great sen.

a

methods, which incessantly co-operate people insular and maritime, especially to furnish body and mind with all with such a sea and such coasts; their which they need, --such are henceforth painters, not very gifted, perceive in the leading and special features of this spite of all, its alarming and glcomy people. To constrain themselves and aspect ; up to the eighteenth century, to provide for themselves, to govern amidst the elegance of French culture, themselves and nature, to consider and under the joviality of Flemish life as moralists and economists, like a tradition, we will find in Gainsborough close garment, in which people must the ineffaceable stamp of this walk becomingly, and like a good gar. timent. In pleasant moments, in the fine uent, the best to be had, to be at calm summer days, the moist fog once respectable and comfortable : stretches over the horizon its pearlnese two words embrace all the main- gray veil; the sea has a pale slate springs of English actions. Against this color; and the ships, spreading their .

imited good sense, and this pedantic canvas, advance patiently through the Rusterity, a revolt broke out. With mist. But let us look around, and we the universal renewal of thought and will soon see the signs of daily peri) imagination, the deep poetic source The coast is eaten out, the waves have which flowed in the sixteenth century, encroached, the trees have vanished, seeks anew an outlet in the nineteenth, the earth is softened by incessant and a fresh literature springs up; phi- showers, the ocean is here, ever in. losophy and history infiltrate their doc- tractable and fierce. It growls and trines into the old establishment; the bellows eternally, that old hoarse greatest poet of the time shocks it in- monster; and the barking pack of its cessantly with his curses and sarcasms ; , waves advances like an endless army, from all sides, to this day, in science before which all human force must and letters, in practice and theory, in give way. Think of the winter months, private and in public life, the most the storms, the long hours of the tem. powerful minds endeavor to open up a pest-tossed sailor whirled about blindly new channel to the stream of continen. by the squalls! Now, and in this fine tal ideas. But they are patriots as season, over the whole circle of the well as innovators, conservative as horizon, rise the dull, wan, clouds, soon well as revolutionary; if they touch like the smoke of a coal-fire, some of a religion and constitution, manners and frail and dazzling white, so swollen that doctrines, it is to widen, not to destroy they seem ready to burst. Their heavy them : England is made; she knows masses creep, slowly along; they are it, and they know it. Such as this gorged, and already here and there on country is, based on the whole national the limitless plain a patch of sky is history and on all the national instincts, shrouded in a sudden shower. After it is more capable than any other peo- an instant, the sea becomes dirty and ple in Europe of transforming itself cadaverous; its waves leap with strange without recasting, and of devoting itself gambols, and their sides take an oily to its future without renouncing its and livid tint. The vast gray dome past.

drowns and hides the whole horizon ;

the rain falls, close and pitiless. We $ 2.

cannot have an idea of it, until we have

seen it. When the southem men, the 1.

Romans, came here for the first time,

they must have thought themselves ir I began to perceive these ideas when the infernal regions. Tie wide space I first landed in England, and I was between earth and sky, and on which singuiarly struck how they were corrobo our eyes dwell as their domain, sudorated by observation and history; it denly fails; there is no more air, we seemed to me that the present was see but a flowing mist. No more colcompleting the past, and the past ex- ors or forms. In this yellowish smoke, plained the present.

objects look like fading ghosts; nature At first the sea troubles and strikes seems a bad crayon-drawing, over which a man with wonder; not in vain is a a child has awkwardly smeared his

