THE DESULTORY MAN.
Tus greater part of the e volumes consists of reprints of Magazine articles and Annual tales, hitched into.a story that forms the framework of the whole and gives the book its title. The Desultory Man is educated and brought up, not very unlike other people, but then he gives an account of these matters at greater length. Before he is out of his teens he falls in love ; and though the father of his mistress does not object to him, he wishes the wedding postponed till some months' absence has tried the constancy of both parties. In compliance with this arrangement, the Desultory Man goes to Brittany ; and writes a sufficient number of articles upon the scenery, customs, and lee-ends of the province, to fill the best part of a volume. He then fights, and gets wounded in a duel ; and during his convalescence, a rival, by the aid of tricks, lies, and a rascally valet, all but deprives him of his intended. Another duel is the consequence: and leaving his opponent dead upon the field, the Desultory Man decamps with his second, to avoid a trial, and console his grief for the loss of his mistress, who had vowed never to marry him if he shot his adversary. This leads to a second excursion to France ; but this time the tour is made to the South and to the Pyrenees; which furnish a second series of tales and travelling sketches, intermingled with snatches of poetry and antique romances, feigned to be written to beguile time, by different friends who form a pleasure-party. When this kind of matter is all used up, the slain duellist comes to life,—to be killed again; and the Desultory Man is able to settle.
As a whole, these papers possess the advantage of brevity and variety : their most obvious defect is want of reality and character. Whether it be our memory operating upon our fancy, or that they want individuality in themselves, we know not, but the longer papers seem to have no distinguishing quality, and to he merely leaves out of Magazines ; whilst many of the shorter pieces are too obviously sweepings of the study. The best section of the whole is the tour through the Landes, the desert sand track in the vicinity of Bourdeaux ; which' with a touch of adventure, possesses both matter and truth. And it may he said that, throughout the sketches, there are frequent pictures of landscapes and interiors that have much spirit in the outline and richness of colouring. The following fragments, from widely different pacts of the book, are instances of this : pity that Mr. JAMES could not give life as well as form.
It was one of the sweetest sleeps I had enjoyed for long ; and when I woke and saw the sun shining through a window down to the floor, the massy black rafters of the ceiling, with wood enough to build twenty modern houses, the old-fashioned gilt chairs, and the cabinet with cherubims' heads at all the corners, the tiled floor, and wide vacant chimney, together with the looking. glass and its long frame, half occupied by the portraits of a lack-a.daisical shepherd piping behind a squinting shepherdess and Cupid looking from behind a bush, all sorts of recollections of a French sea-port came crowding upon me. From the window was a gay scene, with the people of the market jostling, and bustling, and chattering, and flirting about, with a thousand lively colours in their garments. And there was the old lumbering diligence before the door, and the pump, and the beggars, and the shoe-blacks—those that will do any thing and those that will do nothing, and all the bangers-on of a French inn. Wherever I turned, it was France all over; and for a moment I fancied that I
had never quitted it. •
The wildness of a desert now began to reign around us. Vast tracts of sand and uncultivated moor, with large pine-forests, were the only objects visible, except when a cart, exactly like a hog-trough covered with a gipsy's tent, was drawn past us by two dun oxen, while the master, stretched at his full-length with his head out at the front, goaded them on with a long stick; the whole giving a very Hottentotish appearance to the scene. It also sometimes happened that we distinguished, moving across the distant sky, an elevated being, who from his long thin shanks and shapeless body, you might have taken for a large ostrich or a gigantic crane, but would never have fancied to be a human creature, until near inspection let you into all the machinery of stilts and sheepskins. Just after passing one of the forests, I was surprised to hear the first notes of Corelli's Hymn to the Virgin, whistled clear and shrill in the distance; but it soon varied into a wilder air; and the musician approached us with immense strides, lifting his stilts high over every obstacle, without ever ceasing to knit a pair of stockings which he held half-finished in his hand. We wondered at his coming RO near, for the Landais generally avoid all strangers; but on entering into conversation with him, we found that he had served in the army, spoke tolerable French, and was more civilized altogether than the rest of his countrymen. However, after an absence of seven years, old habits had resumed their empire; he came back to his deserts once snore mounted his stilts, and went whistling about, knitting stockings and tending sheep, as contentedly as if he had never seen fairer countries or mixed in more busy scenes.
If there Le rather to much of point, there is a good deal of truth in these
DISTINCTIONS BETWEEN FRENCHMEN AND ENGLISHMEN.
