the adventitious advantage of birth. thousands of hearts burning for distinction "Every one," he says in the History of and fame, or glowing with national ardor, his own Time, "who distinguishes him- he was too keen and too unfavorable an self through talents and virtues, is a no- observer of human nature to conceive bleman; and in this sense he may be look- that such motives as these could ensure ed on as a Melchisedec, who has neither him a regular supply of men, calculated father nor mother." "Les talens sont to meet the extremities of desperate distribués par la nature, sans égard aux service to which he had to expose them. genéalogies"—"Les vertus, les talens The only principles on which he could ont-ils besoin d'ayeux." All these fine rely to supply the place of such incenphrases seem rather misplaced in the mouth tives, was that chivalrous point of honor, of a prince, in whose service it was hardly which the fashionable writers of his time, possible for the highest merit to rise to and none more than the king himself, had military or even civil distinction, without affected to despise and to ridicule. And the accident of noble birth. Yet the in- this was only with certainty to be relied vestigator of Frederic's history will be apt upon in that class in which the habits of to conclude that it was a deep and well-education and family pride had confirmed considered policy, with reference to the it. By adhering to the choice of men of object which he had in view, which induced him to adopt the severe rule of exclusion against plebeian officers. He himself gives a part of the reason, but not the whole reason, which probably actuated him, in the appendix to one of his regulations, dated 1779. "It is more necessary than is generally believed to maintain this vigilance in the choice of officers, since the noblesse commonly possesses principles of honor. It cannot be denied, that we sometimes find desert and talent in men of no birth: but these are exceptions, and when they occur, it is advisable to retain such officers. But in general no resource remains for the nobility, except to distinguish themselves by the sword. If a gentleman loses his honor, he finds no refuge even in his father's house: whilst a roturier, when he has committed a disgraceful action, takes up again, without blushing, the trade of his father, and does not think himself any farther dishonored." noble birth, he secured the supply of a particular caste, devoted to his service in the field, and rendered absolutely dependent on him by their general poverty, no less than by their loyalty; for the system of entails, and the prohibition which was still strictly enforced against the purchase of military fiefs by roturiers, had reduced them generally to a very destitute condition. Accordingly, the king applied himself to continue his army, as he had found it, officered almost entirely by men of noble birth: but the sanguinary battles of the Seven Years' war carried off by hundreds the well-born youth of his regiments, and it became absolutely necessary to supply their place from elsewhere. Promotions soon became general: a tolerable educaIt is to be remembered, in reading this tion, and merit in the service, raised numpassage, and the commentary upon it bers of common soldiers from the ranks: which his conduct furnished, that the con- while the colleges and gymnasia of the stant labor of Frederic was to supply the country supplied almost the whole of their pressing exigencies of his service at as young élèves, sons of clergymen, mercheap a rate as possible. Without some chants, and tradesmen, to fill the place of stimulus to exertion, it was in vain to ex- the nobility who had fallen. It appeared pect a body of officers, fitted to perform therefore a most harsh and severe meathe overwhelming tasks which his gigantic sure when the king, in remodelling his projects imposed upon them. He had army after the peace of Hubertsburg, disnot, like the French republic or the Em- missed all roturier officers from his serperor, enormous prizes to hold out as the vice: when these gallant men, who had reward of successful valor: no soldier won the battles of their country, were could enrich himself during his hard-"marched out" almost without exception, fought campaigns in needy provinces: no and left to poverty and despair. fortunes were made in the service of Frederic by the inferior officers, no titles and appanages could reward the merit of his generals. Hence he had none of those splendid incentives to action, by the possession of which a skilful leader can draw from the ranks all the superior powers and energies which they contain; and although Frederic well knew that there were among his plebeian countrymen As the country did not supply noblemen enough to officer the army even on its reduced scale, they were sought after in foreign countries, and engaged from Saxony, Mecklenburg, and the rest of the empire, * The permission to contract sales of this description, which Frederic had rarely allowed as a matter of spe cial favor, was