MADAME SWETCHINE.*

WE have been told that when first the name of " Swetchine " appeared in large characters, repeated over and over again in the windows of booksellers in Paris, strangers, and even Frenchmen, paused and drew a long breath before they ventured on the word. Doubtless there were many who knew not that they had had a Madame Swetchine living among them, through storm and calm, for thirty years. But some there were who could tell them of the Russian grande dame who was believed to be very learned, and was known to be rich and charitable—who spent several hours every day in visiting a poor quarter in Paris, where no one knew her but the wretched whom she went to see,—who was profoundly religious, rigidly Catholic, yet was kind and hopeful for all—who opened her doors to people of all parties,—not entirely for amusement, —often for edification. The sum of all would be that everybody who had known her had something good to say of Madame Swetchine—and soon her life, by her friend the Comte de Falloux, was bought, and in a few months it passed through three editions, when every one in Paris, and many in other coun- tries, ceased to ask "who was Madame Swetchine ?'' In England we, perhaps, do not know her much ; but as no one who has * Vie et Peedes de Madame Sieetchine. Publiees par Is Comte de Edloux. Two vols. Leilres de Madame Swetehine. Two vol. Nouveaux Lundes. Par 3i. Sainte- BeaTe, art.—Madame Swetchine.

made even slight acquaintance with her can help feeling the on- vietion that she must have had a history worth knowing, we briefly sketch it here.

Madame Swetchine was the daughter of a M. Soymonoff;\ of Moscow, and was born in Moscow in 1782. Her father was not noble, but rich, and at the time of her birth was high in favour with the Empress Catherine. Sophia Soymonoff was for some years the only child—then a second daughter was born, and the mother died, leaving the little one to Sophia's care at ten years old. She doated on this sister, Nadine, and regarded her own improvement much in the light of help in educating Nadine ; but, after the death of Catherine, her father procured her own ap- pointment as maid of honour to the Empress Marie, the unhappy wife of the madman Paul. She was already very well informed, she read and spoke well English, Italian, and French. She knew Russian also, which was less common, and was attempting to master both Greek and Latin. She was an early and indefatig- able reader and writer, using her pen constantly for abstract and extract ; she was very musical ; moreover, she had early the love of representation which characterizes an imaginative child. She made grand spectacles of and for her dolls, and lighted up her father's gallery in order to celebrate the taking of the Bastille. When she went to Court the Empress was kind and considerate to her ; but her father considering his own position as very insecure, desired to see her married before disgrace or exile should blight his fortune. He fixed on General Swetchine, then forty-two. It was said another lover desired to possess her, but was not agreeable to the father—and as for Made- moiselle Sophie, she was ready to acquiesce, provided her sister Nadine might remain with her. Those who long after- wards knew General Swetchine only in age and infirmity could not understand the matter ; but he was an honourable, dis- tinguished soldier, very gentle and kindly, and she could not fail to respect if she did not warmly love him. Very soon after the marriage the father died, as he had predicted, a banished man, and the General himself had narrow escapes under three dynasties—not choosing to obey completely the mandate of any of them. Everything we are told of his career in Russia is honourable. In domestic life he was not without a grievance—and it is to the credit of both parties that exa much of attachment remained in the midst of such differences. The principal of these was the conversion of Madame Swetchine to the Romish Church. She had certainly received no strong or salutary impressions on religious subjects in early life, and when she came to consider with some maturity of mind those great questions which divided her friends, it was but to be expected that she should take the side best supported Intellectualvigour had an immense charm for her. She drank in the thoughts and words of the Comte de Maistre, and made up her mind in favour of Roman Catholicism ; but she was very independent in her plans of study, and her counsellor laboured in vain to persuade her not to read so many dry and learned books on the subject. "You will never get at what you want in this way," be wrote, "you will break down; you will get nothing but labour without onction or spiritual comfort," &c. All in vain. Madame Swetchine did all and more than all M. de Maistre predicted ; but with results better than he anticipated. Many years afterwards she warmly defended this early friend from the charges of Lamartine. "He knows nothing but by books," Lamartine had said, " and he has read very few.'' "How can such an idea have entered Monsieur Lamartine's mind ?" she says ; "I knew Monsieur de Maistre long before he did, and through many years I have known him give twelve or fif- teen hours to study daily. He read immensely—books covered his table—classical learning was at the foundation ; but Italian and French were his delight. He was so captivated by eloquence that he could hardly resist Rousseau."

