ALPHONSE DE LAMARTINE. When a Premier whose party has lately come in, Or Cobden succeeds in the league about corn: The extent, and the depth, and the strength of our feeling: 49 ALPHONSE DE LA MARTINE. ALPHONSE LOUIS DE LAMARTINE, a man distinguished alike as a poet, an orator, a traveller, and a statesman, was born at Maçon, a town in the eastern part of France, on the 21st of October, 1791. His father was an officer in the service of Louis XVI. His mother, Alicia de Roys, was the daughter of a gentleman high in the favour of the Duke of Orleans, of unhappy memory, and was brought up in habits of intimacy with Louis Philippe, the present ex-king of the French, and with the other children of "Egalité." The early years of the subject of this sketch were passed at Milly, a small family estate, to which, on the death of Robespierre-the state-prisons being thrown open, and many victims of the revolution liberated from the confinement which would otherwise have been terminated by death-the parents of Lamartine had retired. His mother, a beautiful, accomplished, and pious woman, had been, in early life, personally acquainted with Jean-Jacques Rousseau; and adopting some of that philosopher's views respecting physical education, she permitted her son to ramble at will, and in all seasons, with feet and arms uncovered, among the hills, and dales, and woods which surrounded his abode. Hence probably resulted much of the vigour and hardihood of constitution which is said to distinguish M. de Lamartine; and hence may also have sprung somewhat of his enthusiastic admiration of the beauties of external nature. While thus, however, following the rules of Rousseau with respect to the physical management of her son, Madame de Lamartine had too much sound sense and Christian piety to observe the directions of the same writer, with regard to his intellectual and religious training. On the contrary, she early instilled into the mind of Alphonse a love of piety. Very touching are his own reminiscences on the subject of his early religious education. "My mother," he says, "at the commencement of his "Travels in the East," "had received from her mother, on her death-bed, one of Royamont's fine bibles; and in this book, when I was a little child, she taught me to read. This bible had on its leaves engravings of sacred subjects; above all, there were depicted in it those beautiful patriarchal scenes, in which the solemn and primitive character of the East was mingled with every act of the simple and marvellous life which was led by the men of old. When I had read, tolerably well, half a page of the holy story, my mother would uncover the engraving, and, holding the book upon her knees, would allow me, as my reward, to contemplate the plate. The silvery, affectionate, solemn, and impassioned tones of her voice imparted to her every word a character of interest and love; and vibrate in my ears at this very moment, after, alas! six years of silence." Those lessons, doubtless, made Lamartine a traveller. "I burned," he says, even from the age of eight years, with an eager desire to visit the mountains upon which God had descended; to tread the desert, in which the angel had directed Hagar to the hidden spring; and to view the scene where the angels of God had been seen to ascend and descend upon the Ladder of Jacob;" but the mother's lessons had other and more important results than these: while they thus powerfully affected the imagination of the child, they failed not to make a powerful impression upon his heart; and the name of LAMARTINE may be added to those inscribed upon the long roll of eminent men, whose characters have been essentially moulded by early maternal training. After the death of his mother, young Lamartine spent some time at the college of Bellay; and is thought to have embodied in his "Joscelyn," a beautiful fragment of an unfinished poem,-some reminiscences of the contemplative life of the cloister. Subsequently he travelled in Italy; and while there, stored his naturally poetical mind with many of the images and reflections which have been reproduced in his various poems. The personal history of Alphonse de Lamartine as an author, though, in some respects, by no means singular, possesses considerable interest. Like many other writers, he was originally urged to publish by pecuniary motives; and, moreover, also like many other aspirants after public favour, he is said to have taken his first work"Meditations Poétiques "-from bookseller to bookseller, without finding one willing to undertake the risk of publication. At length, however, an individual of "the trade," more sagacious or more sanguine than his brethren, ventured upon the doubtful speculation, and the volume was published; but no applause ensued; and the work would probably have fallen into oblivion, and its author's aspirations after literary fame have been effectually quenched, had not the volume accidentally fallen into the hands of Jules Janin, subsequently a celebrated critic and reviewer, but then young, and nowise publicly distinguished. Janin, however, perceived in the work a deep strain of poesy, exhibiting at once "enthusiasm and calmness, devotion and love." He wrote an elaborate review of it; a large demand was suddenly created; and, like Lord Byron, of whom he was one of the most ardent admirers, Lamartine awoke one morning, and found himself famous. ALPHONSE DE LAMARTINE. 