New Publications.--M. de Lamartine's "Souvenirs, Impressions,
Pensées, et Paysages."--Tocqueville and Beaumont.--New
American regulation.--M. Scribe.--Madame Tastu.--Reception of
different Writers in society.
Though among the new publications sent to me for perusal I have found
much to fatigue and disgust me, as must indeed be inevitable for any
one accustomed for some scores of years to nourish the heart and head
with the literature of the "_bon vieux temps_"--which means, in modern
phrase, everything musty, rusty, rococo, and forgotten,--I have yet
found some volumes which have delighted me greatly.
M. de Lamartine's "Souvenirs, Impressions, Pensées, et Paysages" in
the East, is a work which appears to me to stand solitary and alone in
the world of letters. There is certainly nothing like it, and very
little that can equal it, in my estimation, either as a collection of
written landscapes or as a memorial of poetical feeling, just
sentiment, and refined taste.
His descriptions may perhaps have been, in some rare instances,
equalled in mere graphic power by others; but who has painted anything
which can excite an interest so profound, or an elevation of the fancy
so lofty and so delightful?
Alas! that the scenes he paints should be so utterly beyond one's
reach! How little, how paltry, how full of the vulgar interests of
this "working-day world," do all the other countries of the earth
appear after reading this book, when compared to Judea! But there are
few who could visit it as Lamartine has done,--there are very few
capable of feeling as he felt--and none, I think, of describing as he
describes. His words live and glow upon the paper; he pours forth
sunshine and orient light upon us,--we hear the gale whispering among
the palm-trees, see Jordan's rapid stream rushing between its flowery
banks, and feel that the scene to which he has transported us is holy
ground.
The exalted tone of his religious feelings, and the poetic fervour
with which he expresses them, might almost lead one to believe that he
was inspired by the sacred air he breathed. It seems as if he had
found the harps which were hung up of old upon the trees, and tuned
them anew to sing of the land of David; he has "beheld the beauty of
the Lord, and inquired in his temple," and the result is exactly what
it should be.
The manner in which this most poetic of travellers, while standing on
the ruins of Tyre, speaks of the desolation and despair that appear
settling upon the earth in these latter days, is impressive beyond
anything I know of modern date.
Had France produced no other redeeming volumes than these, there is
enough within them to overpower and extinguish the national literary
disgrace with which it has been reproached so loudly; and it is a
comfort to remember that this work is as sure to live, as the literary
labours of the diabolic school are to perish. It is perhaps good for
us to read trash occasionally, that we may learn to value at their
worth such thoughts as we find here; and while there are any left on
earth who can so think, so feel, and so write, our case is not utterly
hopeless.
Great, indeed, is the debt that we owe to an author like this, who,
seizing upon the imagination with power unlimited, leads it only into
scenes that purify and exalt the spirit. It is a tremendous power,
that of taking us how and where he will, which is possessed by such an
author as this. When it is used for evil, it resembles fearfully the
action of a fiend, tempting, dragging, beckoning, cajoling to
destruction: but when it is for good, it is like an angel's hand
leading us to heaven.
I intended to have spoken to you of many other works which have
pleased me; but I really at this moment experience the strangest sort
of embarrassment imaginable in referring to them. Many agreeable new
books are lying about before me; but while my head is so full of
Lamartine and the Holy Land, everything seems to produce on me the
effect of platitude and littleness.
I must, however, conquer this so far as to tell you that you ought to
read both Tocqueville and Beaumont on the United States. By the way, I
am assured that the Americans declare themselves determined to change
their line of conduct altogether respecting the national manner of
receiving European sketches of themselves. This new law is to embrace
three clauses. The first will enforce the total exclusion, from
henceforth and for evermore, of all European strangers from their
American homes; the second will recommend that all citizens shall
abstain from reading anything, in any language written, or about to be
written, concerning them and their affairs; and the third, in case the
other two should fail, seems to take the form of a vow, protesting
that they never will storm, rave, scold, or care about anything that
anybody can say of them more. If this passes during the presidentship
of General Jackson, it will immortalize his reign more than paying off
the national debt.
Having thus, somehow or other, slipped from the Holy Land to the
United States of America, I feel sufficiently subdued in spirit to
speak of lesser things than Lamartine's "Pilgrimage."
