Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

on this fubject a very ftriking thing-one of those speeches which may be the cause of a great man hereafter; "Genius is only a greater aptitude to patience." Obferve, that patience must be applied to every thing: patience in finding out one's line, patience in refifting the motives that divert, and patience in bearing what would difcourage a common man.

I will mention fome facts of Buffon. He would fometimes return from the fuppers of Paris at two in the morning, when he was young. A boy was ordered to call him at five, however late he returned; and, in cafe of his lingering in bed, to drag him out on the floor. He used to work till fix at night. "I had at that time (faid he) a mistress of whom I was very fond: but I would never allow myfelf to go to her till fix, even at the risk of finding her gone out."

He thus diftributes his day. At five o'clock he rifes, dreffes, powders, dictates letters, and regulates his household matters. At fix he goes to the forefaid ftudy, which is a furlong distant from the house, at the extremity of the garden. There are gates to open and terraces to climb by the way. When not engaged in writing, he paces up and down the furrounding avenues. No one may intrude on his retreat. He often reads over what he has written, and then lays it by for a time. "It is important," faid he to me,

[ocr errors]

never to be in a hurry: review your compofitions often, and every time with a fresh eye, and you will always find that they can be mended." When he has made many corrections in a manufcript, he employs an amanuenfis to transcribe it, and then he cor

rects again. He told M. de S that the Epoques de la Nature were written over eighteen times. He is very orderly and exact. "I burn (said he to me) every thing which I do not intend to ufe: not a paper will be found at my death."

I refume the account of his day. At nine, breakfast is brought to him in the ftudy. It confifts of two glaffes of wine and a bit of bread. He writes for about two hours after breakfast and then returns to the houfe. He does not love to hurry over his dinner; during which he gives vent to all the gaieties and trifles which fuggeft themfelves while at table. He loves to talk fmuttily; and the effect of his jokes and laughter are heightened by the natural ferioufnefs of his age and calmness of his character! but he is often fo coarse as to compel the ladies to withdraw. He talks of himself with pleasure, and like a critic. He faid to me, "I learn every day to write; in my latter works there is infinitely more perfection than in my former. I often have my works read to me, and this mofily puts me upon fome improvement. There are, however, paffages which I cannot improve." In this opennefs there is a fomething interefting, original, antique, attractive.

Speaking of Rouffeau, he faid, "I loved him much until I read his confeffions, and then I ceased to esteem him. I cannot fancy the fpirit of the man; an unusual procefs happened to me with refpect to him: after his death I loft my reverence for him."

This great man is very much of a goffip, and, for at leaft an hour in the day, will make his hairdreffer and valets tell all the scan

[ocr errors]

dal of the village. He knows every. minute event that furrounds him.

His confidence is almoft wholly engroffed by a Mademoiselle Bleffeau: a woman now forty years old, well-made, who has been pretty, and has lived with him about twenty years. She is very attentive to him, manages in the houfe, and is hated by the fervants. Madame de Buffon, who has long been dead, could not endure this woman. She adored her husband, and is faid to have been very jealous of him.

Mademoiselle de Bleffeau is not the only one who manages Buffon. Father Ignatius Prouzut, a capuchin friar, born at Dijon, divides her empire. He is, it seems, a convenient confeffor. Thirty years ago the author of the Epoques de la Nature fent for him at Eafter, and confeffed to him in the very laboratory in which he had put together his materialifm, in which Rouffean proftrated himself at the threford, Ignatius told me that M. de Buffon, when about to submit to this ceremony, hefitated awhile the effect of human weakness"-added he--and infifted on his valet de chambre's confeffing himself firft. This will furprize at Paris. Yes: Buffon, when at Montbart, receives the annual communion in his feignoral chapel, goes every Sunday to high mafs, and diftributes a louis weekly among different defcriptions of pious beggars. M. de Buffon tells me that he makes a point of refpecting religion; that there muft Be a religion for the multitude; that in little places every one is obferved; and that we fhould avoid giving offence. "I am perfuaded, (faid he to me,) that in your

fpeeches you take care to let nothing escape you that should be remarked, or excite alarm on this head. I have ever had that attention in my writings, and have publifhed them separately, that ordina, ry men may not catch at the connection of ideas. I have always named the Creator; but it is only putting, mentally, in its place, the energy of nature, which refults from the two great laws of attraction and impulfe. When the Sorbonne plagued me, I gave all the fatisfactions which they folicited: 'twas a form which I despised, but men are filly enough to be fo fatisfied. For the fame reason, when I fall dangerously ill, I fhall not hesitate to fend for the facraments. This is due to the public religion. Those who act otherwife are madmen. The arietation of Voltaire, of Diderot, of Helvetius, often wounded themselves. The latter was my friend; he spent more than four years at Montbart on different occafions. I recommended more reserve to him. Had he attended to me, he would have been better off."

