Men and Women of the Eighteenth Century [pp. 63-77]

64 Men and Women of the Eighteenth Century. LJuly,
customs and d~portment of all who laid claim to refinement, were modelled on those of the French gentleman.
One of the best practical tests we know of; is the general
estimate put on a knowledge of the Janguage of a country
in indicating its importance, and assuredly at the p~esent
time, French, though of course deemed a valuable accomplishment, bears a much lower relative stand than what
it did twenty years ago. English now seems destined to
become the tongue of universal use-and the daily vehicle of incessant barter is fast crowding out the syllables
in which strategists have written of their science, and
diplomatists practised theirs. During the eighteenth century, France reflected the quintescence of the spirit of the
times, and M. Houssayc, in his sympathetic and imaginative examination of the men and women of that epoch,
appears guided by a species of patriotic instinct.
The characteristic feature of the century was the most
intense form of purely personal activity-it was superlati~~ely subjective. Art had developed itself to the uttermost, and in doing so had expelled nature with the sharpest prongs. She was an intruder that disturbed the author
and the painter, and these worthies, in the plenitude of
their power, resolved to take vengeance by banishing her,
so far as it was possible for creatures of flesh and blood.
Thus passion everywhere, both in books and in life, degenerated into sentiment-manners triumphed over morality-the means were more valued than the end-and
theories in government, fictions in art, and opinions in
philosophy, took the place of substantial happiness, the
truth of nature, and solid facts. Real men had been
shoved out by the wigged and be-powdered shadows, and
human activity never displayed more utterly its vanity,
than in a period when, by a practical atheism, it was asserting its fancied omnipotence. The King was the State,
and the personal scheme in~ government was transmitted
through all the channels of power,-a despotism everywhere reflected-the opposite of the impersonal ideal of
all constitutional forms, where the office is always, at
least in theory, greater than its administrator. The history of such a nation, and such a time, must, of necessity,
be biographical-and for this reason, French history is
completely made up of memoirs, lives, letters, and reminiscences. It possesses no organizations-like the munici