breeze. LA DOULEUR-LA GARDE. 159 Her tone and thoughts are ever changing. Cf. Varium et mutabile semper Femina. Virg. A. 4, 569. 1233. La douleur est un siècle, et la mort un moment. Gresset, Ep. sur ma Convalescence, 1. 92.—Pain seems an age, while death is but a moment. 1234. La durée de nos passions ne dépend pas plus de nous que la durée de notre vie. La Rochef. Max, § 5, p. 31.-The duration of our passions no more depends upon our own will, than does the continuance of our lives. 1235. Lætus sum laudari me abs te, pater, a laudato viro. Næv. Trag. 15, (Hector loq.). I am glad to be praised by thee, father, a man whom all men praise. 1236. La façon de donner vaut mieux que ce qu'on donne Corn. Menteur, 1, 1 (Cliton loq.).—The way in which a thing is given is worth more than the gift. 1237. La faiblesse est plus opposée à la vertu que le vice. La Rochef., § 14, p. 179.- Weakness is a greater enemy to virtue even than vice. 1238. La feuille tombe à terre, ainsi tombe la beauté Prov. - The leaf falls to earth, and so does beauty. 1239. La foi qui n'agit point, est-ce une foi sincère? Raç. Ath. 1, 1 (Joad loq.). The faith that acts not, is it truly faith? 1240. La garde meurt et ne se rend pas.surrender. The guard dies but does not Legendary speech of Lt.-Gen. Pierre Jacques, Baron de Cambronne, and General of division at Waterloo, when summoned to surrender with the remains of the Imperial Guard by Col. Hugh Halkett, King's German Legion. At a banquet given in his honour at Nantes (1835), Cambronne himself publicly disavowed the saying, which he further showed to be contradicted by facts. "In the first place," he would remark, "we did not die, and, in the second, we did surrender." Others have pretended that Cambronne's actual reply consisted of a single word (les cinq lettres), more forcible than polite, which V. Hugo had the courage to print in full in "Les Miserables" (vol. iii. Bk. 1, ch. 15). This account, however, appears to be as devoid of foundation as the other. In Jan. 1842 Cambronne died, and the city of Nantes voted a statue to its illustrious townsman with the quotation for inscription. On this the two sons of Lt.-Gen. Michel entered a counter-claim (and again in 1862) to the authorship of the celebrated speech on behalf of their father, who was killed at C.'s side on the field of Waterloo; but with so little success that the Nantes statue bears the lying legend to this day. Of the various solutions of the question, that of Fournier seems the most probable-that the mot was invented the night of the battle by Rougemont, a noted faiseur de mots, then correspondent of the Indépendant, in which it appeared the next day, being repeated in the Journal Général de France on June 24. Certain it is that, whoever invented the saying, there never was one so felicitous or that so immediately fit fortune. It was the swan-song of "La Grande Armée," and the last expression of French heroism. It retrieved even Waterloo itself after a fashion, and irradiated the terrible disaster with a sentimental limelight glory. See Fourn. L. D.L., pp. 412-15 and note; Lar. pp. 440-7; Büchm. p. 493 n.; Alex. 219-20; Brunschwigg's "Cambronne," Nantes, 1894; Fumag. 322-3, and the authorities cited by them. 1241. L'âge d'or était l'âge où l'or ne régnait pas. Lézay-Marnésia, Épître à mon curé, Les Paysages, etc., Paris, 1800, p. 176.-The golden age was the age when gold did not reign. 1242. La gloire est le but où j'aspire, On n'y va point par le bonheur. V. Hugo, Ode 1. Glory's the goal that I aspire to reach, But happiness will never lead me there.-Ed. 1243. La grammaire, qui sait régenter jusqu'aux rois. Mol. Fem. Sav. 2, 6 (Philaminte loq.).-Grammar, that lords it even over kings. Suetonius (de Ill. Gramm. 22) says that M. P. Marcellus the grammarian rebuked even Tiberius himself for some solecism, and that, on one of the courtiers present, Ateius Capito, remarking that if the word was not good Latin it would be so in future, Marcellus gave Capito the lie, adding (to the Emperor), Tu enim Cæsar civitatem dare potes hominibus, verbis non potes— "Cæsar. you can grant citizenship to men, but not to words." Hence the saying, Casar non supra grammaticos-"Cæsar is not above the grammarians." A later Emperor, however, Sigismund I., disclaimed any such absurd limitations, and, at the Council of Constance, 1414, replied to a prelate who had objected to some point in H.I.M.'s locution. Ego sum Rex Romanus et supra grammaticam-"I am the Roman Emperor and am above grammar." (See Menze!, Geschichte der Deutschen, 3rd ed cap. 325; Zinegref's Apophthegmata, Strassburg, 1626, p. 60; and Büchm. pp. 508-9.) 