Meissonier, his life and his art . ary had to take back my refusal. No, indeed ! 1 wilhave nothing from Germany ! When we come to considering human vanity, and the signs bywhich it betrays itself, whatlittlenesses we observe inpeople who think themselvesvery great indeed ! . . Thereis Flaubert, a passionate andeager student of human weak-ness, who spends his life col-lecting traits of it, like amiser, — and he comes andtells me he is sick with dis-gust at not being given adecoration! Ah, this turning peopleout of the service sickensme ! How sad for the princesto be debarred from servingtheir c
Meissonier, his life and his art . ary had to take back my refusal. No, indeed ! 1 wilhave nothing from Germany ! When we come to considering human vanity, and the signs bywhich it betrays itself, whatlittlenesses we observe inpeople who think themselvesvery great indeed ! . . Thereis Flaubert, a passionate andeager student of human weak-ness, who spends his life col-lecting traits of it, like amiser, — and he comes andtells me he is sick with dis-gust at not being given adecoration! Ah, this turning peopleout of the service sickensme ! How sad for the princesto be debarred from servingtheir country in the noblest ofall careers, that of arms ! This idea of giving apolitical colouring to VictorHugos funeral is much to bedeplored. . There is some-thino- so noble about suchhomage paid to men who think andgive forth their thoughts to the world should be proud ot it. If I had not been a painter, I should have liked to be a dont think any other subject could be so interesting as history. It. NAPOLEON. (M. Ch^mmys collection.) 34 MEISSONIER is the only sort of reading I care for now, and 1 have always delighted in it greatl}-. C~ W I \ No, I dont think Napoleon actually enjoyed making war. Hewould be lessened in my eyes, if I fancied his purest satisfaction wasin his triumph on the evening of a battle just won. I am convincedthat even if, when all his troops were in position, and victory seemed acertainty, his conditions had been accepted and his ultimatum carriedout, he would have gladly foregone the struggle. . The ruling pas-sion of his whole life was hishatred of England. If he hadbeen a sailor, and equipped fornaval war, he would have de-lighted in hunting the Englishon their native element. Thatnot being possible, he warredagainst Russia and Prussia,and declared the ContinentalBlockade ... to strike ablow at England. . Wouldnot any surgeon, even themost skilful, desire to removeall sickness, and pain, andneed for surgical operations,from
Size: 1099px × 2274px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bo, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, bookidmeissonierhislif00meis
