LITERARY NOTES. (FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.) Paris, October 10.

Waikato Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2093, 5 December 1885, Page 4

LITERARY NOTES. (FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT. ) Paris, October 10.

Tiibhb u i» schoo! of novelists who have cioated a special form of writing about tho moral maladies of niodorn man. Tho Brothers Kdiuund .Hid Jules de (Joucourt are types of this new departure Since ll.ilz.ic, none has surpassed thoin in modifying tho art of writing romance*. Zol.i and Daudet aro moro or less i elated to their special lino of treatment. Tho Gnncourts laboured for twenty year* in ob-cunty before thoir talent^, so original nnd profound, was lecugmscd by the public, and then not grudgingly. Goetho, in hi* Wilhelm Meistor, Ins illustrated tho idea th.vt our divers experiences of hfo profit our personal ability or genius. It is a wido and prolific hypothesis. Take Balzac for example. Ho commenced life as an attorney 'a clerk, ne\t at* a printer, and then was ruined. He experienced all the agonies of an unofficial bankrupt merchant. Now, in his lomances, wh.vt is found beneath his philosophical perspicacity, Ins magic creations, and fantables'! Exactly himself : tho business man who j*t twentv-hvo years of age, was rimed by trado liabilities. His linroteaii, Graudot, and (Jobseck, are only the ieutal« of a man struggling to obtain money to live. Stendhal, in his naiad day, was an ofheer and a courtier, and henco we find in his novels the soldier and tho diplomatist. In Madame Bo vary, by Flaubert, them is an hospital odour, tho rigid brutality of an ily-os, and a concision of phr.tsus that cut like surgical instruments. Flaubert was the Bon of a doctor, and walked hospital*. Theophilo (Jautier on leaving college, became a painter ; hence, all his poetry and prose reveal the artist. Tho (Joncomt* did not commence life as novelists ; they started as sketchers, on foot throughout France, haversack on back. Their note booka then revealed nothing, aavo tho number of miles travelled, and the nature of their repasts ; their reflections came later. It w.is only in the autumn of ltoO, in their lonely lodging in the rue St. George, when twilight permitted no loncrer to paint, they net to and sketched a Chinese Vaudeville. Honce, we can trace in their novels not literary, but artistic criticism. There in nothing in them of the philosophy of Tainr or the splendid prose of dutier. Their home became a museum, full of objocts of arts and designs, rare and .suggestive. It is by a kindred taste that the young Greeks were led to love the -*t \tues of then gods, light and strong an themselves, and of that serenity, which was the exact im ige of their person. "To comprehend, is to equal." The (ioncourts were men of museums, creatures of bibelots and brica-brae; take nway theso, and modern literature taconic* in trreat part unintelligible. Is not the hori/oiinf llacinc's poetry, limited from the standpoint of the Chateau of Versailles i Hut the Gnncourts had no touch with the outer world, like Bal/.ac, Goothe, or Hugo ; they xhut themselves up during four days at a time, to dcv elope their " hallucination foyer," the better to evoke tears for pain, and extract love by associating it with torture. This is the disease of ideal novel*. It is playing with language as the Hunganan gipsios play their violins — sadly and passionately. It is not by visions or day dreams that tho manners of any age can be written; they must bo caught "living as they fly." There is n<» want of human documents ; the only difficulty is to select thorn. It is not by bibelots from China and Japan that we can describe the m uiner-i of a street or n boulevard. At best it is only history, as it might be. It was not thus that Walter Scott and Georges Sand wrote. Like Balzac, Stendhal, Gcorgo Kliot, the Comte Lolstoi, they observe their character*, while the Goncourts only paint them. The reader will not find m the latter volumes types of souls, curious and varied, but descriptions of life's daily habit", the singularities of trades, how we amus?, dress, work, and spond our money. Those aie the manners, not tho passions of our oentuiy, and tho latter include all vnlgar as well as all superior men. The (Joncourts ha\o httlo intriguo, littlo of drait.a in their novels. They replace such by descriptions. Drama means action, and tho latter is not a very good sign of rummers ; their descriptions .110 ho many pieces of mosaic work. They claim to paint the nervous maladies of their epoch, and exhibit themselves as victims of such in their work of "Chirles J)ein.ully," tho history of an unfortunate man of letters. Do Coiiohs. in Manette, is clearly the brother of Dcmailly. Zola, like the (Joncourts, rests his literary work on the diseased will ; so does Alphonse Daudct, but with a finer sense of penetiation. It would be a great error, not the less, to accept the (ioiiccuirts as punters of their epoch ; tlx-ir style is in direct coiitruliction with the intellectual habits of the French. They hare no touch with contemporary life ; they livo in an ideal atmosphere of their own creation. It i» only since 1841 that tho question of public health, sinitaiy reform, 01 hjgione has become an ofhiial study. Wo have now nome idolators of cleanlinc»s who maintain «uch is more neces«nry than fond. They seemingly d«*iro that the blacksmiths, labourers and scivengers should go to their work in evening dress and white cravat; with perfumed glow*, a cane, and an eye-c»lass. M. Bourchardat, 111 his "Treatise," exposes these sentimental hygienists. Ho does not believe diseases will appe.ii where people are well housed. Persons badly lodged pay tho largest tri bute to diseases, because other misfortunes are associated therewith, notably misery. Tho rag-pickers who improve their cabin-*, 01 kraals, and live in the middle of gathered filth, nuffer less from disease than the average of workmen. The mon who work in the «ewors, who empty night-soil reservoirs, and the labourers who irrigate soils with Paris vcwage, do not exhibit any specially high death-rato. Since hfty years M. Bourchard.it has been officially connected with the public chanties of Paris, and docs not appear at all enthusiastic over the ameliorations effected in the hospitals and dwellings, in accordance vwth nr.orjr.ni principle". The author lays down that the, ti uo way to keep away discnsrs is to know them. That w the positive plan for preserving health. Two causes are demonstrated ns truiMiin in the production of diseosn : defective food iu>d over-population. He further thinks that nature has well acted by concealing from us the c vise* of many ailments, as th.it enforce* attention to prudenco and moderation in our habits. All that there is positive about disinfectants and funngatioi s, tho calcinated doctor adds, is the expense. Oier-crouding i" bad, but insufficiency of food and deleterious atimnntu are more injurious, to health than insalubrious dwellings ; n sound stomach is tho best safeguard against epidemics. As for quarantines, la/-arettocs, and cordons sanitaircs, M. Bourchardat views thorn as tblich of tho middlo ages. Legislators are strong in faith but weak in doctrine, and their euros frequently do not oven corao up to thoHA of old womnn, n inicly, to in neither harm nor good. M. Hector Malot'i Lieutenant Bonnet, is a novel with a purposo, and <i good one into the bargain. It is an axion in the French army, that a sub lieutennt cannot live on his pay, of 1W fr. per month. It is this cm iimfttnncc which explain*, why French officers have no Met% they board and lodge themselves, a enfe 1 in tho garrison town serves as a kind of club. After paying all obligatory cxponces the «ub lieutenant ban only 13 fr. per month for pocket money. Tins ik absolute misery for officers w ithout private, means, nnd it is the sad romance of such lives that M. Malot depict?. Lieutenant Bonnet is the typo sub lieutenant without foituno he is a bachelor, for economy^ sake, ho does not go to the regimental cafe, hence he is " .snupected " by his comrades his uniform is dowdy nnd rinty ; this appearance makes the rich colonel his enemy, for his regiment is a crack one. Lieutenant Drapior, in njjnm the type of the married officer, without fortune ; his situation is morn frightful than Bonnet's. He has wed a fai mer's daughter, who promised her a foitunc, but has broken his woid. If 180 fr. a mouth be inadequate f<n a bacheloi lieutenant, what must 200 fr. only be for an officer with a wife and child ? Drapi^r'n home in chronic horrible misery, the family rarely eat bread all through tho month, no firewood in winter, no linen for sheets, the baby »leops between old newspapers. The volume ih vory sensational history, rendered still more painful because true — and n?w, because exponed for the fir*t $ime to tho wot Id in a dramatic form. The agrarian difficulty exists 111 France an in other countries, despite the fact that facilities everywhere nxist for the cultivator of the soil to become its owner. The latter facility is an intricate social and economic problem. Tho Hinall fanner'a position in worse than that of a comfortable salaried farm labourer ; hence, why small holdings are not in favour. But thorois a more serious cause still, tbc choapnoss with which foreign agricultural products can be transported to homo marketa, to jay nothing of the upidity, the. diQQren.ee* in the

