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376 MADAME DE STAEL.
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
« Science Tells Us That There Is No Such...
a labor of faith rather than of sight ; but it was abundantly repaid if they chanced in their arduous digging to discover some truth
that The should history " wa of ke the to short perish soj never ourn . of " Madame de Stael in Germany
brilliant may prove but how somewhat striking circumscribed ly dissimilar int was ellect , the of the strai accomp ghtforward lished ,
Frenchwoman , . In December , 1803 , she was introduced by Benjanrin Constant " cannonade into o " f Weimar talk" , where It is ludicrous she stormed to read the inhabitants of the astonishm with her ent
. s and ilence dismay . " Hein with e called which her she insp a cc ired whirlwind some lovers in petticoats of the " , " g — olden " a
Sultana of mind . " Schiller and Goethe shrank with horror from a first meeting with a woman whose vocation it was to chatter .
Schiller describes her as the " most talkative , the most combative , ou an t d t the he limi most ts ge of sticulative her thouht creature but was " he fascinated ever met . b He her soon frankness found y
g , unders and sincerity tandin . g every " She thing insists , and , " he measurin said , _" g every exp thing laining . every She admits thing ,
of no weakness—nothing incommensurable , and where her torch t s he has ws no no sense ght there . She nothing does not can prize exist . what For is what false ; we but call does poetry not
always This admit was star what tlin is indeed true . " to the Germanswhose natural element
g , was mystery , and who held that the infinity of truth was " unfathomableincomprehensible : the darkness of a full unsearchable
, sea . " Goethe was less gallant than Schiller . He positively refused
to come to see her , and made no effort to overcome his prejudice having against been her . warned When that once she in her meant company to take he down was cold his conversation and formal ,
in short-hand . Though Madame de Stael declared he was " _Tiomme d \ vn esprit prodigieux en conversation" she never saw the
real Goetheor heard him talk at his ease . Perhaps her absence of regularity , of feature was an extra impediment to the
admiration of the cynical Epicurean , who was accustomed to seek for majesty in the growth of " a soil of meekness "—though these
features must by this time have acquired some , of that wonderful fascination which charms us in expressive faces .
There is little further to relate of a well-known story . Madame de Stael had a tender heart , and a terrible capability for suffering * ,
but she would not worship a man to ensure the happiness of her life . She would never share in the selfish servility of a _peo _--ple
< c towards the supposed preferences and aversions" of a temporal masterSocial intolerance kills no one in these daysand it is
powerless . as ever to root out opinions . This woman , , weak and murmuring as she waspossessed a character which it was
impos-, sible to " maim by compression . " conscience
To the last she maintained her freedom of , and was
376 Madame De Stael.
376 MADAME DE STAEL .
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Aug. 1, 1862, page 376, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01081862/page/16/
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