generally accorded without inquiry by his successor. But the law of 9th October, 1809, first rendered such transactions generally legal. to the exclusion of his actual companions | author expresses it, of the body of the in arms, whose only deficiency was the state-in planting colonies, draining, culwant of the prefix before their names. tivating, building, and unsuccessful comBut Frederic's inflexible policy admitted mercial experiments-that the money no deviation on the score of feeling or saved by such rigid carefulness was gratitude. In after years the increasing chiefly expended. A few details from the liberalism of the time effected but a slight work before us will illustrate his parsimoalteration in his obstinate adherence to nious endeavors to further the mental imoriginal views. In the instructions for the provement of his subjects. In 1830, the troops at the commencement of the war of Prussian government expended 480,000 the Bavarian succession (1779), the direc- dollars on the six principal universities. tion is given that "All officers, who dis- Until 1799, thirteen years after Frederic's tinguish themselves, shall be advanced a death, Halle, then the principal of them, step for every gallant action which they received only 18,000. Many edicts and perform: if under-officers distinguish them- ordinances appeared for re-establishing selves, they may thus obtain a patent of and multiplying the land-schools, (those of nobility and become officers: and in the primary education,) but the difficulty of same manner privates may raise them- finding salaries for the new school-masselves to the rank of under-officers." ters, for whose maintenance the king could In civil institutions, Frederic was rather only be induced now and then to approless averse from the employment of ple- priate some small surplus which happened beian talents. Yet only one roturier to be in hand after supplying some more reached the rank of minister without re- favorite speculation, generally prevented ceiving a patent of nobility; this was Fre- their fulfilment. But a still more objec deric Gottlieb Michaelis." Misalliances, tionable economy was that which began to and the mixture of gentle and common be practised in the latter years of his reign, blood, were at all times peculiarly displeasing to him; and he made a point of affording pensions to the female members of poor noble families, or placing them in foundations destined for young ladies of rank. So earnestly did Frederic labor to maintain a demarcation which the advancing footstep of time was about to obliterate for ever! on the suggestion of Von Brenkenhoffthe establishment of invalid soldiers and inferior officers as masters of elementary schools. The normal schools, or seminaries for teachers, owe their origin, however, to the reign of Frederic: the first was founded in 1750 at Berlin, and two others were added during his reign. Prussia now possesses fifty-eight. Nor was the direct Education, one of the elements of social interference of the king and his governprosperity which Prussia is now most ment with the mode of instruction adopted justly proud of enjoying, is not so much in his dominions very important: it did indebted to the hero of her monarchy as is not extend beyond the suggestion of a few generally supposed. Even his panegyrist books and subjects of study, nor was any Preuss is forced to confess that" Frederic general system of education promulgated did less for the schools and universities under those auspices. Upon the whole, than might have been expected from him, therefore, Prussia is beholden to her great the great friend of cultivation and science. monarch in this important branch of her All this province of government indicated | civilization, for little beyond those quano great and searching ameliorations, lities which his example imparted to every which had become so extensively neces- part of his administration. The love of sary. Many wholesome regulations were order, the sense of duty, the habit of frupublished, but the means were wanting to gality and moderation, these old republi carry them into execution." In fact, the can virtues were the inheritance left by strict economy of Frederic prevented him an absolute prince to his subjects: quafrom putting into practice various schemes, lities which he carried to a higher degree which attested nevertheless the interest he than any sovereign who has ever claimed took in national enlightment. But besides the respect of his people, and which have the enormous expense of his military esta- founded amidst modern luxury a governblishment, it was in taking care, as our ment and a nation of almost Spartan simplicity. It is remarkable, however, that Frederic always chose his Kammer-rathe-his clerks, as he was in the babit of calling them-out of the rank of citizens, and never enno led any of them. About 350 patents of nobility, and titles of baron, count and prince, were granted in his reign. Many a writer has expressed wonder and regret at the partiality uniformly expressed by Frederic