conditions of production, the low price* for grain, meat, .inr] wool, all render it difficult for a small agriculturist to exist, while in addition ho lias to compete with neighbouring l.irgo owners, wliokc farmsteads are truly factories. To meet thicrisis it lias boon proposed by M. lland1 ill •rt and other economists to extend the in? tayago nyntem in France. This would mijtly .idt'iju.ite cnpit.il to work ,vi evtenino holding while inducing tho rural population to remain in the locality. The metayage is nothing else but the system of association applied to l,md t" the relation* between the l.mdloid or employer, and a working ton. mt as p.u trier. If tiio arrangemonts bo left free, and th.it they be inutu.tlly advantageous, they will not only .suit but endure, because adopted to circumstances. Tliere arc about 100 millions of acres of cultivated land m France; of this totul, 21 per cent, is farmed by tenant's ; metayage, 18; and the rest directly by their owners. Fact singular, the uu'tayage plan of working holding*, has suffered lens by the crisis t)i.iit rented farms ; it has reappeared in districts where it had next to ceased, and extends where it is practised. The peasant has little or no capital ; in associating with a proprietor, giving Ins labour in exchange fora dividend m the produce, he has no anxiety about lent or taxes; lib and his family execute their daily tasks certain for food and shelter; he cultivates the soil with an interest, and the wellbeing of himself and family is seemed. The landlord in rot n in, li.it his dividend fnr his capital, for the use of the hmd, the live and dead stock, as well as interest on any moneys advanced. Pioprictors are drifting into imtayage, owing to the increasing dtfheulty of letting their fami«. It still leaves leisure to an owner, if nch ; it liberates him if the contrary, and allows him to devote his time to otiie(<ocvupatioiiB. But fur the w ell- working of the byitem of inltayage, the proprietoi might to be resident and display an activo interest in the association. Not to be actually a deeping partner. It is when he delegates his duty to a middleman, when he becomes in a. word, an absentee, that the union fails. Another innovation to uphold and encourage is the dividing the profits, not in kind, but in cash. The latter is the true measure of all profit*, whether from the farm or the countinghouse. Les Fr-res Col-mibr, by Madame I'cyrcbrune, is a simple histoiy that will cause teal* to swell m many eyes. It is full of hum in cmotiouaiidth.it hard illustiation which nature duly farces <m us that we do not live solely for ourselves. The brothers Colomb' are two old bachelors, who, employed in Palis, have by dint of patrimony rtther than frugality sivcd up a little money to en tblo them to retire to their natal home m the piovinces to end their dat. sin peace. Solitary though they be, they ni« good. They secure " pets "; hrst, a dog, then a little gill, and lastly a a par row. The dog dies; the little girl, whom they lo\ed and almost mined themselves to honour and cherish, wed-, leaves, and goes to a foreign laud, the sparrow flicrf away one spring morning and forgets to come back. Three tunes affection deceives them, and they thus leal n what are the causes of the great joys and sorrows of this life. General Tcheng-Ki-Tonv, first secretary of the Chines* Legation here, is contributing a Herie.s of articles of a most remarkable character to dissipate many of the prejudices and legends connected w itli China. His official position, his authoritative experience, his broad and cultivated mind, his wonderful command of French, and his knowledge of western institution-*, manners and custom 4 , make his writings of immense value at the present time, when the Celestial Empire is about taking a new di'partme. His stylo is agieeahle, full of sly sarcasm, and while not ignorant of the motes in the eyeiof his countrymen, pointn out sevei.il very ugly beams in those of the. Westerns.