“ In the simplest possible manner," answered himself on the throne which had been prepared Monsieur de Talleyrand. “I bought stocks on for him. The priests, much troubled, returned the 17th Brumaire and sold them on the 19th.” to the choir to begin divine service.

One Sunday it was decided to go to the cathe- The fact was, that just as he started Bonadral at Brussels with all possible ceremony. Ear- parte had learned that on a similar occasion ly in the morning Monsieur de Rémusat was dis- Charles-Quint had preferred to enter the Church patched to the church to superintend the ar- of Sainte-Gudule by a small side-door, which rangements. He received secret instructions to ever after preserved his name, and he probably oppose none of the distinctions devised by the took it into his head that if he went in by that clergy for the occasion. As it was decided that same door it would be called thenceforward the the First Consul should be received with the door of Charles-Quint and of Bonaparte. canopy and the cross at the great door, the ques- I saw the Consul one morning-I should on tion was asked if Madame Bonaparte would this occasion call him the General-review the share this honor. Bonaparte did not dare say numerous and magnificent regiments summoned yes, and make her thus conspicuous, and she had to Brussels. Nothing was ever more exhilarata chair in the gallery with the Second Consul. ing than the manner in which he was received

At noon, the hour fixed upon, the clergy left by these troops. He thoroughly understood how the altar and arranged themselves in the vesti- to address them, how to speak to them ; he bule. They waited for the sovereign, who did questioned them individually in regard to their not appear. They were amazed and uneasy, campaigns and their wounds, distinguishing more when some one looking around suddenly discov- especially those who had accompanied him to ered that he had entered the church and seated Egypt.

(To be continued.)

very general, it does not appear to be founded upon IS POMP POPULAR ?

wide experience. The effects of display have been

witnessed--that is, the immediate and surface re"HE personal simplicity of the President of the sults have been observed—but no one seems to have

cles, a good many observers believing that M. Gré. should try what M. Grévy is now trying-viz., the vy's mode of life diminishes the dignity of his office, effect upon the multitude of simple and unostentaand weakens his popularity with the mass. It seems tious living. It would be odd, now, if all the theories that he lives, as he always has lived, without osten- of European potentates in the past have been wrong; tatious expense ; that, while first magistrate of the that at heart the people take the show and glitter republic, in social life he is no more than a citizen. of state displays at their real worth. The London He receives just as he did when President of the “Standard,” in discussing this subject, lays it down Chamber, dresses like an ordinary professional man, as a proposition that the majority of men like to see carefully avoiding the uniforms to which he would great expense and show. “The populace revel,” it entitled both by precedent and by his legal position affirms, “in the mere apparatus and demonstration as commander-in-chief of the army; avoids liveries of opulence"; and the “Spectator" thinks this for his servants, drives out and travels like any other opinion almost universal in England, having a disgentleman-in short, he lives with as little official tinct effect upon the social habits of candidates display as our own Presidents do. It is gravely for power. It questions wisely, however, whether feared by many persons, especially those wedded to it rests upon any solid foundation whatever, and dethe old court notions, that this plainness will bring clares that it is simply " an opinion based on an uphim into contempt with the French people. The per-class idea of what people would like, not upon Bonapartes, it will be remembered, always believed evidence of what they do like.” There is a great in the influence, and even necessity, of display; deal of this sort of misunderstanding in the world, they thought it important to dazzle the imagination and it is always amusing to see the confidence with of the masses by brilliant cortèges, and to amuse which superior people proclaim their notions of inthem by gorgeous pageants. Madame de Rémusat, ferior people, which is generally an estimate of the in the memoirs of which we publish some extracts class as they prefer it to be rather than as it is. One in these pages, refers to this conviction on the part difficulty is, that the utterance and conduct of a few of the first Napoleon. But, while this belief has been are assumed to be the convictions and feelings of the

many. There are, no doubt, persons who are fond will aid in securing for republicanism a lasting hold of pageantry and ostentatious living; and, as the in France. For these reasons it will be interesting

'Spectator" says, “the rich like a chief of the state to watch M. Grévy's experiment, for the results of to be rich, just as cultivated people like him to be which we, for our part, have no fears. He may for cultivated.” But it is doubtful whether this is the many reasons become unpopular, but never, we are feeling of the great body of the community. On convinced, for the reason that he disdains ostentathe contrary, it may be questioned if the multitude tion, and declines as the chief of a republic to imi“ do not prefer him not to be divided too far from tate the pomp of a chief of a monarchy. them by wealth, if a sense that he has, as they say, a fellow feeling with them is not a source of far deeper popularity. The poor exaggerate the separating