for the authors of France over those of his native countrymany have lamented the neglected muse of Germany, or boasted with Schiller her independence of princely patrons, when . von Deutschland's grösstem Sohne, Von des grossen Friedrich's Throne, Ging sie schutzlos, ungeehrt." But few have endeavored to explain Frederic's continued want of sympathy with the genius of his native land on the ground of policy. Frederic wished to surround himself with learned men: his vanity and his taste alike prompted him to enjoy their flattery: nor was he insensible to the benefit which he derived from the association of his name with that of the powerful class of philosophers who commanded public opinion in Europe. But to excite a national spirit on behalf of literature and the arts, would have been to raise up a power against himself: for he must have well known that his system of beneficent but vigilant despotism would have found no very lenient critics among writers depending, not on himself, but on their fellow countrymen, for support and for fame. There was, it is to be feared, a constant sense of insecurity in Frederic's enjoyment of his popularity among his subjects: the barbarities of his military system kept alive a strong spirit of disaf fection in the lower class, ready at any moment to burst forth and had he done as his panegyrists word have had him, and created a German, literature among the people, his own creature would probably have been the first to turn against his authority. Such are a few of the prominent traits in the public and personal history of the great Frederic, which these volumes tend to elucidate. It would be difficult to find a nobler subject of study, either from the high elevation of that royal genius above the ranks of ordinary men, or from the great interests which have been involved in the reforms introduced by him into European systems. His reign is one great drama, in which the unity of action and plan is carried from the beginning to the Never was a mind less susceptible of change. Circumstances altered, and generations passed away, while he sate on the throne; but his principles remained as stedfast as if the wax which received his first ideas had become converted at once into solid marble. In his life, we find nothing of over caution or timidity taught by adverse circumstances: no imagination exalted and perverted by sucAllowing only for the physical decay of the body, he was the same man in his last years of peace and security, as cess. when in the first ardor of youth, he threw down the gauntlet to the power of Austria. His opinions, as well as sentiments, underwent not the shadow of turning. Religion gains nothing by the misrepresentations of those who would persuade us that all her great enemies have been fearful, dubious and repentant in their last hours. He left the society of men as he had sojourned among them, neither sharing in their hopes, their fears, their belief, or their devotion. Only those who were about him observed that when his bodily energies diminished, he was rather less fond of leading the conversation to those topics of metaphysics and religion which had once formed the common subject of his supper-table discussions: that he was less bitter in his sarcasms against Christianity and its professors, and more disposed to let the world take its own way in believing as well as acting. But they perceived no other alteration. He resisted the approaches of death as those of an enemy, step by step, not yielding an inch until nature failed, and performing every usual duty until actual weakness forced him to relinquish it. He even adopted, according to his biographers, some of the tricks said to have been resorted to by certain of the Roman emperors, (as they were by Cardinal Richelieu,) for concealing the advance of decay, But all this was done through no weak fear of death, but from firm determination to act his self-imposed part to the very end. Thus he descended. from the lonely position which he had so long occupied, the solitary mark of European admiration, among the sensual or imbecile princes who professed to make him their model: his memory became enshrined with those of the heroes of antiquity, who never received into their hallowed circle a spirit more impressed with the stamp of their primitive vigor; the century of Frederic, an act of the great European drama, closed, and the curtain fell to rise again over a new and extended scene, occupied by actors hitherto unknown, fraught with weightier interests. and greater revolutions. Einst rief dem Könige der Brennen Das Schicksal ernst und tröstlich zu: 3. Lelia, par G. Sand. 2 tom. 8vo. Paris, 1832. 4. Rose et Blanche, par J. Sand. 2 tom. 8vo. Paris, 1833. 5. Le Secrétaire Intime, par G. Sand. 2 tom. 8vo. Paris, 1834. 