1244. La grandeur a besoin d'être quittée pour être sentie. Pasc. Pens. 31, 19. Greatness has to be resigned in order to be properly appreciated. 1245. L'aigle d'une maison, n'est qu'un sot dans une autre. Gresset, Le Méchant, 4, 7 (Cléon loq.).—The eagle of one family is a fool in another. One man's swan is another man's goose. 1246. Laissez dire les sots: le savoir a son prix. La Font. 8, 19 (L'Avantage de la Science).-Let ignorance talk as it will, learning has its value. 1247. Laissez faire, laissez passer!-Let us alone, let us have free circulation for the products of labour and commerce! Axiom of the "Physiocratic" school of French economists of the middle eighteenth century-Quesnay (1694-1774), de Gournay (1712-1759), and Turgot (1727-1781),-who, in their wish to abolish all differential duties and bounties, anticipated the Free-traders of a hundred years later. Gournay is generally credited with the second half of the saying, the former part having originated in this connection, in a conversation between Colbert and a leading merchant of the name of Legendre, as far back as 1680. The minister asked the man of business, "Que faut-il faire pour vous aiderNous laisser faire." Martin, in relating the incident, adds by way of com ment, Laissez faire et laissez passer! c'est à dire, plus de règlements qui enchaînent la fabrication, et font du droit de travailler un privilége: plus de prohibitions qui empêchent les échanges, plus de tarifs qui fixent les valeurs des denrées et des merchandises." (H. Martin, Hist. de la France (1853), vol. 18, pp. 429 and 432-33.) In later days the Laissez faire principle has been chiefly associated with the name of Adam Smith, though it would be absurd to reduce his teaching to so purely negative a doctrine. State intervention, according to the Wealth of Nations, is imperative when the LA LANGUE-LA MÈRE. 161 individual is unequal to the occasion; but where he can act for himself, government must stand aside, and laisser le faire. V. Dupont de Nemours, Economistes du XVIIIe siècle, where the saying is attributed to Vincent de Gournay; and Alex. p. 274. 1248. La langue des femmes est leur épée, et elles ne la laissent pas rouiller. Prov. (Quit. p. 381).-Women's tongue is their sword, and they don't let it rust. 1249. La légalité nous tue. M. Viennet in the Chamber of Deputies, Mar. 29, 1833. (Fourn. L.D.L., cap. 63).-We are being killed by "legality." 1250. Λαλήσας μὲν πολλάκις μετενόησα, σιωπήσας δὲ οὐδέποτε. Simonides in Plut. Mor. 515A, Dübner, Paris ed., p. 623 (De garrulitate, cap. 23, fin.).—I have often repented of speaking, never of holding my tongue. 1251. La libéralité consiste moins à donner beaucoup, qu'à donner à-propos. La Bruy. (Du Cœur), vol. 1, cap. 4.-Liberality consists less in giving profusely than seasonably. 1252. L'Allégorie habite un palais diaphane. Lemierre, Peinture, Chant 3-Allegory inhabits a transparent palace. 1253. La loi permet souvent ce que défend l'honneur. Saurin, Blanche et Guiscard (1763), 5, 6 (Blanche loq.).—Law oft allows what honour must forbid. 1254. La manière d'être reçu dépend beaucoup de la manière dont on se présente. Beudant, Voyage en Hongrie, qu. in The Gypsy Road (G. A. J. Cole, 1894, p. 77).-The kind of reception one meets with depends much on the way in which one presents oneself. 1255. La mémoire est une Muse, on plutôt, c'est la mère des Muses que Ronsard fait parler ainsi : Grèce est notre pays, Mémoire est notre mère. Chateaubriand, in Chateaubriand et son temps, Cte. de Marcellus, Paris, 1859, p. 286.-Memory is a Muse in herself, or rather the mother of the Muses, whom Ronsard represents saying, Greece is our country, Memory is our Mother. Cf. Usus me genuit, mater peperit memoria: Sophiam vocant me Grai, vos sapientiam. Afran. 298.-Practice is my father, Memory my mother: the Greeks call me Sophia, and ye call me Wisdom. 1256. La mère en prescrira la lecture à sa fille. Piron, Métromanie, 3, 7. -Mothers will give it to their daughters to read. Damis urges the highly moral character of his poetry, in reply to his uncle Baliveau's ridicule of so impractical a career. L 162 L'AMITIÉ LA NAISSANCE. 