" There dwelleth in the heart of every creature, 0 Arjuna, the Master- (.,hajar u-who ::y his n~agicpower causeth all things and creatures to revolve mounted upon the uliiversal n heel of time. Take sanctuary with him alone, O son of Rharata, with all thy soul ; by his grace thou shalt obtain supreme happirless, the eternal peace."--h'/~a~yavad-Gzta. No. 8. ALPHONSE DE LAMARTINE. I.-CHILDHOOD. BY ALEXANDER WILDER, M. D. 4E heart of man only rerne~~lbersa similar plane with the person of the what moves and impassions it, ' ' story. says the hero of our story. The Lamartine has admirably fulfilled popular taste never looks to details in these conditions. He was horn when history, but only to the men 1%-hohave the storm was rising that should change associated their own history with these the whole face of things, shake all ex- facts. History, as a book, is a dead isting institutions and the very ground thing, but when personified in a living on which they stood, break up the old person it becomes itself alive through arrangements of society, overturn the and through with his vital forces. Sym- throne of France and involve all Europe pathy is the key to memory. The sketch in commotion. of a career is interesting from its epic His family was of a rank sufficiently and dramatic features, from what the high to distingtlish its members from actor has experienced, from the toil, the neighboring community, and its vicissitude and anguish that he has en- representatives had attained honorable courlterecl The reader contenlplates all position in the public service. His these as though actually enduring them, grandfather won the cross of St. Louis feeling that he likewise under sinlilar at the battle of Fontenoy, and was made conditions might do the same things. a captain of cavalry. He afterward mar- We may be preached to till we acquire ried a wealthy heiress, and became the an in~pervious insensibility ; we may father of six children. The mother was attend to lessons till we are ready to thoroughly loyal to the ancient customs drop them in utter disgust, but when we and the careers of the sons and daughters have a living person for a model who is were shaped accordingly. The first-born of like passions with ourselves, we are son was the inheritor of the family never weary. property, and was expected to marry It is for this reason that the actor on and maintain the establishment. The the stage charms us more than the younger sons and the portionless daugh- preacher at his desk, that the novel is ters were required to live single. One read in preference to history, and the daughter became Canoness at Salles and biography delights us beyond other lit- took the vows, and the other two were erature. We seem to ourselves to be on placed in convents as inmates. Con- 412 UNIVERSAL, BROTHERHOOD. vents were the asylums of that period leans. This nobleman, the first prince of for girls of rank for whom there was no the blood, was always an innovator. 111 other sufficient provision. The second his Palais Royal, the reforniers of gov- son, in spite of his profound repugnance ernment, the philosophers of the new to the profession, was designed by his age, and men of science, were frequent parents for a priest. guests. Among those were Franklin The third son was set apart to the from -4merica, Edward Gibbon from army. Perhaps he, too, might obtain England, Grimnl and others from Ger- the cross of St. Louis, become a captain of many, Voltaire, D'Alembel-t, Buffon, cavalry and be dismissed with a pension. Raynal, Sieyes, Necker and other think- He could go back then to his brother's ers, artists and scientists. Ptladanle de house and vegetate. He would take Genlis was the governess of his children. charge of the garden, dress his hair, play The wife of 31. des Koys was their under- with the children, make one at a game governess, and the generous Duchess of chess or backgammon with the neigh- permitted her children to share the les- bors, living as a domestic slave, con- sons and pastimes of the young princes tenting liiniself with existing, loved per- and princesses. One of these was Louis haps, but overlooked by everybody, and Philippe, afterward King of the French. so passing his life unnoticed, without The young girl, Alix des Roys was property, wife or children, till infirmity one of these children. She listened and disease should banish him from the eagerly to the discourses of the illus- drawing-room to the solitary chamber trious visitors, and though always a sin- where hung on the wall the sword and cere Catholic, she became a devoted ad- helmet long laid aside. Then a day mirer of the writings of Jean Jaques would come when it would be announced Rousseau. in the mansion : " The Chevalier is At the age of sixteen she was ap- dead. " pointed by the Duke to the Chapter of Such was the career marked out for Salles, where the sister of 1,amartine's the junior son of the family. He ac- father was Canoness. This situation cepted it regretfully, but without a niur- has been described as an elegant and mur, His mother was a tenacious ad- agreeable transition between the Church herent to tlie social regulations and these and the world. ' ' The members were per- in the old France were like the regime of niitted to spend part of the tinie with caste in India, and apparently as irrevo- their families, and thotlgh men were cable as the ancient lau-s of the Medes generally excluded, canonesses received and Persians. A new contingency had visits from their brothers. In this way arisen. The young man had formed an the young captain had met Alix des attachment and the eldest brother had Roys. The sister encouraged their at- determined not to marry. This was tachment, but it required all their con- made a plea in his behalf, but it was of stancy to sustain the long years of pa- no avail. The suggestion that tlie cadet rental opposition. of the family should nlarry was mon- Opportunely for their wishes, French strous. It would extend the fanlily link Society was undergoing a radical trans- into obscure branches which would be a formation. The arbitrary caste-regula- crime against the blood. The niother tions gradually gave way, and the ob- was unyielding, and the young man was stacles to their marriage were finally hurried away to his regiment and antici- snrmounted. pated destiny. The husband was no longer young. M. des Roys was intendant-general He was thirty-eight, and still held his of the exchequer of the Duke of Or- command. His regiment of cavalry was as his faniily ; he knew the names of all The wife and infant 1,amartitle were the officers and nienibers, and was adored left at the family niansion under the by them all. Every >-ear lie devoted a surveillance of insolent soldiers. Her season to hunting. He was like an oak condition niay easily be inmgined. '' It casting- off his age and renewing his is no wonder, " says Lamartine, (( that strenqth, till past eighty years, preserv- those whose birth dates fro111 those woful ing his I~odysound and his teeth entire daj-s carry a shade of sadness and an aricl perfect to the last. imprint of n~elancholyin their disposi- -4lphonsc Marie Louis de Pret de La- tion. ' ' niartine was born at Rfiicon in Burgundy She emploj-ecl numerous expedients, on the 2 1st day of October, 1790. The remarkable for ingenuity and discretion. Revolution was then in progress. IIis The place \%-hereher husband was con- father was still in the arniy, and was fined was across the street in full view afterward placed with the Royal Guard. of the mansion. She was not long in He barely escaped the massacre of the obtaining a sight of him. She would tenth of August, 1792, and in~nlediately hold up the infant Alphonse to his view made his way with his wife froni Paris and then bestow her caresses on the to 31Acon for safety. child as representing tl:e father. She The other menibers of the faniily were wrote a message in letters of a size large partisans of the Constitution of 1791. enough for him to read, telling him of The Abbe Lamartine was n personal her plans. She also learllccl to shoot friend of LaFaj-ette till death separated with a bow and sent arrows into liis them ; and tlie grandfather liad entes- \I-indow. To this a thread as attached tained Rfirabeau. It should be borne in by nieans of which she supplied him with mind that the great movement in France messages, paper and ink. I11 this way was not in its inception any uprising- of they carried on a correspondence. She the multitude. " It was not the Com- furnished him with a file, which enabled monalty that made tlie Revolution, " liim to niake a passage out of his prison Lamartine avers ; " it was the nobility, and spend hours in her company. the clergy and the thinking inen of the She, however, strenuously opposecl his nation. Superstitions often have their wisli to escape. It would have con- birth with the comnion people ; but phi- signed the jailer to certain death, and all losophies are born with those only who their opportunities had been due to liis constitute the liead of Society. Kow, the leriitj-.