sleeve. Here we are at Newhaven, rich, provide against an evil day, sur then at London ; the sky disgorges round himself with comfort, become a rain, the earth returns her mist, the Protestant, a manufacturer, a politi mist floats in the rain ; all is swamped: cian; in short, capable of activity and looking round us, we see no reason resistance ; and in all the ways open why it should ever end. Here, truly, to men, endure and strive. is Iloiner's Cimmerian land : our feet Yet there are charming and touch splash, we have no use left for our eyes; ing beauties here-those, to wit, of a we feel all our organs stopped up, be well-watered land. When, on a piztly coming, rusty by the mounting damp; clear day, we take a drive into the we think ourselves banished from the country and reach an eminence, our breathing world, reduced to the con- eyes experience a unique sensation, dition of marshy beings dwelling in and a pleasure hitherto unknown. In dirty pools : to live here is not life. the far distance, wherever we look on We ask ourselves if this vast town is the horizon, in the fields, on the hills, not a ceinetery, in which dabble busy spreads the always visible verdure, and wretched ghosts. Amidst the plants for fodder and food, clover, deluge of moist soot, the muddy stream hops ; lovely meadows overflowing with with its unwearying iron ships, like high thick grass ; here and there a black insects which take on board and cluster of lofty trees ; pasture lands land shades, makes us think of the hemmed in with hedges, in which the Styx. As there is no light, they create heavy cows ruminate in peace. The it. Lately, in a large square in Lon. mist rises insensibly between the trees don, in the finest hotel, it was neces and in the distance float luminou: sary to leave the gas alight for five vapors. There is nothing sweeter is days running. We become melancholy; the world, nor more delicate, tha. we are disgusted with others and with these tints ; we might pause for hour. ourselves. What can people do in together gazing on these pearly clouds this sepulchre ? To remain at home this fine aerial down, this soft trans without working is to gnaw one's parent gauze which imprisons the rays vitals, and to prepare one's self for of the sun, dulls them, and lets them suicide. To go out is to make an reach the ground only to smile on it effort, to care neither for damp nor and to caress it. On both sides of our cold, to brave discomfort and unpleas- carriage pass before our eyes incessant. ant sensations. Such a climate pre- ly meadows each more lovely than the scribes action, forbids sloth, develops last, in which buttercups, meadow-sweet, energy, teaches patience. I was look- Easter-daisies, are crowded in succesing just now on the steam-boat at the sion with their dissolving hues; a sweet. sailors at the helm, their tarpaulins, ness almost painful, a strange charm, their great streaming boots, their sou'- breathes from this inexhaustible and westers, so attentive, so precise in their transient vegetation. It is too fresh, it movements, so grave, so self-contain- cannot last; nothing here is staid, ed. I have since seen workmen at stable and firm, as in the South; all is their looms, - calm, serious, silent, fleeting, springing up, or dying away, economizing their efforts, and persever. hovering betwixt tears and joy. The ing all day, all the year, all their life, rolling water-drops shine on the leaves in the same regular and monotonous like pearls; the round tree-tops, the struggle of mind and body: their soul widespread' foliage, whisper in the is suited to their climate. Indeed it feeble breeze, and the sound of the must be so in order to live; after a falling tears left by the last shower week, we feel that here a man must re- never ceases. How well these plants nounce refined and heartfelt enjoyment, thrive iu he glades, spread out wanthe happiness of careless life, com- tonly, ever renewed and watered by the plete idleness, the easy and harmonious moist air! How the sar mounts in expansion of artistic and animal na- these plants, refreshed and protected ture ; that here he must marry, bring up against the weather! And how sky a houseful of children, assume the cares and land seem made to guard their and importance of a family man, grow | tissue and refresh their hues! At the least glimpse of sun they smile with children. The piquant, the agreeable delicious charm; we would call them are not a necessity to hin. The weak delicate and timid virgins under a veil ness of his sensitive impulses contrib about to be raised. Let the sun for utes to the force of his mcral impulses. an instant emerge, and we will see His temperament makes him argumen. them grow resplendent as in a ball tative; he can get on without police dress. The light falls in dazzling men; the shocks of man against man sheets; the lustrous golden petals shine do not here end in explosions. He can with a too vivid color; the most splen- discuss in the market-place aloud, re. did embroideries, velvet starred with ligion and politics, hold meetings, form diamonds, sparkling silk seamed with associations, rudely attack men in office pearls, are not to be compared to this say that the Constitution is violated, Jeep hue ; joy overflows like a brim- predict the ruin of the State : there is ming cup. In the strangeness and the no objection to this; his nerves are rarity of this spectacle, we understand calm; he will argue without cutting for the first time the life of a humid throats; he will not raise revolutions; land. The water multiplies and soft and perhaps he will obtain a reform. ens the living tissues; plants increase, Observe the passers-by in the streets ; and have no substance : nourishment in three hours we will see all the visi. abounds, and has no savor; moisture ble features of this temperament : light fructifies, but the sun does not fertilize. hair, in children almost white; pale Much grass, much cattle, much meat; eyes, often blue as Wedgwood-ware, large quantities of coarse food: thus red whiskers, a tall figure, the motions an absorbing and phlegmatic tempera- of an automaton; and with these other ment is supported; the human growth, still more striking features, those which like the animal and vegetable, is power- strong food and combative life have ful, but heavy; man is amply but coarse-added to this temperament. Here the ly framed ; the machine is solid, but it enormous guardsman, with rosy com

