France, "with all thy faults I love thee still!" No man should travel
from his cradle to his grave without paying thee a visit by the
way: with a disposition prone to enjoyment, it lightens the journey
amazingly. The French are a kind people, and it must be his fault who
cannot live happily with them. Pity it is, possessing, as they do,
whatever can contribute to the felicity of a people in a state of peace,
that war should be indispensable in order to render their idea of
happiness complete. _La gloire_ and _la guerre_ form the eternal burden
of their song--as if the chief business of life were to destroy life.
They would fight to-morrow with any nation on earth, for no better an
object than the chance of achieving a victory. Laugh at me, if you
please, for uttering what you may consider a foolish opinion, but I look
upon it as a serious misfortune to them that the two words _Gloire_ and
_Victoire_ rhyme together: they so constantly occur in that portion
of their poetry which is the most popular, and the best calculated to
excite them in a high degree--their _vaudeville_ songs--that the two
ideas they express have become identical in their minds; and he will
deserve well of his country who shall discover the means of making
_glory_ rhyme to _peace_.--_Ibid._
* * * * *
"HELP YOURSELF."
The custom of HELPING ONESELF has its sanction in the remotest
antiquity, and has been continued down to the present day in the highest
places, and by those whom it especially behoves to set example to the
world. It was clearly never designed that man should regulate his
conduct for the good of others, for the first lesson taught to the first
of men, was to take care of himself; had it been intended that men
should study the good of each other, a number would surely have been
simultaneously created for the exercise of the principle, instead of
one, who, being alone, was essentially selfish. Adam was all the world
to himself. With the addition of Eve, human society commenced; and the
fault of our first mother furnishes a grand and terrible example of the
mischief of thinking of the benefit of another. Satan suggested to her
that Adam should partake of the fruit--an idea, having in it the taint
of benevolence, so generally mistaken--whence sin and death came into
the world. Had Eve been strictly selfish, she would wisely have kept the
apples to herself, and the evil would have been avoided. Had Adam helped
himself, he would have had no stomach for the helping of another--and
so, on his part, the evil temptation had been obviated.
The HELP YOURSELF principle has at no time been extinct in society,
while it is seen to be a universal law of Nature. The wolf _helps
himself_ to the lamb, and the lamb to the grass. No animal assists
another, excepting when in the relation of parent to young, when
Nature could not dispense with the caprice of benevolence, which in
this instance, be it observed, distresses the parties susceptible of
the sentiment; for suckling creatures are always in poor condition.
Appropriation is the great business of the universe. The institution
of property is, on the other hand, artificial.--_Ibid._
* * * * *