THERE LOUIS PHILIPPE. HERE is no romance equal to the romance of real life. No imagination can produce changes and combinations so wonderful as those which are continually turned up to us by life's kaleidoscope. The personal and political history of Louis Philippe presents one of the most strangely checkered dramas which has ever been enacted on the stage of time. Deeply as we may be interested in the biography of those who have influenced the destinies of past generations, we have a peculiar and far deeper interest in minds now active, framing the laws, guiding the armies, and molding the manners of the age in which we live. There is probably no one now on life's busy theater who, from his personal character, his eventful history, and his important and perilous position, is more deserving the attention of intelligent minds, than he who has for the last eighteen years sat upon the volcanic throne of France, endeavoring to smother or to control the restless fires by which that throne is ever shaken. Louis Philippe was born in his father's splendid residence, the Palais Royal in Paris, on the 6th of October, 1773. His father, the Duke of Orleans, was the richest man in Europe, and of royal blood. He, embracing the infidel philosophy so prevalent at those times, devoted the resources of his boundless wealth to the most unrestrained indulgence in the pursuit of pleasure. The mother of Louis was as distinguished for her piety and virtues as was his father for his reckless dissipation. She, surrounded by more than regal magnificence, saw all her hopes of earthly happiness blighted, and, broken-hearted, as the only remaining solace of life, devoted all her attention to the culture of her children. Louis Philippe was her eldest child; and the influence of this good mother has been the controlling genius of his eventful life. He was early placed under the tuition and care of the celebrated Madame de Genlis. She was unwearied in her endeavors, and wonderfully successful in giving him a highly-cultivated mind, strong moral principle, the power of selfrestraint, and a vigorous constitution. One of the effectual modes by which Madame de Genlis taught her pupil to examine his heart, and regulate his conduct and his thoughts, was by keeping a very minute daily journal. This daily self-examination was conducted with great fidelity. The following questions, written in his journal, were read to him every evening, and to each one he returned an answer in writing: 1. Have I this day fulfilled all my duties toward God my Creator, and prayed to him with fervor and affection? 2. Have I listened with respect and attention to the instructions which have been given me to-day with regard to my Christian duties and reading works of piety? 3. Have I fulfilled all my duties this day toward those I ought to love most in the world, my father and my mother? 4. Have I behaved with mildness and kindness toward my sister and my brothers? 5. Have I been docile, grateful, and attentive to my teachers? 6. Have I been perfectly sincere to-day, disobliging no one, and speaking evil of no one? 7. Have I been as discreet, prudent, charitable, modest, and courageous as may be expected at my age? 8. Have I shown no proof of that weakness and effeminacy which is so contemptible in a man? 9. Have I done all the good I could? 10. Have I shown all the marks of attention I ought to the persons, present or absent, to whom I owe kindness, respect, and affection? Every evening these questions were proposed to Louis by his teacher, and to each one he recorded the answer in his journal. This exercise was followed by a season of devotion, in which the young prince sought of God the pardon of his sins, and implored divine grace and assistance for the future. Such was the moral and intellectual training of a youth of sixteen. In the midst of the most voluptuous court of Europe, surrounded by the most dazzling allurements of gilded vice, with the notorious Duke of Orleans for his father, young, sanguine, rich, and of excellent birth, protected by this discipline, he moved uncontaminated through all these dangerous scenes, and has, for half a century, sustained a character of the most irreproachable and the purest morality. In one passage of his private journal, which was taken with other of his papers during the revolution and published, he writes, "O my mother! how I bless you for having preserved me from those vices and misfortunes into which so many young men fall, by inspiring me with that sense of religion which has been my whole support." In allusions to the trials and privations of his life, Mad |