LITERARY NOTES.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2295, 26 March 1887, Page 1 (Supplement)

LITERARY NOTES.

-♦ [FROM OUII OWN CO k RES PONT) EXT. 1 Paius, January 20. The memoirs of M. de Beust are as richly instructive and entertaining as those of Greville's. They touch so many actualities and s;i well, and they cover the interesting period, 1800-1885. As everything about Prince Bismarck would be read, even were he interviewed morning' and evening, the recollections of Comto de Beust of the Chancellor will be welcome. After 1870, the Austrian Minister renewed his relations with the Prince, which had been broken since 180G, and Sadowa. Both statesmen occupied the same hotel at Straubinger during three weeks, and spent their days together. If one be in the good graces of the Prince, writes the Cornte, the latter will be found the most agreeable and aimiable of men, whose ideas are as original as they are originally expressed. His favourite expression, '' He is an imbecile," is not intended to be injurious. Perhaps it is a harmless sulphurous ejaculation.

But the Chancellor takes his revenge, it appears, not on the. follies but on the wickedness of men. He storms frequently and frightfully, and nothing draws off his "donuerund blitzen " equal to letting him smash something. It is possibly his way of whittling. Bismarck is full of anecdotes about Thiers and Jules Favre, and relates thein with the gusto of au old sportsman. Once he was discussing with them about the renewal of an armstiue. Suddenly he remarked, "M. Thiers, since one hour I have listened to your eloquence without an interruption, and we are no nearer a result. For the future, I shall only speak German. " But, Monsieur," said Thiers, " neither of us comprehend a single word of German." " That's nothing to me. I shall speak only German." Thiers continued arguing. Bismarck followed up with German. An hour later, the French delegates signed the protocool.

The German troops before they made their promenade-entry into Paris were reviewed by the Emperor 011 the racecourse at the Bois de Boulogne. Bismarck was a t his Majesty's side, when a man in a blouse approached the Prince and said, " Bismarck you're a blackguard !" " I could have had the fellow instantly shot, but the man's courage so impressed trie that I abstained." Cointo de Benst would find it difficult to give the Chancellor a certificate for veracity or straightforwardness. Ho is skilled in duplicity, and yet oddly enough it is the ouly weapon he bungles with—if he over bungles. M. Michiels expresses surprise that 110 attempt has hitherto boon made in France to explain the physiological and psychological reasons for laughing, where people laugh so much, and who subscribe to Chamfort's maxims, that those have lost their day who never have a laugh during twenty four hours. Laughter is a curious phenomena. A man falls in the street—we laugh. At the theatre a spectator witnessed an actor grotesquely dressed ; hears him express a folly, or seo him confound persons and things—he bursts out laughing; perhaps goes into fits, and his contortions are not less singular than a lunatic's. And yet the spectator is in the full possession 'of his reason and health. He has simply been electrified by comical situations; ho is amused, not pained, and experiences one of the most healthful joys man can £a?l—a goad laugh,

What are the external and internal causes of the problem asks M. Mtchiels? The fact that all which is contrary to the ideal of human perfection produces a comical effect, either from the material intellectual, or moral point of view; Any niavked deviation from tho ideal, makes tho perpetrator ludicrous ; such as being too fat or too lean; having tho arms or legs, too long or too short. A hump, a massive nose, or a nominal chin, provoke laughter or fun. Stammering and jabbering are provocative of laughter. Ho is tho habit of sneezing— Busilo in tho Barbier do Seville to wit. lint physical defects cease to bo laughable when they are associated with suffering. A blind man 'or a cripple in a go-cart excite 1 lity ; ferocious eyes or repulsive features beget fear or aversion. The burly Falstatf or the applo dumpling Saucho l anza are amusing; but Macbeth's witches or vampires, and sanguinary celebrities produce repulsion. Awkward movements are a fruitful source of diversion —as the stage illustrates. Tho theatre also attests how rich a source of intellectual mirth are simpletons, while tho oxagerations of sentiments and and passions are the fruitful source of plots for comedies and pleasant padding for three novel volumes. The eighteenth century with all its greatness and weakness; its passions, its enthusiasms, its double aspect of a world which disappeared, and a world which was being born, cannot be dissociated from the names of two women —Madame d'Epinay and Madlle Lespinasse. The society of that century was especially incarnated in these two brilliant ladies, who by their faults as by their virtues ; by their love of letters, as by their connection with all the celebrated writers of the time, are truly representatives of their age. M. Henzy has published some new letters from Mdlle Lespinasse, which are full of interest. Love constituted all her life; she existed by that passion, and it was love that killed her.

When she separated from Madame du Deifaud, Mdlle Lespinasse opened a philisophical saloon of her own, where every celebrity, literary and political, met weekly. She proved a model woman of the world, unequalled in marvellous tact, and compelled others to like or love one another, through her. She drew out her guests so as to make them feel pleased with themselves and. agreeable to all present ; she had ever the right word in the right place; but possessed above all the precious quality—to bo natural and true of her three loversj the Marquis de Morat, the Comte Guibert, and d'Alembert, the latter was the only one not unhappy. And both never knew, either happy infancy or joyous youthhood.