Gosse, Edmund

Lee, Sidney

Malet, Lucas

Murray, Gilbert

Vincent, Colonel Sir Howard

Vivian, Herbert

Zangwill, Israel

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^IISCELLANEOUS."THE DECADENCE OP FRANCE."Some time ago (May, 1904) we published in The Open Court a numberof letters on "The Decadence of France," which appeared in the Eiiropccii,a weekly periodical published at Paris. Mr. Theodore Stanton now sendsus a number of letters on the same suljject, written by English celebrities,which are here published for the first time in English.COLONEL SIR HOWARD VINCENT, M. V."La France est-clle en dccadenee?" To this question there is only oneresponse: "No! a thousand times No!'' I find myself in the happy condi-tion to make this statement. I have just completed a journey throughFrance: Calais. Paris, Angouleme, Bordeaux, Le Medoc, Agen, Toulouse,Carcassonne, Marseille, Nice, Cannes, Antibes, Lyons, Dijon. They are theplaces visited by a delegation of the British Parliament. Everywhere isorder; everywhere prosperity; everywhere a quiet and happy people, wellfed, well nurtured, gay, content, hospitable, generous. The poor are notto be seen. Luxury is extensive. Such are the impressions received bymy colleagues and myself, and this is the reason why I answer: "No!No! No!"EDMUND GOSSE,Librarian of the House of Lords. 'La France est-ellc en decadenceFMy reply is, peremptoril}', categorically, NO !What is "decadence"? Is it not a phrase l)y which the timid often at-tempt to mask their fear of what is new, active and rebellious?The ()nl\' decidciit nations are thdse which do nut dare to change, which\'\\'v iin in a cmistant icrror of encouraging audacity of tliought or per-\ersily of conduct. I he ]i\ ing n;itions are forever making new experiments,at winch conxentional iieopK' shudder and scream.We may scour the iiorizon of the world ;;t this hour and see no nationwhich seems so litile to deserxe tlu' rebuke of "decay " as the b'rench. To myapi)rehen-ion, 1,0 country at the present hour is so full of intellectual yciuthand iiope. offei s to the ob^er\er so great a >ariety of points of vitality, ordraws tiie atteiilion of the thouglttful to it with so \i\acions a sympathy, asI '"ranee."La France c.<^l-elle c;; decadence/" if by "decadence" vou mean evo-MISCELLANEOUS. 571lulion, tlic painful ino(aniori)lu)sis of life,—Yes! ]f hy "dccadnicc" you mean(lulness, apathy, a sinking of the moral and mental temperature, a thousandtimes—NO!SUlNliV I.EK,Editor of the Ih\-liniin]-y of Nalii'iial lii(>i:,iat'!iy.I har lly f^el in a position to express any ii])iniiin nn the weighty (|ues-tioii you propose. I know little of h'ranec from the eeononne jioint of view;my pursuits have led me to study iM-anee exelu^isely in her literature. .\1-though 1 heliexe that I'ranee, like all otlu-r ei\ili/ed eountries, is at the mnm-ent passing through a somewhat sterile period in t!ie histijry of her litera-ture. I judge the iniluenee that she is still henefieially exerting on the literaryst\de of the world to he great. In elearness of expression and perecptionFrench writers still seem to me to set an example to the world.I am at tlic moment engaged at tracing, more minutely than has. 1 think,heen done alread}-, the influence of France on ouv I'Jizahethan poetry, and Iam inclining to the opinion that the extent of Fiench iniluenee on our pastas on our present literature has been hitherto underestimated.LUCAS M.ALET.Ihe (piestion which you propose, I, as a lover of France, venture toanswer with an emphatic negative France is not in a slate of decadence; butshe is, in my humble opinion, in a state of convalescence—and the symptomsof the latter condition may easily, l)y suiserlicial observers, be mistaken forthose of the former. From the middle of the eighteenth century she haspassed through a series of convulsions, both moral and material, of experi-ments, of splendors and disasters, culminating in the cruel tragedy of 1870—1871, which must always remain to the student one of the amazing chaptersof human history. That she should have retained her solidarity, her genius,and revived as a nation, shows a vitality so enormous, and an intelligence soadaptable and fertile that it is impossible to entertain misgivings as to herfuture. But the elTects of her past sufferings are still upon her in a certainnervousness and sensitiveness, wdiich result in episodes painful to her ad-mirers. She is taken with unreasoning fears, and these lead to a violenceboth of feeling and of action which strikes the observer as unworthy andexaggerated. Two very dissimilar episodes, having their rise in these nerv-ous terrors, appear especially unfortunate—I refer to the "Affaire Dreyfus"'and the expulsion of the Religious Orders. In the first case there was a fearof abstract justice, in the second a fear of religious liberty. As a Catholicand a Liberal, alike, it is inconceivable to me that the highest interests ofany nation can ever be served by the repudiation of such fundamental prin-ciples of social existence and of progress. Such repudiatii)n. like all other re-course to artificial and arbitrary remedies, suggests a lack of faith in herself,and in her splendid destiny, wdiich might be alarming, did one not rememberthat she stil! bears the scars of the tremendous adventures of the later yearsof the eighteenth and nearly the whole of the nineteenth centur}-. Her con-valescence must of necessity be long; but there are, surely, already signs,that her restoration to health will be com])lete and lasting. There are, per-haps, nations in Europe whom we "could do without" ; but France very cer-tainly is not among these ! Indeed, it is not too much to say that never haAC5/2 THE OPEN COURT.the influence and 'raditions of the Latin races been of more vital importanceto the exolution of a true and nol)le ci\ilization than at the present moment.CILBEKT ML'RRAY,FoDiierly Professor of Greek at Glasgow University.I hesitate to pronounce any opinion upon a subject so vast and so in-tricate. ')ut there are two remarks that 1 venture to make.1. If !