An Englishman is proud, a Frenchman is vain. A Frenchman says more than he thinks, an Englishmen thinks more than he says. A Frenchman is an excellent acquaintance, an Englishman is a good friend. A Frenchman is enterprising, an Englishman is indefatigable. An Englishman has more judgment, a Frenchman more wit. Both are brave, but an Englishman fights coolly, a Frenchman hotly. The latter will attack any thing, the former will be repulsed by nothing. An Englishman in conversation seems going a journey, a Frenchman is taking a walk. The one plods bard on to the object in view, the other skips away from his path for the slightest thing that catches his attention. There is more advantage in conversing with one, more pleasure with the other. An Englishman generalizes, a Frenchman particularizes. An Englishman, when he tastes any thing, says that it is good, that it has an agreeable flavour ; a Frenchman describes every sensation it produces in his mouth and throat, from the tip of the tongue down to the stomach, and winds it up with a simile. An Englishmen remarking an opera-dancer, sees that she dances well, with grace, with agility ; a Frenchman notes every entreehat, and can tell to a line where her foot ought to fall. An Englishman must have a large stock of knives and forks to change with every plate; a Frenchman uses but one for all, and it sometimes serves him for a salt-spoon too. An Englishman in his own country must have two rooms; a Frenchman can do very well with one—he dines there when he cannot go out, receives his company there, and can do es-cry thing there. A married Englishman requires but one bed, a married Frenchman must have two. In general an Englishman is willing to submit to the power of the law, but inclined to resist military force; the contrary proposition is the case with the French.
There is power and matter in this visit to the prison of Pau, if it be not very striking.
The first apartment we were shown into contained the prisoners sentenced to. detention for longer or shorter periods, according to their crimes. They weie all working bard, and, seemingly, cheerfully ; and the gaoler told me that a great object of those to whom the government of the prison was committed was to give the prisoners habits of industry, and to prevent them, by all means, from becoming utterly debased ; so that, when they again receive their liberty, they may become better members of society instead of worse. Their principal occupation seemed in straw-work; and as this is an easy and light task, and fills up the moments which would otherwise prove tedious in confinement, they all appeared rather glad of it than otherwise. A portion of the emolument proceeding from their labour goes towards defraying the expenses of the prison, and a portion is reserved for the prisoner, in order that, when he goes back into the world, he may not again he driven to crime by poverty. We next visited the apartment where were confined prisoners who had incurred severer punishment. They were generally persons condemned to the gallies for seven years or for life, and were waiting here till:their sentence should be put in execution. When we entered, there were several groups playing at piquet for sums of one or two sous. Amongst others was a lawyer, who had been sentenced to the gallies for forgery. I have generally remarked, that those condemned for any serious crime have a heavy, stupid expression of countenance, and dull, unmeaning eve; but this man was an exception. In his face there was plenty of keen, piercing cunning, with a touch of sarcastic bitterness. which showed itself also in his speech. He spoke to us for some time; and, like all villains, tried to darken his view of mankind till it became of the same hue as his own character. Ile took it for granted that all men were rascals, but only that he had been an unfortunate one. From hence we went to the dungeons, where still deeper crimes awaited their reward. A damp, obscure stone passage, led to the cell where two murderers were confined expecting their execution. They were Spaniards, and had left nothing in the perpetration of their crime to excite any thing but horror. Their victim had been one of their countrymen, who, having fled from the troubles and dangers which distressed his native land, had contrived to carry away a
small sum to support him in his exile ; and this proved the cause of their guilt and of his death. The evidence against them had left not a doubt of the facts; but yet they were suffered to linger on from week to week, not knowing which
day would be their last ; while (as we were told) the Spanish Ambassador pleaded their cause at Paris, and endeavoured to procure a commutation of their punishment, on account of their having shown themselves stanch Royalists.. They seemed to be heavily and almost cruelly chained, but, nevertheless, to mind it but little, smoking their cigars and counting their rosaries with great sang froid. I spoke a few words to them in Spanish concerning their situation, to which they replied without any show of feeling, appearing very cheerful, quite careless about dying, and not particularly contrite.
Although there can be no doubt that the long habit of indulging in any passion gives a peculiar expression to the countenance and sometimes even a cast of
flit features, I put little faith in physiognomy, in the general acceptation of the word; but I could not help remarking, that the heads of these two men were precisely similar to those of all murderers whom I have seen,—almost spherical in shape, with the forehead low but rather protuberant, and the eye dull and heavy.
We have spoken positively as to the newness of the story which forms the framework ; but, sooth to say, we have nothing but internal evidence for our opinion. This, however, is tolerably strong; for the acts and incidents in the life of the hero are obviously constructed on set purpose to serve as a receptacle for waifs and strays, whilst few if any of the pieces rue coloured by the tone of mind which should characterize Mr. Young, the Desultory Man.
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