AN ANCIENT IMPOSTOR. influence of wealth, and, even when not envious of the things it will buy, believe in its hardening In the September “Nineteenth Century" Mr. effect upon the sympathies.” The “Spectator,” in Froude gives, under the title of " A Cagliostro of support of this view, cites instances in our history, the Second Century," an account of one of the most Lincoln, who was urged upon the people for the extraordinary impostures ever conceived and carried presidency as a rail-splitter, and whose simplicity of out. The ladies and gentlemen who are convinced manners was even made a factor in favor of his pop- of the truth of so-called spiritualism would find in ularity. General Harrison, we are told, was elected this paper some things well worth their considerafor his roughness; but here the “Spectator" slips, tion; but, of course, they laugh at us for the suggesand doubtless means General Taylor, whose sobii- tion. Credulous people are never so much disturbed quet “Rough and Ready" was the war-cry of his as when evidence is adduced likely to impeach their party. English history is not without similar exam- delusions. “A superstition once established,” says ples. “George III. beat the Whig oligarchs, with Mr. Froude, “is proof against commonplace eviall their splendor, as · Farmer George,' who ate mut- dence"-we should say proof against evidence of ton and turnips for dinner ; and Pitt, who never had any kind. But, whatever may be the significance of a penny, had far more of the confidence of the peo- the imposture to which we refer in regard to spirituple than any duke. George IV., most expensive of alism, it at least shows how ready mankind are to bemankind, was loathed. Nor is there the slightest lieve when their hopes and imaginations are excited. evidence that the public taste has changed since Alexander was a native of Abonotichus, a small George III. The two public men of our day with town on the south shore of the Black Sea. He was most influence over the people,Mr. Gladstone and educated by a doctor, who was learned in all the Lord Beaconsfield—are both comparatively poor mystic arts of the period, and who set up for a magimen, leading simple lives, and utterly careless of cian, dealt in spells and love-charms, found treasures that 'visible opulence' which is supposed so greatly with a divining-rod, and performed other mysteries. to impress the multitude. The Queen keeps less Young Alexander was an apt pupil, and at twenty state than half her nobles, and what little she does had learned all his master's traditionary secrets. keep is not visible, and she is reverenced, by com- He was a youth of singular beauty, of light spirits, parison with her Hanoverian predecessors, to adora- boundless confidence in himself, and of aspiring amtion.” The “Spectator" might have added that the bition. At the death of the old doctor he went to Lord Mayor's official displays excite the derision Byzantium and set up for himself. In Macedonia, more than the admiration of the London people. and especially about Pella, at this time there were

It needs no argument to convince the majority a number of large, harmless snakes that came into of the American people of these facts, but there is the houses, where they were useful in keeping down an interesting significance in the discussion never- rats and mice; they let the children play with them ; theless. If M. Grévy succeeds in maintaining his they crept into beds at night, and were never interpopularity with the French people despite his plain- fered with. Alexander saw that something could be ness of living, a host of long-current notions in re- made of one of these serpents. A handsome specigard to French character will disappear, and nu- men was bought, and the adventurer prepared for merous benefits arise therefrom. The notion that a work. Some brass plates bearing an inscription that dynasty in France is rendered secure only by intox- Apollo and Æsculapius were about to visit Pontus, icating the people with military glory will vanish and that Æsculapius would appear at Abonotichus with the theory that the populace must be dazzled in bodily form, were buried, and in due time conand amused with pageants in order to be kept in veniently discovered. One here marvels whether Joe good humor. Confidence in the steadiness and ear- Smith had read the story of Alexander. The disnestness of the French masses will necessarily lead covery of the brass plates excited all Asia Minor, and to the strengthening of the republican idea in other the delighted people of Abonotichus resolved to build particulars, and eventually a people sober enough to a temple to receive the god at his coming. Alexanprefer authority without garniture will be thought der is described as having been tall, majestic, with steadfast enough to possess a free press. In ceasing eyes large and lustrous, hair flowing, voice sweet and to cultivate a war-spirit and in disregarding gilt and limpid. In a purple tunic, with a white cloak thrown splendor, there will follow a marked decline in the over it, bearing a falchion in his hand, and with rollcost of maintaining the government, and this fact ing eyes and streaming locks, he presented himself to

a

the people of Abonotichus, declaring that it had been ask questions so foolish that it can not be known revealed to him by an oracle that Perseus was his whether the answer is true or false.” Here is a mother's ancestor, and that a wonderful destiny was thought for frequenters of modern spiritual séances in store for him. The oracle was believed, and to digest-not that they will do so, however. WhethAlexander was received with an ovation. The tem- er we believe or not always depends upon whether ple for Æsculapius was meanwhile progressing, and we are inclined to believe. Evidence has very little the whole town watched eagerly for the coming god. to do with it. In the case of Alexander his audacity The intending prophet now emptied the egg of a was splendidly rewarded. People came in thou. goose, placed inside a snake just born, and then con- sands: cealed the egg in a water-filled hole in the founda

The gold ingots sent to Delphi were as nothing com. tions of the temple. The next morning he rushed

pared to the treasures which streamed into Abonotichus. into the market-place in a state of frenzy, almost Each question was separately paid for, and ten or fifteen naked, a girdle around his waist, and the falchion

were not enough for the curiosity of single visitors. The whirling about his head, proclaiming that the god work soon outgrew the strength of a single man. The had come.

