232 MADAME DE GENLIS. TEPHANIE-FELICITÉ-DUCREST De St. Aubin, Comtesse de Genlis, born on the 25th of January, 1746, at Champcérí, near Autun, in Burgundy,-nourished with wine-and-water in lieu of milk-who lived eightyfour years, published eighty-four thick volumes of political, moral, and romantic literature, and who, when fourscore years of age, "and having eyes that needed no spectacles, hearing acute as at twenty, good legs, unimpaired memory and intellect," undertook, in the interests of morality and religion, for which she had already done so much, to re-write the "Encyclopédie" ("abattre un colosse effrayant d'orgueil et d'impiété,")—had a narrow escape, in the very dawn of that remarkable existence, of being blotted out of being by a heavy, half-blind Bailli of the district, who, calling on Monsieur de St. Aubin for a gossip, spread his coattails, preparatory to seating himself in the roomy arm-chair wherein, unperceived by him, lay the future preceptress of Louis-Philippe, and eminent authoress, sewed up for safety's sake in a feather pillow. Fortunately, Monsieur le Bailli was not so deaf as dull-sighted, and the nurse's scream warning him just in time of the babycide he was about to commit, the imminent catastrophe was averted, and the tiny germ preserved, to be, in the fulness of time, developed into the wonderful woman who, with the hearty self-appreciation which runs through the six volumes of her autographic memoirs, sums up as follows her claims to the veneration of mankind :— "As to my influence, I dare assert that it has been useful to religion, and that, by the peculiar favour of Providence, my hand has struck heavy blows at a false philosophy. I flatter myself, moreover, that I have exercised a salutary influence upon both public and private education, and notably with respect to the study of living languages, which I brought into fashion; and as to the use of games, recreations, and the gymnastics proper to infancy and youth, of which I gave the first ideas in my 'Lessons of a Governess.' Society also owes to me the total abolition of fairy tales, formerly permitted to be used in the education of children. In a word, I have fought with success against false taste in all things, and especially in literature." This extract from the "Mémoires Inédits de Madame la Comtesse de Genlis" conveys but a faint idea of the loss which the world would have sustained, had her marvellous faculties been extinguished in embryo by the ponderous Bailli; to fully realize which hypothetical calamity, it is necessary to have read all the charming passages of selfdescription with which those volumes abound, as well as the numerous testimonies by admiring contemporaries to her moral and intellectual eminence carefully preserved therein for the instruction of posterity. As, unfortunately, my canvas is far too small for the exhibition of a complete portraiture, I can only select and combine some of the more salient traits of character and genius that sparkle throughout those precious pages; which, however, will, I think, enable the reader to pretty accurately appreciate not only Madame la Comtesse herself, but the moral and intellectual state of society wherein she, for so many years, shone a bright particular star of the first magnitude. The lady's sire was proprietor, by purchase, of the Marquisate and Château of St. Aubin, situate on the borders of the Loire, where "mon heureuse enfance" was chiefly passed; but the title of Comtesse, assumed by Mademoiselle de St. Aubin in her seventh year, was obtained from a more "legitimate" fountain of honour than the breeches-pocket. At that age she was created a Canoness of the noble chapter of Alix, at Lyons; the symbol of which semi-spiritual dignity, a consecrated gold ring placed upon the recipient's finger by the Grand Prior, conferred the secular title of Comtesse, without the drawback of any obligation on the part of the neophyte to complete her profession when arrived at years of discretion; though, if she did so, the order was not without some "profitable prebends," to reward the renunciation of the world and its vanities. Mademoiselle de St. Aubin, as, till we accompany her to the marriage-altar it will be as well to call her, was publicly baptized in Paris, with an iron collar round her neck, to keep in its place the small Grecian head— unconscious casket, filled with divinest gifts—and goggles on her eyes, worn to conceal and correct a tendency to squint, happily thereby eradicated, or it might have marred "the expression of open yet gentle candour," which, in the opinion of many persons, constituted her soft eyes' supremest charm. Madame la Comtesse de Bellevau was one of her sponsors, and remarking upon her goddaughter's baptismal name, Félicité, she exclaimed, "Ah, poor child, she will never be happy! she possesses too much sensibility." "Elle avait raison,” sighs octogenarian Madame de Genlis, mentally looking back over the long track of time, strewed with mementoes reminding her of how frequently that extreme sensibility had made shipwreck of her peace,-" Elle avait raison, hélas !" Mademoiselle de St. Aubin's educational progress was marvellous, greatly outstripping that of her brother, "who was by no means so remarkable a child as I,”—and he learned of M. Bertrand, a Paris professor, to read and write perfectly in six weeks! Her faculty of histrionic representation, displayed in the private theatricals got up at the château, was astonishing, both in tragedy and comedy; her Zaïre was declared by competent judges to surpass that of Clairon: but the applauses she received did not, one is glad to hear, intoxicate her. She was a perfect musician by power of the fine harmonies of her nature; and her harp-playing, especially, was distinguished by "effects" far surpassing those attained by David,—so, at least, pronounces a poet whose testimony is quoted approvingly in the "Mémoires Inédits:" "Genlis, votre harpe magique : Concurrently with the gourd-growth of those accomplishments, the imaginative faculty largely latent in Mademoiselle de St. Aubin's brain began to manifest itself in pensive reveries and romantic castle-building; which reveries and châteaux en Espagne, were, we are told, redeemed from commonplace by the pure and exalted aim which inspired them :—“I must say one thing in praise of myself, and which has distinguished me from all other persons of a romantic imagination ; which is, that I only desired events in order to the display of certain qualities of the soul which I admired, such as patience, courage, presence of mind! Thus, in these reveries of mine, there was a foundation of love of glory and virtue, which in a child was remarkable." The first flight in verse of that romantic imagination was suggested by the triple fact, that one of her own names was Félicité; that of her mother's femme de chambre, Victoire ; and that her governess was a Mademoiselle de Mars:— "Félicité, Mars, et Victoire Se trouvent rassemblés chez nous : Est-il rien de plus grand, est-il rien de plus doux, Que de fixer chez soi le bonheur et la gloire?" a This touching effusion threw Monsieur de Mondorge, a distinguished song-writer of the day, "and the first man that gave me the idea of a conversation really agreeable,”compliment, by the way, which bears a somewhat unfilial aspect,-into an ecstasy of admiration, which he thus versified : : "D'Hébé vous avez la jeunesse Et les appas; Dans les yeux, certaine finesse Si la belle eût joint votre grâce A sa beauté, Jamais Ganymède à sa place Mademoiselle sang this brilliant morceau with such ravishing effect to the accompaniment of her harp, that M. de Mondorge, a sensible man and the father of a family, thought it prudent to withdraw himself whilst he was yet but partially delirious, and it was therefore possible to do so, from the too charming girl's intoxicating presence; and as no sinister catastrophe is recorded, it is probable that he ultimately recovered. It was about the same time, "when I was but eleven years old and small of my age, that the first passion I inspired" was revealed by the wild looks and generally distracted appearance of the son of Dr. Pinat, a celebrated physician, as unmistakeably as by the written words of fire |