In fact, this fpirit of accommodation anfwered to M. de Buffon. His works demonftrate materialism; yet they were printed at the royal prefs.

My early volumes appeared, (faid he,) at the fame time with the fpirit of laws. We were teazed by the Sorbonne, both Montefquieu and I, and affailed by the critics. The prefident was quite furious; "What fhall you fwer?" faid he to me. "Nothing at all, prefident," replied I. He could not underftand fuch coldbloodedness.

an

I was reading to Buffon one even

:

ing fome verfes of Thomas on the immortality of the foul." Pardieu, (faid he,) religion would be a noble prefent, if all that were true." He criticifed these lines feverely he is inexorable as to ftyle, and does not love poetry. "Never write verses, (faid he,) I could have made them as well as others: but I foon abandoned a courfe in which reafon marches in fetters: fhe has chains enough already, without looking about for new ones."

Buffon willingly quits his grounds, and walks about the village with his fon among the peafantry. At these times he always appears in a laced coat. He is a fickler about drefs, and fcolds his fon for wearing a frockcoat. I was aware of this, and had taken care to arrive in an embroidered waistcoat and laced cloaths. My precaution fucceeded wonderfully; he fhewed me repeatedly to his fon. "There's a gentleman for you!" He loves to be called monfieur le Comte.

After having rifen from dinner, he pays little attention either to his family or his guefts. He fleeps for an hour in his room; then takes a walk alone; after which he will perhaps come in and converfe, or fit at his defk and look over papers that are brought for his opinion. He has lived thus thefe fifty years. To fome one who expreffed aftonifhment at his great reputation, he replied, Have not I paffed fifty years at my defk?" At nine he goes to bed.

66

He is at prefent afflicted with the ftone, which fufpends his employments. While I was at his houfe he had acute pains, fhut himfelf up in his chamber, would fcarcely fee his fon, and not his fifter. He admitted me repeatedly. His hair was always dreft; and he retained

his fine calm look. He complained
mildly of his ill health, and bore
his pangs
with a smile. He open-

ed his whole foul to me: made me
read to him the treatife on the
loadstone, and, as he liftened, would
reform the phrafes. Sometimes he
would fend for a volume of his
works, and request me to read aloud
the finer efforts of ftyle; fuch as
the foliloquy of the firft man, the
defcription of an Arabian defert in
the article camel, and a ftill finer
piece of painting (in his opinion)
in the article Kamichi. Sometimes
he would explain to me his fyftem
of the formation of the universe,
the genefis of beings, the internal
moulds, &c. Sometimes he would
recite whole pages of his compofi-
tions; for he knows them almoft
all by heart. He liftens gladly to
objections, difcuffes them, and fur-
renders to them when his judg-
ment is convinced.

Of natural history and of ftyle he loves to talk, efpecially of the latter. No one better understands the theory of ftyle, unless it be Beccaria, who did not poffefs the practice. "The ftyle is the man, (faid he ;) our poets have no ftyle; they are coerced by the rules of metre which makes flaves of them" "How do you like Thomas?" I asked. "Pretty well, (faid he,) but he is stiff and bloated." And Rouffeau? "His ftyle is better: but he has all the faults. of bad education, interjection, exclamation, interrogation for ever." Favour me with your leading ideas on ftyle. They are recorded in my difcourfe at the academy :however, two things form ftyle, invention and expreflion. Invention depends on patience: contemplate your fubje&t long it will gradually unrol and unfold-till a fort of

66

electric

[ocr errors]

electric fpark convulfes for a moment the brain, and fpreads down to the very heart a glow of irritation: Then are come the luxuries of genius, the true hours for production and compofition-hours fo delightful, that I have spent twelve and fourteen fucceffively at my writing-defk, and ftill been in a ftate of pleasure. It is for this gratification, yet more than for glory, that I have toiled, Glory comes if it can, and moftly does come. This pleafure is greater if you confult no books: I have never confulted authors, till I had nothing left to fay of my own.",