The people followed him to the temple; prophet had an army of disciples, who were munificently he scooped out the egg, broke it before the multi- paid. They were employed some as servants, some as tude, who, when they saw the living snake—that spies, oracle-manufacturers, secretaries, keepers of seals, symbol of knowledge and immortality-coiling about or interpreters of the various Asiatic dialects. Each aphis fingers, cried out in ecstasy, and believed with- plicant received his answer in his own tongue, to his out a question. Alexander carried the divinity bitions with it. Emissaries were dispersed through the

overwhelming admiration. Success brought fresh am. home, followed by the excited crowd. The snake, empire spreading the fame of the new prophet, instigatwhich he had purchased at Pella, was by this time ing fools to consult the oracle, and letting Alexander of enormous size, and very tame. It would coil know who they were and what they wanted. If a slave around his body, and remain in any position he de- had run away, if a will could not be found, if a treasure sired. He had made a human face for it out of had been secreted, if a robbery was undiscovered, Aler

The air was full linen ingeniously painted, with a mouth that opened ander became the universal resource. and shut by an arrangement of horsehair. To this of miracles. The sick were healed. The dead were mysterious being the embryo found in the egg had raised to life, or were reported and were believed to have developed, as Alexander told the people, in a few been raised, which came to the same thing. To believe

was a duty, to doubt was a sin. A god had come on days! The excitement was tremendous, and people earth to save a world which was perishing in skepticism. from all the neighboring cities flocked to see the Simple hearts were bounding with gratitude ; and no god. In a tabernacle erected for the purpose, be- devotion could be too extreme, and no expression of it in hind a rail, on a couch in a subdued light, the prophet the form of offerings too extravagant. . . . His fame sat, visible to every one, the snake wreathed about reached the imperial court, and to consult Alexander behis neck, the coils glittering in the folds of his dress, came the fashion in high Roman society. Ladies of the tail playing on the ground. The head was con

rank, men of business, intriguing generals or senators, cealed; but occasionally the prophet raised his arm, Some who had perilous political schemes on hand were

took into their counsels the prophet of Abonotichus. and then appeared an awful face, the mouth moving, rash enough to commit their secrets to paper, and to the tongue darting in and out. Everywhere now

send them, under the protection of their seals, for the spread the intelligence. A god had been born at opinion of Æsculapius. The prophet, when he discovAbonotichus, with a serpent's body and the face of a ered matter of this kind, kept the packets by him with

Pictures were taken of him; images made in out returning them. He thus held the writers in his brass and silver were circulated in thousands. At power, and made them feel that their lives were in his length it was announced that the god had spoken. hands. " I am Glycon, the sweet one," the creature had said,

There were men of a less credulous character " the third blood of Zeus and the light of the world.” who saw through the impostor's tricks, but they were The temple now being finished, the god was in

not believed. “To doubt was a sin," and these stalled within it, and announcement was made that blasphemers were even sometimes stoned for their the divinity for a proper consideration would answer any questions that might be put to him. Questions fast; he lived to be an old man, and died with the

pains. The impostor maintained himself to the must be written on paper or parchment, which might faith in him unabated, so difficult is it to overthrow be scaled up. The packets were received from the anxious inquirers, and after a day or two restored deal with the problem, and very much like believers

a superstition. The people were wholly unfitted to with the answers attached. The seals being ap. in mysteries of to-day, who, because they see things parently unbroken, the mere fact that an answer was given predisposed the people to be satisfied with they can not understand or explain, immediately asit. “ Either,” says Mr. Froude, "a thin knife- this all ages are largely alike, and there is no more

sume that they must be of preternatural origin. In blade made red-hot had been passed under

the wax, important lesson to be taught than that “men withor a cast of the impression was taken in collyri- out scientific training who trust their own judgment um, and a new seal was manufactured. The obvious in such matters are the natural prey of charlatar.s." explanation occurred to no one. People in search of the miraculous never like to be disappointed. Either they themselves betray their secrets, or they

man.