•"ranee is decaying, then the whole European civilization, as at pres"enl understood, is decaying. The same bad symptoms which appear in Franceappear also in England, Germany, Italy, and, from what one hears, in thenations of Europe. Nor can I see that the United States are much better.2. France throughout her history has generally taken all her diseasesse\'erely and recovered from them vigorously. The present bad symptomsmay be more severe in France than elsewhere, the recognition of them iscertainly more outspoken, and the effort towards regeneration more resoluteand far-reaching.ISR.\EL ZANGWILL.A country m'ly l)e in decadence materially or spiritually. Materially, Icannot believe that a fertile land witii such hard-working and intelligentpopulation as b^rance, and the most capable women in the world, can be onthe down grade. For foreigners, however, the greatness of France has al-ways lain in the spiritual realm She has fed the world with ideas andideals. It has been a bitter blow to the hopes of the human race thatprecisely the country of "Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity" should have pro-duced a Dreyfus case. Here in A\ignon, when I read on the walls "Mortaiix Jiiifs" it is not only as a Jew that I feel that P>ance has plunged backinto ihe Dark Ages. I always studied Lemaitre with the greatest admirationfor the universalist sympathy and critical intelligence—and lo ! one day Ilind that Lcinaitrc du jn'^cmciit est (h'l'cini Fcsclaz'c du prcjugc. I was inAmerica when the Dreyfus trial ^\as taking place at Rennes—if F'renchmencould only understand the horror that shook all America at the verdict, theywould be able to gage how much they have lost in the opinion of mankind—-they who, however distanced in material progress, might still aspire to thespiritual hegemony of the peoples. The license of the F^rench stage and ofF>ench literature is another argument for decadence. None Init a F'renchl)laywright would be i)ermitte(l to place on the stage tb.e caricature of aliving personage, though Dr. Nordau may console himself by the remem-brance that Aristophanes lampooned Socrates. Moreover, the exploitationof the sex-theme is pushed in I'rancc to the limits of silliness. Will French-men never get tir.'d of reading the same joke and seeing the same pictures?There is a total absence of perspective and a total lack of humor in theirfeverish intere^-t in this subject. One would say a nation of schoolboysgloating over their first discovery of sex. The serious study of life by aF'laubert or a Zola is quite another affair.Still France is too great to be despaired of, and too necessary for civili-zation, and if she produced a Dreyfus case, she produced also a Dreyfusardparty, and men like Colonel Piccard able to sacrifice all for honor. It issuch elements as these that will ever preserve I-'rance from decadence.:\risn:LT.AXi:oiTS. 573HERBERT VIVIAN,Vice-President of tlic Carlton Chili.I do not believe that France should go further down the slope whereso many nations seem to lose tlieir primitive manhciod. Since the Revolu-tion, France has gone through many di^a.slers, Iml has not l'"rance atpresent reached the nadir of her misfortune? To-day >he is governed hy ademocratic clique. She opposes the Church. She is without faith and al-most wMthout law. She has lost her rank among the great powers.Nevertheless, the true Frenchman remains courteous, chivalrous, hard-working, a lover of duly, the drudge of this civilization, which finds itsfuture in the past.Such a race can only spend itself entirely. Oh, that your legitimateking came with the ancient oritlanmie, that t!ie old civilization woiihl re-appear, that the sun of Louis Xl\^ would rise again from its eclipse, and th;i^France would lie the cradle of a reaction filled with glorv!BOOK REVIEWS AND NOTES.Private Lives of William II amd His Consort, and Secret History of theCourt of Berlin. From the Papers and Diaries, extending over a Periodbeginning June, 1888, to the Spring of 1898, of Ursula Countess Von Epping-hoven, Dame du palais to her Majesty the Empress-Queen. By Hetiry VV.Fischer. Fischer's Foreign Letters, Inc. New York : 1904. 2 vols. Pp.,xviii, 551, 347. Price, $7.00, net.Since William II, the present German Emperor, ascended the throne, he hasconstantly grown both in intrinsic worth as a ruler and in the estimation of theworld. No doubt he has his faults ; he is impulsive, easily irritated, and apt torush into publicity where discretion might advise keeping out of view ; but, withal,he is honest, courageous, and always ready to do his duty. He may frequently bemistaken, but we may be sure that he could never act contrary to his conscience,Besides, he is one of the most versatile monarchs that ever sat on a throne, andthough, as a painter and composer he may be a dilettante, he is certainly an unusu-ally talented monarch, and the many interests he takes in the arts and scienceshave certainly done no harm.The proverb says that before his valet no one is a saint, nor a hero either, nora genius or generally great ; and that is true, for it takes greatness to appreciategreatness, and a valet is a menial, of vulgar mind and sneaking habits, with meanambitions, and will always be apt to disfigure the very facts of which he may be awitness. He sees the mud on his master's boots, but knows nothing of his aspira-tions and ambition.The book before us is written by Henry W. Fischer, a German-American whoclaims (and there is no reason to doubt it) to come from a distinguished family. Hehas drawn his information from a personality whom he calls Ursula Countess VonEppinghoven. In his information to the reviewer, he says :" Eppinghoven is a fictitious name, used by the author to shield his informant.For, as the reader will readily believe when he has read some of the disclosuresmade in this book, the countess (she is in truth a countess of a very distinguishedfamily) could not retain her liberty an hour after the volumes reached Germ.any.

The Decadence of France.

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The Decadence of France.

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