51 Other poetical works of course followed, among which were-"The Death of Socrates," "The Last Canto of Childe Harold's Pilgrimage," "A Coronation Ode for Charles X.," &c., &c. All these works were well received by the true lovers of poetry; and neither great increase of fortune, political employment, nor the gratifications of domestic life, have been able to wean Lamartine from his love and cultivation of poetic composition. In 1820, M. de Lamartine, now distinguished as a man of letters, became a member of the Académie Française. In 1821, he married, at Naples, Miss Birch, a young English lady, opulent and well-connected. At the restoration of the Bourbons, he had been enrolled in the royal body-guard; but after his marriage, he entered on a diplomatic career, and was employed as a diplomatist in Africa, in Italy, in England, and, finally, in Greece. The revolution of 1830 put a period to his labours in this department of the public service. Louis Philippe, indeed, offered to confirm him in his Greek embassy; but his attachment to the deposed branch of the Bourbon family, led him at once to resign the post which he held. Deeply feeling the recent political changes which had disturbed his country, and plunged into bitter sorrow by the death of his infant and only son, M. de Lamartine now resolved to execute his long-cherished purpose of visiting the East; and accordingly set forth on the 20th of May, 1832, accompanied by his wife, and his daughter, a child of extraordinary beauty, on those “ Travels in the East," his account of which may now be read in most of the languages of Europe. His interview with the late Lady Hester Stanhope, and her remarkable prediction, to the effect that great events were in preparation in France, and that HE, Lamartine, would, thereafter, play an important part in them, are generally known; and her ladyship's singular prediction has met with an equally singular accomplishment. During this Eastern journey it was, that Julia, the beautiful and gifted daughter of Alphonse de Lamartine, died; or, to adopt her father's words, "left her parents for heaven." Her mortal remains, embalmed after the Eastern fashion, were sent to Europe in the Alceste; and the bereaved father and mother returned home in another vessel, in the year 1833. The subsequent history of the subject of this sketch is sufficiently notorious. Deeming, as it may be supposed, the restoration of the elder branch of the house of Bourbon to be impracticable, he became a supporter of the monarchy of 1830. That monarchy was swept away by the revolutionary storm of February, 1848; and it would be superfluous to dilate upon the line of conduct since observed by M. DE LAMARTINE. Even the turmoil of the late revolution would seem to have failed to disturb this lover of the muses in his literary pursuits. His last published production is entitled "L'Histoire des Girondins ;" and a work purporting to be an autobiographical memoir of himself has been announced for publication. This slight memoir being accompanied by a well-executed portrait of ALPHONSE DE LAMARTINE, it is, perhaps, superfluous to enter upon anything like a minute description of his personal appearance. Briefly, however he is now fifty-seven years of age, and about five feet ten inches in height. His features are strongly marked; his forehead is high and broad; and his eyes are dark, and very deeply set. His complexion, too, is dark, and his countenance at once striking and prepossessing. Of a man of such a presence, it need scarcely be said, that his look and bearing announce his high talents. Those who know him best, add, that there is that in the noble glance of his eye, which speaks him a true poet, and the possessor of "The vision and the faculty divine." THE PEASANT'S BAL L. I GAZED upon a festive scene, Where eyes were sparkling bright and glad; And not one brow seem'd dark or sad. Thine! sunny, smiling, vine-clad France! No smiles of fashion sparkled there ; Play'd bright round young and laughing lips; The honey-bee their fragrance sips, Were wreathed in radiant coronals, The soft and shining curls to bind ; With leafy garlands all entwined. Before my weary gaze hath been. |