| turns slowly on its hinges, and the hinges plexion, majestic, slightly bent, who generally creak and are rusty. When we struts along twirling a little cane in his look at the people closer, it seems that hand, displaying his chest, and showing their various parts are independent, at a clear parting between his pomaded least that they need time to let sensa- hair; there the over-fed stout man, tions pass through them. Their ideas short, sanguine, like an animal fit for do not at first break out in passions, the shambles, with his startled, dazed, gestures, actions. As in the Fleming yet sluggish air ; a little further on the and the German, they dwell first of all country gentleman, six feet high, stout in the brain ; they expand there, they and tall, like the German who left his rest there; man is not shaken by them, forest, with the muzzls and nose of a he has no difficulty in remaining motion- bull-dog, tremendous savage-looking less, he is not rapt: he can act wisely, whiskers, rolling eyes, apoplectic face ; uniformly; for his inner motive power these are the excesses of coarse blood is an idea or a wat:hword, not an emo and food; add to which, even in the tion or an attraction. He can bear women, the white front teeth of a cartedium, or rather he does not weary nivorous ar imal, and big feet solidly hi nself; his ordinary course consists shod, excellent for walking in the mud. of dull sensations, and the insipid mo- Again, look at the young men in a notony of mechanical life has nothing cricket match or picnic party; doubtwhich need repel him. He is accus- less mind does not sparkle in their eyes, tomed to it, his nature is suited for it. but life abounds there ; there is someWhen ? man has all his life eaten thing of decision and energy ir their tur:ips, he does not wish for oranges. whole being; healthy and active, ready He will readily resign himself to hear for motion, for enterprise, these are the fifteen consecutive discourses on the words which rise involuntarily to our zame subject, demanding for twenty lips when we speak of them. Many years the same reform, coinpiling statis- look like fine, slender harriers, sniffing tics, studying moral treatises, keeping the air, and in full cry. A life passea Sunday schools, bringing up a dozen in gymnastic exercises or in venture

some deeds is honored in England ; round him. His whole existence in they must move their body, swim, throw directed to a single end; he must in. the ball, run in the damp meadow, row, cessantly exert himself to the utmost. breathe in their boats the briny sea- practice the same exertion, a profitable vapor, feel on their foreheads the rain. one; he has become a machine. This drops falling from the large oak trees, is especially visible in workmen; per. leap their horses over ditches and severance, obstinacy, resignation, are gates; the animal instincts are intact. depicted on their long bony and dull They still relish natural pleasures; faces. It is still more visible in women precocity has not spoiled them. Noth of the lower orders : many are thin, ing can be simpler than the young consumptive, their eyes hollow, their English girls; amidst many beautiful nose sharp, their skin streaked with things, there are few so beautiful in the red patches; they have suffered toc world; slim, strong, self-assured, so fun- much, have had too many children, damentally honest and loyal, so free from have a washed-out, or oppressed, or coquetry! A man cannot imagine, if submissive, or stoically impassive air ; he has not seen it, this freshness and we feel that they have endured much innocence; many of them are flowers, and can endure still more. Even in the expanded flowers; only a morning rose, middle or upper class this patience and with its transient and delicious color, sad hardening are frequent; we think with its petals drenched in dew, can when we see them of those poor beasts give us an idea of it; it leaves far be- of burden, deformed by the harness, hind the beauty of the South, and its which remain motionless under the precise, stable, finished contours, its falling rain without thinking of shelwell-defined outlines; here we per. ter. Verily the battle of life is harsher ceive fragility, delicacy, the continual and more obstinate here than elsebudding of life; candid eyes, blue as where ; whoever gives way, falls. Be. periwinkles, looking at us without think- neath the rigor of climate and competi ing of our look.. At the least stirring tion, amidst the strikes of industry, the of the soul, the blood rushes in purple weak, the improvident, perish or are waves into these girls' cheeks, neck, degraded; then comes gin and does and shoulders ; we see emotions pass its work; thence the long files of over these transparent complexions, as wretched women who sell themselves the colors change in the meadows; and by night in the Strand to pay their their modesty is so virginal and sin- rent; thence those shameful quarters cere,