I afked him what is the beft method of forming one's felf. He anfwered," Read only the capital works, read them repeatedly, and read thofe in every department of taste and science; for the framers of fuch works are, as Cicero fays, kindred-fouls, and the views of one may always be applied with advantage in fome very different branch by another. Be not afraid of the task. Capital works are fcarce. I know but five great geniufes-Newton, Bacon, Leibnitz, Montefquieu, and myself. Newton, (continued he,) may have difcovered an important principle, but he spent his life in frivolous calculations, and was no mafter of ftyle." He thought higher of Leibnitz than of Bacon. He spoke of Montefquieu's genius, but thought his ftyle too ftudied, and wanting evolution. This, however, (faid he,) was a natural confequence of his frame of body. I knew him well; he was almoft blind, and very impatient. If he had not clipt his ideas into fhort fentences, he would have loft his period before the amanuenfis had taken it down."

[ocr errors]

He spoke to me of the paffion for ftudy, and of the happiness which it beftows. He told me that he had voluntarily fecluded himfelf from fociety; that at one time he courted the company of learned men, expecting to acquire much from their converfation, but he had difcovered that little of value could be fo gleaned, and that, in order to pick up a phrase, an evening was ill fquandered that labour was become a want to him, and he hoped to confecrate to it much of the three or four years of life which probably remained to him; that he feared not death-that the hope of an immortal renown was the moft powerful of death-bed confolations.

He thewed me a letter from prince Henry of Prussia, and another from the emprefs of Ruffia, with his anfwers. Over this lofty correfpondence between power and genius, where the latter retained its innate afcendancy, I felt my foul fwell. Glory feemed to affume as it were a fubftantial form, and to bend down at its feet what the world has moft exalted.

In a few days, I left this good and great man; repeating, as I withdrew, two lines of the Oedipus of Voltaire :

[blocks in formation]

he early applied himself to literature, and the study of Italian history and antiquities. In 1696, he inftituted at Venice the academy Degli Animofi, and was the editor of the Giornale de' Letterati d'Italia, of, which he published thirty volumes, between the year 1710 and 1719. His first mufical drama, L'Inganni Felici, was fet by Carlo Fran. Polarolo, and performed at Venice, 1695.

And between that time and his quitting Vienna, where he was invited by the emperor Charles VI. in 1718, he produced fortyfix operas, and seventeen oratorios, befides eighteen dramas, which he wrote jointly with Pariati. His dramatic works were collected and published at Venice, in 1744, in ten volumes octavo, by count Gozzi. And in 1752, his letters were printed in three volumes, by Forcellini, in which much found learning and criticifm are manifested on various fubjects. But one of the moft ufeful of his critical labours feems to have been, his commentary on the Bibl. dell' Eloquenza Italiana di Fontanini, which was published in 1753; with a preface by his friend Forcellini, chiefly dictated, however, by Zeno himfelf, juft before his death, 1750, in the 82d year of his age.

After he was engaged as Imperial laureate, he fet out from Venice for Vienna, in July 1718; but having been overturned in a chaife, the fourth day of his journey, he had the misfortune to break his leg, and was confined at an ion in the little town of Ponticaba, near Trevifa, till September. He arrived at Vienna, the 14th of that month, falvo, he fays, if not fano e guerito, after twelve days of exceffive fuffering on the road.

Moft of the dramas, facred and fecular, which he wrote for the Imperial Court, were fet by Caldara, a grave compofer and found harmonift, to whofe ftyle Zeno feems never to have been partial. But this excellent antiquary and critic feems never to have been fatisfied with his own poetical abilities. So early as the year 1722, in writing to his brother from Vienna, he says: "I find more and more every day, that I grow old, not only in body, but in` mind: and that the business of writing verfes is no longer a fit employment for me." And afterwards, modeftly fenfible of the fterility of his poffeflions in Par-naffus, which, though they furnished ufeful productions, were not of .` a foil fufficiently rich to generate fuch gay, delicate, and beautiful flowers, as are requifite to embellifh the lyric fcene, he,expreffed a with that he might be allowed a partner in his labours; and was fo juft and liberal as to mention the young Metaftafio, as a poet worthy to be honoured with the notice of his Imperial patron.

Account of the Peafantry of Norway, from Mary Wolftonecraft's letters, during a fhort refidence in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark.

THOUGH the king of Denmark be an abfolute monarch, yet the Norwegians appear to enjoy all the bleflings of freedom. Norway may be termed a fifter kingdom; but the people have no viceroy to lord it over them, and fatten his dependants with the fruit of their labour.

There are only two counts in the whole country, who have eftates,

and

« ZurückWeiter »