6. Jacques, par George Sand. 2 tom. 8vo, Paris, 1834. Sand agrees not with our friend, but having deserved and gained a high—a very high-literary reputation, fancies he may go to sleep, and fearlessly publish the somnambulic effusions of his repose. The second point is, that even those novels which we rank highest in the scale, Indiana and Valentine, although not actually immoral, certainly not licentious, THE string of novels above enumerated, are often so daring in situation and in taken in combination with their author, graphic delineation, are so generally deficonstitute a moral phenomenon, perhaps cient in refined delicacy, in glowing love not one of the least remarkable of these of, and delight in, virtue, that we should our phenomenon-teeming days. The hesitate about recommending even these points co-operating to the construction of to our fair and youthful readers. It may this phenomenon are of course multifa- be thought that in the present state of rious. One is, the inconceivable discre- French literature, at least in the departpancy, and that of an unwonted kind, be- ments of the drama and of prose fiction, tween the earlier and later productions of this want of delicacy and of moral sense one and the same author. The first two rather detracts from than enhances the works, but especially the first, of the soi- singularity we have ascribed to the producdisant George Sand, were so replete with tions before us; but the reader will possitalent and with knowledge of human na- bly abandon that opinion when informed ture, so boldly conceived and so brilliantly of our third point, to wit, that George executed,-were written in a style so ani- Sand is only a pseudonyme, and that the mated, so graphically delightful, displayed real author of them is a lady, and a lady portraits hit off with such admirable (as we have been informed, but cannot power and spirit,-even if not always vouch) of unblemished character, whose wrought out in the conduct of the story name is Madame Dudevant. in perfect keeping with the original sketch, The astonishment created by the dis-as we have rarely seen surpassed. Glad covery of the sex and individuality of the ly did we hail them, as harbingers of the writer augments an hundred, nay, a milrising of a new and radiant, if not perfectly lion-fold, as we peruse the subsequent salutiferous star, above the literary hori- writings of the same highly, but perversely zon, The succeeding works published endowed authoress, who, in Lelia, seems under the same name, far from showing the almost ignorant, and quite reckless, of the improved mastery of the art usually ac- difference between right and wrong. The quired by practice, are, as though the most favorable hypothesis we can frame mine had been thus quickly exhausted, so respecting our disguised lady is, that havimmeasurably inferior to their predeces- ing been harshly treated by society, and sors in everything, (except, perhaps, especially unfortunate in the conjugal reboldness of conception, which now some- lation, she has been exasperated into the times increases from originality to extra- determined hostility to both, which, despite vagance,) that but for their similarity of her protestations to the contrary, her pubtone and temper, we should hardly know lications exhibit, and in the irritation of how to credit their fraternal relationship. unhappiness has lost the sensitive pudicity If we are indeed to believe that George of her sex. Sand is one individual, and not two or But we cannot expect our readers to more individuals, we look not upon the go along with us in these generalities. J. once substituted for the G. as any argu- To enable them to do so, we must enter ment, because, to say nothing of public into particulars, and we believe the only opinion, Lelia, to which we chiefly allude, way of unfolding our phenomenon will bears the G-we cannot suggest, for the be to give short sketches of, and an extract unriddling of the mystery, a better key or two from, all these tales. But in order than the remark of a shrewd and witty to give the authoress fair play, we will friend of our own youth, who was wont begin with extracts from the prefaces. In to say, It is when a man has got a bad that to Indiana she saysname that he may go to sleep, since nothing he can do will ever change it; when he has a good one, he must labor like a horse to keep it." Of a surety George 'The narrator hopes that after hearing his tale to results from his facts, and there, as in all that is huthe end, few auditors will deny the morality which man, is triumphant. As he finished it, he felt his conscience clear, and judged that the legal code which here upon earth must regulate the throbbing of man's bosom, ought in fairness to acquit him. He flatters himself that he has related without rancor the paltry miseries of society, has described without too much passion the passions of humanity.... Perhaps you will do him justice if you allow that he has shown you the being who strives to get rid of a legitimate curb very wretched, the heart that revolts against the decrees of fate very desolate. If he has not assigned the fairest part to the one of his personages who represents law, if he has shown under a still less lively aspect him who represents opinion, you will see a third who represents illusion, and