She did not publicly announce her conversion till the expul- sion of the Jesuits by Alexander from St. Petersburg. Then she at once gave in her adhesion to what she thought the per- secuted party, and though returning the regard of the Emperor, who corresponded with her for years, she fell under the dis- approbation of many of her friends and relatives, and St. Peters- burg became an altered place to her. Meanwhile, the General by no means partook her sentiments. He had his own peculiar grievances, however. After the re-establishment of the Bourbons,. some of those Russian courtiers whom he at one time or other had offended, took an opportunity of reviving the story of a fault committed by one of his subalterns in office, and, feeling that they were infusing their dislike into the Emperor's mind, he himself thought it best to quit Russia, at least for a time. The change

hal4' charms for Madame Swetchine—French literature and Vciety delighted her ; she was assured of the friendship of many

/persons at Paris, and sending for some of her father's valuable 7 pictures, statuary, &c., the Swetchiues established themselves in the Rue St. Dominique. She was then thirty-four. As time went on, many of her oldest friends said, " Surely it would be better to sell your Russian property, and secure yourself against changes which may affect both you and it." "No," she replied, " I am still a Russian, I have set my heart on transmitting my estates unimpaired to my sister and her sons,—and I am still, and always shall be, obedient to the Emperor." It was hard to part with that sister, who remained at Moscow ;*but after the death of her husband, Prince Gagarin, she came several times on long visits to Paris. When the boys, five in number, were young, their Aunt Swetchine was as much to them as their mother. They Were suffered to enter her study, to break up her em- ployments, to bring their mirth and noise into her presence ; but boys were not enough for her. She must • have always the charge of a girl. First it was another "Nadine ;" when she, too, married, she took charge of Helena de Nesselrode. Latterly she went lower ; she took in a deaf and dumb girl, very handsome, of good abilities, but of violent passions. She, indeed, well nigh tired out Madame Swetchine's indomitable patience. Over and over again it cost her a morning's toil to bring her to reason. Her friends were uneasy for the effect of these altercations ; but she would not give the matter up, and, in time, Parisse, com- pletely conquered and devotedly attached, became a useful and most affectionate attendant. We have been told of the forbearing kindness of Madame Reeatnier towards tiresome people. So it was with Madame Swetchine. A certain Madame — was the plague of her life for fifteen years. The visitors to the Rue St. Dominique dreaded her appearance. "What would you have me do?" asked Madame Swetchine, "everybody shuns her. She is unhappy. She has no one but me." And when Madame — became too infirm to go out, her patient friend went to her and stayed for hours beside her. Her days were divided, as far as her facility of access allowed, into three portions. Her morning began before daylight, and by eight o'clock she had been to mass and made visits among the poor. Then she called the time her own till three o'clock ; but her faithful servant Cloppet said it really was not so, that she was worn out by applicants, and that even at her dinner, which intervened between her afternoon and evening receptions, she was hardly allowed to finish without interruption. The visitors from three to six were not the same as those who had the entrée at nine, and who often stayed till midnight.

We have said that General Swetchine was twenty-six years older than herself. When they first came to Paris he found much amusement and employment in visiting public institutions, inspecting new inventions, &c., but as he became infirm, and particularly very deaf, these receptions were little suitable to his state, and the biographer assures us that his wife would fain have given up or reduced them—but this he strongly objected to, and insisted on being of the company for an hour or two, though he could have no enjoyment there. M. Sainte-Beuve says he was "nit." Of course, the poor old deaf man could be neither useful nor ornamental, but probably it was all for the best. He was very polite to the guests, and received them with apparent satis- faption, and she anxiously provided him with a reader, and read the papers to him herself, difficult as it was, for an hour or two daily.

. But the greatest of her trials and exertions came upon her in 1834—her husband was then 76—when suddenly the Emperor Nicholas recalled him, and that not to St. Petersburg, but to some obscure place in Russia which he might select remote from that city and Moscow. The pretext was the old charge of thirty years before. It is difficult to do justice to the admirable conduct of Madame Swetchine on this occasion. The poor old man was in such despair that she could not comfort him. At first he strongly objected to her following him, but he did her justice in admitting that her conscience would not be satisfied thus. In a letter to a friend she says :—" My submission has nothing servile in it ; it is free, as con- scientious things always are, and I shall neglect no means of obtaining from the Emperor's goodness the favour of staying here. But, whatever he may order, he will find submissive sub- jects in us, faithful and respectful towards a will which they will regard as that of Heaven concerning them. My husband's letter to the Emperor merely implores a delay till the spring ; and if we do not obtain it we shall set out directly." Meanwhile, their friends in Russia, sLooked at the thought of what was coming upon them, pleaded with the Czar, and delay was granted. Then Madame de Swetchine resolved to use the time in going herself to St. Petersburg, to obtain if possible permission for the aged man to die in Paris. She set out on the evening of the 15th August, 1834, reaching St. Petersburg on the 19th September.. Her end was not attained till the 16th of November. It was

then impossible for her to return that winter ; her health was, shaken by the journey, but she set out homeward in February,

and got to Paris on the 4th of March, 1835, on Ash Wednesday,. stopping her carriage at the Chapel of St. Vincent de Paul, in order to offer up her devotions before entering her own house; a severe illness ensued, keeping her on the borders of the grave for nearly three mOnths. General Swetchine lived to be ninety- two, and his widow survived him nearly seven years. Perhaps we ought to have referred to the extreme feebleness of her own health for many years—often her sufferings also were great. We have been unable to resist telling her story in part ; but the

can readily have recourse to the life itself.

