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Modeste Mignon-Part9_Honore de Balzac(1799-1850)_Translated Works(翻译文学)-第2页

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became a second Jussieu, cultivated flowers, and compiled and

published "The Flora of Piedmont," in Latin, a labor of ten years.



"I'll master De Marsay some of these days!" thought the crushed poet;

"after all, Canning and Chateaubriand are both in politics."



Canalis would gladly have brought forth some great political poem, but

he was afraid of the French press, whose criticisms are savage upon



any writer who takes four alexandrines to express one idea. Of all the

poets of our day only three, Hugo, Theophile Gautier, and De Vigny,



have been able to win the double glory of poet and prose-writer, like

Racine and Voltaire, Moliere, and Rabelais,--a rare distinction in the



literature of France, which ought to give a man a right to the

crowning title of poet.



So then, the bard of the faubourg Saint-Germain was doing a wise thing

in trying to house his little chariot under the protecting roof of the



present government. When he became president of the court of Claims at

the foreign office, he stood in need of a secretary,--a friend who



could take his place in various ways; cook up his interests with

publishers, see to his glory in the newspapers, help him if need be in



politics,--in short, a cat's paw and satellite. In Paris many men of

celebrity in art, science, and literature have one or more train-



bearers, captains of the guard, chamberlains as it were, who live in

the sunshine of their presence,--aides-de-camp entrusted with delicate



missions, allowing themselves to be compromised if necessary; workers

round the pedestal of the idol; not exactly his servants, nor yet his



equals; bold in his defence, first in the breach, covering all

retreats, busy with his business, and devoted to him just so long as



their illusions last, or until the moment when they have got all they

wanted. Some of these satellites perceive the ingratitude of their



great man; others feel that they are simply made tools of; many weary

of the life; very few remain contented with that sweet equality of



feeling and sentiment which is the only reward that should be looked

for in an intimacy with a superior man,--a reward that contented Ali



when Mohammed raised him to himself.

Many of these men, misled by vanity, think themselves quite as capable



as their patron. Pure devotion, such as Modeste conceived it, without

money and without price, and more especially without hope, is rare.



Nevertheless there are Mennevals to be found, more perhaps in Paris

than elsewhere, men who value a life in the background with its



peaceful toil; these are the wandering Benedictines of our social

world, which offers them no other monastery. These brave, meek hearts



live, by their actions and in their hidden lives, the poetry that

poets utter. They are poets themselves in soul, in tenderness, in



their lonely vigils and meditations,--as truly poets as others of the

name on paper, who fatten in the fields of literature at so much a



verse; like Lord Byron, like all who live, alas, by ink, the

Hippocrene water of to-day, for want of a better.



Attracted by the fame of Canalis, also by the prospect of political

interest, and advised thereto by Madame d'Espard, who acted in the



matter for the Duchesse de Chaulieu, a young lawyer of the court of

Claims became secretary and confidential friend of the poet, who



welcomed and petted him very much as a broker caresses his first

dabbler in the funds. The beginning of this companionship bore a very



fair resemblance to friendship. The young man had already held the

same relation to a minister, who went out of office in 1827, taking



care before he did so to appoint his young secretary to a place in the

foreign office. Ernest de La Briere, then about twenty-seven years of



age, was decorated with the Legion of honor but was without other

means than his salary; he was accustomed to the management of business






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