who cruelly mocks and disappoints the vain hopes, the wild enterprises of passion. In short, you will see, that if he has not strewed roses on the ground where the law pens the wills of men, like the appetites of sheep, he has thrown nettles upon the path that leads from it. * 'Indiana is woman, the feeble being commissioned to represent the passions oppressed, or, if you like it better, repressed by the laws; here is will struggling with necessity; here is love dashing his blind brow against all the obstacles of civilization. But the serpent wears and breaks his teeth in striving to gnaw a file; the soul exhausts its energies in wrestling with the positive of life.' approach to delicacy, and is in every respect our favorite, we shall devote our principal attention to it. Indiana is the story of a marriage, unhappy from difference of age, station, opinions, feelings, disposition, in short, every thing in which contrariety is most inimical to happiness in the intimate association of wedlock. The husband is a surly halfpay veteran of the imperial army, lowborn, uneducated, violent, jealous, and infirm; the wife, a noble Creole of Spanish race, lovely and good, with all the unregulated sensibility, or shall we say susceptibility? of tropical climates. She deems that she does her duty fully to the disagreeable partner of her life and master of her destiny, by personal fidelity and coldly implicit obedience, without an effort either to care for him, or to soothe and soften him into an object of, at least, respect and kindliness. She, Indiana, falls in love with a hero, whom, as a somewhat novel character, we must let the authoress herself paint. Her portrait of him displays that intermixture of general satirical touches Against this statement, we must be allowed to set a sort of aphoristic exclamation in Valentine, which, not being assign-in which she excels. ed to any personage in the novel, must be taken as expressing the writer's own opinion. 'Poor woman, poor society, where the heart can find no genuine enjoyment, save in the forgetfulness of all duty, of all reason!' ... 'M. Raymon de Ramière was neither a coxcomb nor a libertine. He was a man of principle, when he reasoned with himself. But impetuous passions often hurried him out of his systems. Then he was no longer capable of reflection, or he avoided summoning himself to the bar of his own conscience; he committed faults, unknown as it were, to himself, and the man of yesterday exerted himself But on the other hand, in the preface to to deceive the man of to-morrow.. Raymon Le Secrétaire Intime, Madame Dudevant had the art of being often guilty without making himself hated, often capricious without being offenhas again vindicated or explained her sive. He occasionally succeeded in obtaining the views, and from this vindication or expla-pity of those who had most cause for being angry nation, likewise, we are bound in justice to with him. offer extracts. 'The author deems it his duty to declare, that he never meant to draw up an indictment against society, against the institutions by which it is governed, against humanity itself, as has been recently asserted. Intentions of this sort would ill become him; neither his talent, nor his will, nor yet his hopes, deserve so serious an impeachment. He well knows that the majority value highly institutions which they find convenient, and thank God, pride and folly have not yet bewildered him so far, as to induce the belief that a word of his could overthrow what exists. . . . . 'Indiana and Valentine are not then a satire against marriage, but pictures true or false (that the reader must decide) of the moral sufferings inflicted upon a delicate and pure soul by imperious brutality and by polished egotism. As marriage and love may very well exist independently of these two conditions, the poetical truth of the picture has nothing to do with the institutions and the passions that serve to frame it.' This last sentence seems to refer to the Secrétaire Intime itself, of which hereaf ter. We now turn to the earlier novels; and as Indiana is that in which the ticklish situations are managed with the nearest VOL. XIV. 20 * * * * 'Raymon was an exception from the rule, that he who speaks eloquently of his love is little in love. He expressed his passion skilfully, and felt it fervently. Only it was not his passion that made him eloquent, it was his eloquence that fired his passion. He took a fancy to a woman; he became eloquent to seduce her, and, whilst seducing, became despcrately enamored of her. ... Raymon had committed for love what are called follies.* He had run away with a young lady of condition (and still is a bachelor); he had compromised women of high rank; he had fought two or three celebrated duels; he had betrayed the disorder of his heart, the delirium of his thoughts, to a whole rout, a whole theatre. A man who does all this without fear of being laughed at or execrated, and who succeeds in escaping both, is thenceforth invulnerable; he may risk every thing, hope every thing. |