On one point, indeed, a sense of justice urges me, when on the subject
of modern productions, to warn you against the error of supposing that
all the new theatrical pieces, which come forth here as rapidly and as
brilliantly as the blossoms of the gum cistus, and which fade almost
as soon, are of the nature and tendency of those I have mentioned as
belonging to the Victor Hugo school. On the contrary, I have seen
many, and read more, of these little comedies and vaudevilles, which
are not only free from every imputation of mischief, but absolutely
perfect in their kind.
The person whose name is celebrated far above all others for this
species of composition, is M. Scribe; and were it not that his
extraordinary facility enables him to pour forth these pretty trifles
in such abundance as already to have assured him a very large fortune,
which offers an excellent excuse in these _positif_ times for him, I
should say that he would have done better had he written less.
He has shown on several occasions, as in "L'Ambitieux," "Bertrand et
Raton," &c. that he can succeed in that most difficult of tasks, good
legitimate comedy, as well as in the lighter labour of striking off a
sparkling vaudeville. It is certain, indeed, that, spite of all we
say, and say in some respects so justly, respecting the corrupted
taste of France at the present era, there never was a time when her
stage could boast a greater affluence of delightful little pieces than
at present.
I really am afraid to enter more at large upon this theme, from a
literal _embarras de richesses_. If I begin to name these pretty,
lively trifles, I shall run into a list much too long for your
patience: for though Scribe is still the favourite as well as the most
fertile source of these delightful novelties, there are one or two
others who follow him at some little distance, and who amongst them
produce such a sum total of new pieces in the year as would make an
English manager tremble to think of;--but here the chief cost of
bringing them out is drawn, not from the theatrical treasury, but from
the ever-fresh wit and spirit of the performers.
Such an author as Scribe is a national museum of invention--a
never-failing source of new enjoyment to his lively countrymen, and he
has probably tasted the pleasures of a bright and lasting reputation
as fully as any author living. We are already indebted to him for many
charming importations; and, thanks to the Yates talent, we begin to be
not unworthy of receiving such. If we cannot have Shakspeare, Racine,
and Molière got up for us quite "in the grand style of former years,"
these bright, light, biting, playful, graceful little pieces are by
far the best substitutes for them, while we wait with all the patience
we can for a new growth of players, who shall give honour due to the
next tragedy Miss Mitford may bestow upon us.
Another proof that it is not necessary to be vicious in order to be in
vogue at Paris, and that purity is no impediment to success, is the
popularity of Madame Tastu's poetry. She writes as a woman ought to
write--with grace, feeling, delicacy, and piety.
Her literary efforts, however, are not confined to the "flowery path
of poesy;" though it is impossible not to perceive that she lingers in
it with delight, and that when she leaves it, she does so from no
truant inclination to wander elsewhere, but from some better impulse.
Her work entitled "Education Maternelle" would prove a most valuable
acquisition to English mothers desirous themselves of giving early
lessons in French to their children. The pronunciation and
accentuation are marked in a manner greatly to facilitate the task,
especially to a foreigner; whose greatest difficulty, when attempting
to teach the language without the aid of a native master, is exactly
what these initiatory lessons are so well calculated to obviate.
It is no small source of consolation and of hope, at a period when a
sort of universal epidemic frenzy appears to have seized upon the
minds of men, leading them to advocate as good that which all
experience shows to be evil, and to give specimens of dirty delirium
that might be collected in an hospital, by way of exalted works of
imagination,--it is full of hope and consolation to find that, however
rumour may clamour forth tidings of these sad ravings whenever they
appear, fame still rests only with such as really deserve it.
Let a first-rate collector of literary lions at Paris make it known
that M. de Lamartine would appear at her _soirée_, and the permission
to enter there would be sought so eagerly, that before eleven o'clock
there would not be standing-room in her apartments, though they might
be as spacious as any the "belle ville" can show. But let it be
announced that the authors of any of the obscene masques and mummings
which have disgraced the theatres of France would present themselves,
and depend upon it they would find space sufficient to enact the part
of Triboulet at the moment when he exclaims in soliloquy,
"Que je suis grand ici!"