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dissected a blade of grass, and lamenting because AMERICAN FICTION.

the world casts but a half glance at their pretty toys. A French critic declares that the quality con- It is simply impossible that these writers should spicuously deficient in American fiction is taste. Un- find acceptance with the general public. There are fortunately, this defect is strikingly characteristic in English novelists that have all their refinement with the works of the more popular of our writers. The a large measure of real power, with strong sympaAmerican story-tellers who cultivate taste, who ex- thies with deeper currents of feeling, and these writhibit fastidiousness and artistic finish, are commonly ers must inevitably be preferred to our own writers without large constituencies of readers. And yet, in so long as the latter prefer intellectual legerdemain singular contrast with this is the fact that English to earnest purpose, and are content to address their novelists of the first class are very widely read in tasteful nothings to each other and their little parAmerica. This being true, the conclusion is inevi. lor circles rather than write for the great world at table that native authors of superior culture are not large. neglected because they aim too high. A public that devours tens of thousands of a new novel by George

MR. FROUDE ON ARISTOCRACY. Eliot, or William Black, or Thomas Hardy, shows its capacity to rise to the level of the most fastidious

In all nations which have achieved any kind of emiof the Boston penmen. There is a rude, sentimen- nence, particular families have stood out conspicuously tal multitude that delight in the coarse and stirring for generation after generation as representatives of poromances of Southworth and Holmes, and another litical principles, as soldiers or statesmen, as ruling in multitude in keen sympathy with the very best works their immediate neighborhoods with delegated authority, of English writers, but only a comparatively small and receiving homage voluntarily offered. They have group of people that heartily appreciate the produc

furnished the finer tissues in the corporate body of the tions of home authors such as James and Howells. national life, and have given to society its unity and co

herence. We in America present the singular spectacle of a

Hitherto no nation has been able to sustain itself in a public with decided literary tastes, one very much front place without an aristocracy of some kind maingiven to the perusal of books, without writers with a

tained as the hereditary principle. So far the answer of conspicuous hold on its sympathies. We are speak. history is uniform. The United States may inaugurate ing here distinctly of novelists; we have two or a new experience. With the one exception of the three poets that are read in almost every household, Adamses, the great men who have shown as yet in and essayists and historians that Americans proudly American history have left no representatives to stand at acknowledge and sometimes study; but we have no

present in the front political ranks. There are no Washnovelist with anything like a genuine hold upon the ingtons, no Franklins, no Jeffersons, no Clays or Ranpeople. It is asserted that the novels of Mrs. Holmes dolphs now governing States or leading debates in Conhas accomplished in political advancement and re- warlike eminence, but everything really great in Mr. form has been won directly in the face of great Froude's beloved England has come of the comhereditary families. It is no doubt true that the monalty: the grand energy that has carried its ships great families have produced a few statesmen who to every sea, that has peopled vast colonies, that have struggled to arrest the exercise of despotic has built up the greatest industries the world has power on the part of sovereigns, but as a rule family ever seen ; the resolute and turbulent spirit that has leaders have not been leaders of the people beyond conquered the right of free government; the rightheir own tenantry, have not identified themselves teous forces that have made its jurisprudence rewith necessary reforms, have done little to secure spected and studied by all mankind; its superb and for the world those precious boons of religious and copious literature in every department of thoughtpolitical liberty which England now enjoys. The all these things are products of energies that have great families have done some good, however. Their found very little support in the hereditary influence conservative influence has at times been useful ; they of great families. If Mr. Froude argues that an have doubtless checked disorder and prevented un- hereditary aristocracy is indispensable to the conwise haste, and contributed a good deal to the social servative order and permanent welfare of nations, it balance and well-being of society; but, when Mr. may not be easy to gainsay him; but it seems to us Froude declares them necessary to the achievement obvious that the forces which give eminence to a of national eminence, one can but wonder that before community in all worthy things are the energies of writing that sentence he did not cast his eyes back. the people rather than the restrictive tendencies of ward. The aristocracy has contributed its share to a cautious aristocracy.

Books of

of the Day.

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in politics as a science and as a subject of se- thereby enabled to present a much clearer and more rious study could hardly be found than in the num- luminous view of the direction, force, and volume ber and variety of the publications dealing with of the main stream itself. More comprehensive and them that have lately appeared in such rapid succes- detailed accounts of our political history have been sion. From Dr. Woolsey's profound and elaborate written than Mr. Johnston has attempted, and the treatise down to the slenderest pamphlets and tracts, commentaries upon the Constitution are practically the literature of the subject is being multiplied, and without number, but we doubt if there is any work every symptom seems to point to the conclusion that available from which the general reader will obtain the turmoil and disasters of the period through a more exact and trustworthy knowledge of the eswhich the country has recently passed have set the sential facts and lessons of American political hismore intelligent portion of the people to thinking tory than from Mr. Johnston's little handbook. anew upon the nature, functions, and methods of It may be well to explain further that Mr. John. government. Two books of the kind referred to ston's plan does not include criticism of parties or appear simultaneously upon our table, and may con- exposition of principles, but aims at presenting a veniently be noticed together, not only because they perspicuous narrative of leading events with just deal with the same general subject, but because each enough of explanation to indicate their meaning and throws light upon the special topics discussed in the significance. Beginning with a brief account of the other.