that we are tempted to lower our of London, Liverpool, all the great eyes from respect. And yet, natural towns, those spectres in tatters, gloomy and frank as they are, they are not lan or drunk, who crowd the dram-shops, guishing or dreamy; they love and who fill the streets with their dirty endure exercise like their brothers; linen, and their rags hung out on with flowing locks, at six years they ropes, who lie on a soot-heap, amidst ride on horseback and take long walks. troops of wan children; horrible shoals, Active life in this country strengthens whither descend all whom their woundthe phlegmatic temperament, and the ed, idle, or feeble arms could not keep heart is kept more simple whilst the on the surface of the great stream. body grows healthier. Another obser. The chances of life are tragic here, ration : far above all these figures one and the punishment of improvidere Type stands out, the most truly English, cruel. We soon understand why, un the most striking to a foreigner. Post der this obligatior to fight and grow yourself for an hour, early in the morn- hard, fine sensations disappear; why ing, at the terminus of a railway, and taste is blunted, how man becomes unobserve the men above thirty who come graceful and stiff; how discords, exag to London on business: the features gerations, mar the costume and thi are drawn, the faces pale, the eyes fashion; wiy movements and forms steady, preoccupied ; the mouth open become fina. Iy energetic and discord and, as it were, contracted; the man is ant, like the motions of a machine tired, worn out, and hardened by too If the man is German by race, tem much work; he runs without looking perament, and mind, he has been com

pelled in process of time to fortify, an inextricable forest of masts, yards alter, altogether turn aside his original and cables; the ships are unloading nature; he is no longer a primitive fastened to one another, mingled with animal, but a well-trained animal ; is chimneys, amongst the pulleys of the body and mind have been transformed storehouses, cranes, capstans, and all by strong food, by bodily exercise, by the implements of the vast and cease. austere religion, by public morality, less te il. A foggy smoke, penetrated by p litical strife, by perpetuity of ef by the sun, wraps them in its russet fort; he has become of all men the veil; it is the heavy and smoky air of most capable of acting usefully and a big hot-house ; soil and man, light powerfully in all directions, the most and air, all is transformed by work productive and effectual laborer, as If we enter one of these docks, the im. his ox has become the best animal for pression will be yet more overwhelm food, his sheep the best for wool, his ing: each resembles a town; always horse the best for racing

ships, still more ships, in a line, show.

ing their heads; their wide sides, their II.

copper chests, like monstrous fishes

under their breastplate of scales. Indeed, there is no greater spectacle When we are on the ground, we see chan his work; in no age or amongst that this breastplate is fifty feet high ; no nation on the earth, I believe, has many ships are of three thousand or matter ever been better handled and four thousand tons. Clippers three atilized. If we enter London by water, hundred feet long are on the point of we see an accumulation of toil and

ailing for Australia, Ceylon, America. work which has no equal on this plan- A bridge is raised by 'machinery; it et. Paris, by comparison, is but an weighs a hundred tons, and only one elegant city of pleasure ; the Seine, man is needed to raise it. Here are with its quays, a pretty, serviceable the wine stores—there are thirty thou plaything." Here all is vast. I have sands tuns of port in the cellars ; here seen Marseilles, Bordeaux, Amster- the place for hides, here for tallow, dam, but I had no idea of such a mass. here for ice. The store for groceries From Greenwich to London the two extends as far as the eye can see, colshores are a continuous wharf: mer- ossal, sombre as a picture by Rem. chandise is always being piled up, brandt, filled with enormous vats, and sacks hoisted, ships moored ; ever new crowded with many men, who move warehouses for copper, beer, ropework, about in the flickering shade. The tar, chemicals. Docks, timber-yards, universe tends to this centre. calking-basins, and shipbuilders'yards, heart, to which blood flows, and from multiply and encroach on each other. which it pours, money, goods, business On the left there is the iron frame- arrive hither from the four quarters of work of a church being finished, to be the globe, and flow thence to the dis. sent to India. The Thames is a mile tant poles. And this circulation seems droad, and is but a populous street of natural, so well is it conducted. The vessels, a winding workyard. Steam cranes turn noiselessly; the tuns seem boats, sailing vessels, ascend and de- to move of themselves ; a little car scend, come to anchor in groups of rolls them at once, and without effort; iwo, three, ten, then in long files, then the bales descend by their own weight in dense rows; there are five or six on the incl ned planes, which lead thousand of them ,at anchor. On them to their place. Clerks, without the right, the docks, like so many in- furry, call out the numbers; men push tricate, maritime streets, disgorge or or pull without confusion, calmly, husstore up the vessels. If we get on a banding their labor; whilst the sto height, we see vessels in the distance lid master, in his black hat, gravely, by hundreds and thousands, fixed as if with spare gestures, and without one on th= land : their masts in a line, their word, directs the whole. siend or rigging, make a spider-web Now let us take rail and go to Glus which girdles the horizon. Yet on the gow, Birmingham, Liverpool, Man river itself, towards the west, we see chesto, to see their ind istry. As wo

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