1257. L'amitié est l'Amour sans ailes. Prov.-“Friendship is Love without his wings;" title of stanzas in Byron's "Hours of Idleness," and repeated, in the form, "Love's image upon earth without his wing," in the Dedication (to Ianthe) of Childe Harold (Canto I.), st. 2. 1258. La Mode est un tiran dont rien nous délivre, A son bisare goût il faut s'acommoder: Et sous ses foles loix étant forcé de vivre, Étienne Pavillon, Poésies Morales, xvi., STANCES, Conseils à une jeune Démoiselle. (Œuvres, Amsterdam, 1750, vol. 2, p. 292.) The Tyranny of Fashion. A tyrant is fashion whom none can escape, To his whimsical fancies our tastes we must shape: 1259. La moquerie est souvent indigence d'esprit. La Bruy. chap. v. (La Société), vol. i. p. 93.—Ridicule is frequently a sign of lack of wit. 1260. La mort cache un délicieux mystère.-Death hides a delightful secret. Said by Alexandrine de la Ferronays. V. Mrs Bishop's Memoir of Mrs Augustus Craven, Lond., 1895, vol. 2, p. 203. 1261. La mort est plus aisée à supporter sans y penser, que la pensée de la mort sans péril. Pasc. Pens. 31, 3.-Death is easier to bear when it comes unlooked for, than the bare thought of it when all is well. 1262. La mort ne surprend point le sage: Il est toujours prêt à partir, S'étant su lui-même avertir Du temps où l'on se doit résoudre à ce passage. La Font. 8, 1 (La Mort et le Mourant).-Death never takes the wise unawares; he is always ready to depart, having learnt to anticipate the time when he must perforce make this last journey. 1263. La mouche du coche. Prov. (Quit. p. 544).-The fly of the coach. A busybody, all fuss and no work. V. La Font. (7, 9), Le Coche et La Mouche, and Æsop's Fables, 217, kúvwy kai Boûs (Culex et bos), of which it is an imitation. 1264. L'amour-propre offensé ne pardonne jamais. Vigée, Aveux Difficiles, sc. 7. Bibliothèque Dramatique, Paris, 1824, p. 259, (Cléante loq.).—Wounded self-love never forgives. 1265. La naissance n'est rien où la vertu n'est pas. Mol. Fest. de P. 4, 6, (Don Louis).-Birth is nothing without virtue. Dante places these characterless souls just within the gate of Hell. 1267. La nuit tous les chats sont gris. Prov. (Quít. p. 214).—At night Darkness hides defects, and obliterates dis all cats are grey. 1268. La parole a été donnée à l'homme pour déguiser sa pensée.— Speech has been given to man to conceal his thoughts. This celebrated saying (and sentiment), in the form in which it stands above, was probably derived from Molière's La parole a été donnée à l'homme pour expliquer sa pensée (Le Mariage forcé, 1664, sc. 6), but who may have been the cynic who so cleverly travestied the highly moral sentence of Doctor Pancrace it is not easy to determine. According to Barère's Mémoires, (Paris, 1842, vol. 4, p. 447), the words were spoken by Talleyrand in conversation with the Spanish ambassador, Izquierdo, in 1807, and the ascription has much in its favour. Others confidently award the dicton, not to Talleyrand, but to Talleyrand's âme damnée, Montrond; while Heine (Ideen, Das Buch Le Grand, 1826, cap. 15, Complete Works, i. 296), with the substitution of cacher for déguiser, represents it as Fouché's. In the way of variants and parallels, more than one apposite instance is forthcoming. Voltaire, in his Dialogues, XVII. (Le Chapon et la Poularde, 1762), makes the misanthropic capon say of men in general that, "Ils n'employent les paroles que pour déguiser leurs pensées," with which may be compared the lines of Young (1681-1765) in his Love of Fame, the Universal Passion (vv. 207-8), Where nature's end of language is declined, And men talk only to conceal the mind. 66 66 Earlier still, Swift describes a first minister of state as a creature" who 'applies his words to all uses, except to the indication of his mind; and that he never tells a truth, but with an intent that you should take it for a lie," etc., etc. Voy. to the Houyhnhnms, chap. vi. (Works, ed. T. Sheridan, J. Nichols, Lond., 1801, vol. 6, p. 301). Campistron (Euvres de M. de C., 1750, vol. 3, p. 36), in his Pompeia, Perspicito tecum tacitus quid quisque loquatur: Consider inwardly what each man says: His talk both hides and shows man's secret ways.-Ed. |