We must now advert to two rather remarkable articles in the Youreaux Landis by M. Sainte-Beuve. That able writer has never written better than in this newly published volume. Perhaps he has hitherto been too generally laudatory. He may be tired of the strain, and so may his readers be, and he may gain in' popularity by the slight acerbity which he has displayed here.. Up to a certain point be has conducted himself with allowable fairness, for it would be most unjust to deny H. Sainte-Beuve the right of giving his impressions of Madame Swetchine as a writer,. thinker, and hostess. What we complain of, in reading his articles upon her, is, that a manifest distaste to her biographer has led him beyond these legitimate limits with regard to herself._ We do not cavil at his account of her salon. It may have been true that the spirit of rule was too apparent there. He allows her to have been " une femme tres rare et tree distinguee, qui fait le plus grand honneur k tin monde aristocratique cal elle a recu;'' but he intimates that there was a restraint, that she took you on the religious side, inquired into your antecedents, what you were, what you thought, &c. A credo or a veto there must be. One can quite understand bow a true Frenchman, accustomed to. the sweet, easy grace of Madame Recamier's receptions, would chafe at this. The personnel, too, would be brought into com- parison, and there Madame Swetchine, who was small in person, had Tartar features, and a slight cast in the eyes, must, of courser fail. But the two ladies knew and admired each other—they were not antagonists, not even rivals. Chateaubriand might be- the hero of the Abbaye au Bois ; but Montalembert, Lacor- daire, &c., were in the Rue St. Dominique, and Ballanches, and Ampere circulated in each. Sometimes a slight smile might be seen on the countenances of Madame Recamier's guests if word was brought of a learned talk on fathers. and councils at Madame Swetchine's ; nor would any one who knew her house be ignorant that one of the doors of the- salon opened upon her private and costly chapel, at whose altar the sacred elements were dispensed, and now and then a mysteriously whispered request would be made to the hostess, and the key which admitted to the presence of these holy mysteries would be taken from her side and lent to the petitioner. The holy neighbourhood imparted a gravity to the whole place, and yet we know, and M. Sainte-Beuve admits it, that it gained in freedom and enlightened thought and discourse as time went. on. In and after the trying years of 1848-50, and the following,. he is cordial in his admiration of the more expansive spirit of the frequenters of her house. Men of all parties came there as to a, region of peace and tranquil good sense, and she, the calm old lady, interested, indulgent, ready to make large allowances on all sides, she heard their views of society—their hopes and fears for France and the world. With her gentle religious meekness, she said, "After all, there is no better preservative against anger than a deep feeling of our human frailty." Some charitable women, mothers and sisters of the poor and sick, are insensible to the just claims of the people. It was not Bo with her. She bad many serfs in Russia, and it was her constant anxiety to. ameliorate their condition, and to emancipate them. She sent reliable people to inquire into the behaviour of her superinten- dents to them.

As a writer what shall we say of her ? We find her somewhat obscure, verbose, ponderous ; but it is impossible to examine

her letters, at all events, without having one's sense of the wide- ness of her sympathy, her indefatigable desire to help others, strengthened. Also, her sound good sense is refreshing, and even the style. though it may not charm us, was her own—the veracious expression of what she felt and thought. Alexia de

Tocqueville, who loved and deeply mourned her, says, "Whore shall I again find a kindness so effectual, such quickness of apprehension and feeling, and such a passionate love of truth ?"

We are no parties to whatever may be hidden behind M. Sainte-Beuve's satirical intimations touching the Comte de Falloux. We do not understand them, though we think there is a general tone of over-praise and a want of simplicity in the biography. It is clear that Sainte-Beuve has been annoyed by attempts to wring from him and others greater laudation than he was disposed to bestow. This should not, however, have impaired his justice and candour, and we think there is reason to complain, in particular, of his having allowed himself to retail a somewhat petty anecdote, without giving his authority, in his concluding note, with an intimation that he could give others, if he pleased, of a depreciatory kind. This is not worthy 'of one whom in many, in most, respects, we esteem so highly as we do M. Sainte-Beuve. Against small domestic details reported by bystanders there is no defence. The error is in those who needlessly spread them.