ance." In other passages the application of native standards to what he saw reveals itself, with a pleasant touch of almost boyish candour.

One morning he went to a concert given by amateurs for a charitable object, and by good fortune had a seat on the stage.

"The great thing of the morning," he wrote in a family letter (May 14, 1850), “which almost deprived the music of its interest, was a recitation by Mlle. Rachel of three scenes from 'Virginie.' I was sitting where I could see her perfectly, where I could hear every sound of her voice, and I thought that I had never seen a woman who united so much beauty, so much power of expression, so much elegance of figure, and so much grace of motion, and that I had never heard a voice so rich and so affecting. I was delighted to have such an opportunity of seeing her off the stage, in an everyday dress. The effect of her talent was very visible at the conclusion of the concert when there was a collection taken by the ladies. Everybody seemed desirous to put a contribution into the purse that she carried, as if it had been an offering to her genius, and the titled ladies carried round their purses almost unattended and neglected. It quite gratified my republi

canism."

There are many allusions in the letters to Ary Scheffer and his pictures -how far removed from Norton's liking in later years!

f

To Mrs. S. P. Cleveland

...

PARIS, 16 May, 1850.

Another great pleasure which I owe also in part to you has been the seeing of Scheffer and his pictures. It was a pleasant coincidence to find that two of the letters which Charles1 so kindly sent me would serve as introductions to Scheffer. I dined with Scheffer and Mme. Scheffer on Monday. There were three or four other people at dinner and I had a delightful time. Scheffer is one of those men, as it seems to me, who prove a very favourite theory of mine- that the greatest and most poetical imagination can only be developed in connection with, and is always accompanied by sound sense and practical understanding; that imagination of the highest kind cannot exist where these qualities are deficient. Did you ever hear that in the days of June the battalion of National Guards of which Scheffer is the major was the first one that was called out, that he commanded it during the four days, and was at his post and often in the fight during that time? This was quite fine.

I was much pleased with a little discussion which came up during dinner, and in supporting which I had no part, with regard to the merits of modern poets. Scheffer declared that he preferred to any other Mr. Longfellow, the American; that there was in his works, particularly in "Evangeline," great beauty of poetical description. Was not this quite charming? .

1 Mrs. Cleveland's brother, C. C. Perkins.

...

To Samuel E. Guild

PARIS, 23 May, 1850.

...I went last night with Count Circourt to see Lamartine, who receives visitors every evening. He has pleasant apartments; the one in which you first enter is filled with copies of his own recent publications, and has very much the air of a wholesale bookstore. The next room is apparently the dining-room, and this opens into the drawing-room. It was quite dark twilight when we went in; there were no lamps, however, in the room, and it was difficult to distinguish any one in the dusk. Before long a lamp was brought in, and I could then study Lamartine's face. His forehead and nose are fine, but his head is narrow, and his mouth is very weak. He is tall and has a good presence. His wife, a woman of no beauty, and whom it is said he treats with much neglect, was sitting next him on the sofa. There were perhaps ten or twelve people beside ourselves in the room. Nothing could be duller, nothing more stupid, than the manner in which the evening passed. The conversation was carried on for the most part in whispers. Lamartine was surrounded by a circle of admirers to whom he talked in a low tone of his own works. No man was ever vainer than Lamartine. His tone last night with regard to his works was that of continual praise of what he had done. There is a story very current here now of his having gone the other day to witness the representation of his last play, "Toussaint Louverture,” and, apparently being very much struck with one passage in the drama, he

was heard to exclaim, "Ah, mon Dieu! How beautiful that is! What a magnificent idea! Only the greatest poet could have reached such sublimity!"

If this is not true, it is certainly ben trovato. His house seems like a temple dedicated to his honour. I counted nine portraits of him in the room where we were; to begin with, there was a full length in oils, then there was a half length, then a bust, two medallions, an engraving, and two or three miniatures. I was told that in the three rooms there were twenty-two likenesses of him. What little space was left on the walls unoccupied by portraits, was filled with pictures in oils by Madame de Lamartine. . . . I imagine that she burns a good deal of incense on the altars of her husband for the sake of the perfume that is wafted back upon herself. She told me something about her husband's mode of life. He is at work writing every morning at six o'clock; - he employs himself in this way until one or two, then goes down to the Assembly, remains there till five or six, returns to dinner, receives visitors early in the evening, and goes to bed always in very good season. This simple statement was interspersed with various digressions on the marvellous powers of M. de Lamartine; how his mind was adapted to grasp everything, and how incredible was the amount of work which he accomplished.1

It is difficult to understand how a man of such

1 The following sentence from a family letter (of earlier date) is of some interest here: “Mr. Longfellow told Charles that talking one day with Sainte-Beuve of Victor Hugo and Lamartine, he (Sainte-Beuve) quietly remarked, after saying this, that, and the other of the two authors: "Mais, charlatan pour charlatan, je préfère Lamartine.””

undoubted genius as Lamartine should at the same time be so weak. His political influence still remains very great, and in case of a struggle between the people and the present Government, he will have much power in repressing popular excesses. At least, so it is said here....

Norton recurs to Lamartine in a letter of June 4 to his family: "À propos to an unfinished but very excellent portrait of Lamartine, Scheffer told us that Lamartine was in the atelier the other day, and stopped to look at this portrait. After gazing at it for some time, he said, without turning from it, "There is much beauty in that countenance; but the beauty has been shattered by the ravages of the storms of politics.' The stories which are heard of Lamartine's vanity would be almost incredible were they not confirmed and repeated on every side. Some of them are too bad to tell. By a little skilful drawing out one can any day induce him to say that he is physically superb and morally sublime."

Political conditions in France were fully discussed in Norton's letters. One day at the Assembly he heard a debate in which Cavaignac was followed by Victor Hugo who "made a more poetical and more exciting speech, and at the same time able oratorically and logically. He was brutally treated by the Right, who jeered and sneered at him as if he were a fool."

Alfred de Vigny, De Tocqueville, and other important figures in the Paris of the day, Norton met at Mrs. Childe's and elsewhere. But the most important of all his meetings, in its relation to the years to come, was