre forfeited his popularity the moment he attempted to check the
effusion of blood of the victims; when the good cause of 1789 had become
sanguinary and frantic. Danton was more popular than Barrère. The
Girondins were popular with the people; the Mountagre faction with the
populace. It is remarkable, that in those times, every new administration
of Government was hailed by the acclamations of the people: who were just
as sure to rejoice at its downfall. So has it been in every great crisis
in France. In public exigencies, promises are made, incapable of
realization; every successive Government having shrunk from innovation and
reform, when it came to the moment of fulfilment. After the first
Revolution, popularity attended their military successes; but deserted the
vacillating policy of the Directory, and followed the banner of conquest
to Italy, under which the genius of Napoleon first shone forth; saluting
its victorious General on his return to Paris, accompanying him into
Egypt; and on his second return, raising him to sovereign power.
From the 18th Brumaire, till the year 1812, popularity adhered constantly
to a single victorious standard. At the murder of the Duke D'Enghien,
popular enthusiasm underwent a certain degree of modification, and
partially adopted the Empress Josephine as the palladium of the imperial
fortunes; to which vulgar credulity and subsequent events seemed to lend
authenticity. The popularity of the Emperor declined after his divorce.
In our examination of the influence of events upon the French people, we
have only twice found them manifest, at the same moment, exultation and
sorrow. Their indignation at the Emperor's cruel usage of Josephine,
vanished before the cradle of the King of Rome, and France was unanimous
in its gratulations on the birth of the imperial infant. The other event
is of later date. The day after the assassination of the Duke de Berry,
the gloom was universal. Some were horror-struck at the murder, some
deeply attached to the Prince and his family; while many were astonished
to find a mortal man where they had hitherto only discerned a Prince.
Nevertheless, the partizans of the imperial cause regarded the event as
the removal of an obstacle.
Popularity escorted Charles X. from St. Cloud to Paris upon proceeding
there to take possession of his throne, and restore the liberty of the
press, which was destined some day to reverse it. It also attached itself
to the gates of the Palais Royal as the residence of the Orleans family;
but merely to mark a growing aversion to the Tuileries; a negative triumph
like that of an opposition united only by a common enmity to the powers
that be.
In England, a similar transition was visible when the once popular Prince
of Wales, adopted by the people in opposition to the Court of the reigning
sovereign, became, as Prince Regent, an object of public dislike!
Among the heroes and victims of popularity may be numbered La Fayette. For
half a century did he wrestle with the fluctuations of public favour. When
at the head of the Urban Guard, which subsequently assumed the name of the
National Guard, La Fayette was at the zenith of his glory. The colour of
his very horse became popular; and every one adopted his method of
dressing his hair. Popularity becoming negligent of her idol, the scowls
of the Court served to revive it; but falling into disgrace with the
Legislative Assembly, it was again at fault. Thus ended the first act of
the drama of La Fayette's popularity.
Madame de Staël pronounced him to be an obstacle to his adversaries,
rather than an aid to his friends. The public soon lost sight of the man
so long the toy of its caprices. Shut up in the prison of Olmütz, he owed
his deliverance to the Conqueror of Italy, and returned to France
unnoticed; he afterwards offended the First Consul by presuming to offer
lessons to him upon the art of Government, and till the Restoration lived
in complete seclusion.
A trip to the United States, in securing whose Independence he had
distinguished himself in early life, served to stir up the smouldering
embers of his popularity, which he left no means unattempted to increase;
and at the Revolution of July, popularity assigned to La Fayette the
honours of a new triumph; restoring to him the command of the National
Guard.
The rapidity with which his name fell into oblivion on his decease, proves
that these apparitions of departed popularity--these reflections of an
earlier favour--are rarely permanent; and that to attain the honours of
history, a more solid merit is required than that which secures the
ephemeral sunshine of Popularity.