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    YOUNG DUMAS ON LOVE AND SENTIMENT . Ze Roman d ' une Femme . Par Alexandra Dumas fils . W . Jeffa . A very considerable German philosopher , Arthur Schopenhauer ( who , by the way , owes his celebrity to an article by Mr . Oxenford in the Westminster Review , which called the attention of Germans to the prophet in his owh country ) , has a chapter on the Metaphysic of Love , which finds its place in the treatise Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung , where he under takes to prove , more Germanico , that the first and all-determining cause of Love between the sexes is the Will of the yet unborn offspring , who resolves on passing from the unhorn into the born , in a word , who as yet is not , but now resolves to be . Whatever may be thought of this Metaphysic of Love by the unmetaphysical British reader , he may make it a curious standard of comparison by which to test the treatment of the same subject in the first French novel falling in his way . Young Dumas will serve better than any other to fetch out the contrast between the simple , earnest German mind , serious and philosophical even in its extravagances , and that shallow , vicious , odious product of the Maison Doree and the Rue Breda , which occupies so large a space in the modern fiction of France . Schopenhauer connects the passion of love with the deep aiid all-pervading activity of Nature ; Dumas the Younger connects it with nothing deeper than the gratification of sense and hideous vanity . According to this Roman d ' une Femme , life * in Paris is a perpetual lie—a mere stage for the display of vanity . Men fall in love in order to show their mistresses as so many trophies : women fall in love because the men chosen are renowned for their " bonnes fortunes . " The virtuous man of his book—a great thinker , great orator , a Mirabeau in power and aFenelon in purity , who has every perfection from Grecian profile down to a foot " that would humiliate a woman , " is deserted by his wife . He follows her in the unhesitating belief that her lover " fier de sa maitresse " must , in the natural course of things , take her to all public places , where she may be seen on his arm I And if this is the matter-of-course conclusion of a virtuous man , we leave you to guess what are the conceptions of those lesa exalted . Le Roman d ' une Femme is a hideous book . We should not have mentioned it had it not already been much talked of , and already noticed by a contemporary . The impurity of which we complain is not simply that of certain scenes , which in their crudity surpass even the licence of French novels ; it is not the impurity of passages , but the abiding impurity of tone , which mak « s the book hateful . After reading it one seems to have been breathing the malaria . The life therein depicted is utterly , unreal , utterly fantastic , although professing to be the ordinary life of our day ; but although unreal , although the characters awaken no sympathy because they gain no belief , the book haunts you like an unpleasant dream . The reflections are numerous , but they have not the wit which often redeems cynicism . ; they have not that approach to truth which arrests attention . They are foolish—and only instructive in as far as they reveal what is in the mind of the writer . We have alluded to Schopenhauer ' s metaphysical explanation of the great mystery of Love . You smiled perhaps at the turn of thought , but at all events you recognised a truth in it . Now compare the Parisian explanation of the mystery . " Curiosity is the grand principle and grand grand motor-power ot love . —Will that man love mo differently from iny husband ? women nsk themselves when they take a lover . —Will that woman tell me what she tells others ? men usk themselves when they seek a new liaison . One may always answer both : It will be exactly the same thing , having for woman no other attraction except mystery , and for man no other except change . Having thus enunciated the principle , and made vanity in each case the motor , this cynic thus draws up rules whereby man may combat the danger of feminine curiosity . " Your mistress loves change , and you love your mistress . Very well ! flatter her tastes by never being the same man . Always present yourself under a new aspect ; manage so that she never knows you thoroughly . Bo economical with your merits , as a poor man with his money . Always keep one side of your nature impenetrable . Astonish her , assume all the forms and nil the varieties her character demands . Make yourself a Protous in love . Let her find in you what she would seek in another . Never be too grave , it will weary her ; nor too light , it will give her a bad opinion of you . Remember that there is always something of the cbild m the woman , and that she needs toys as well an protection . " You imagine , perhaps , this sickening stuff is irony P Not in the least . Dumas the Xounger foresees one objection to his theory , but it is only tnan

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    or a * least that which is seenufrbin the -plaitf , becomes more and more uniform . From the highest parts of this single and compact mass there spring long branch-like clouds , winch , without detaching t ^ eniselvesftom it , gradiw ^ y . overspread the sky-At thei inijment when these branches begin to be formed , there are usually seen numerous scattered , hovering , small -white clouds , very distinct and with very well defined edgesJ ^ W ^ fhich the celebrated physicist of Turin gives the name of ascitizi , or additional , or subordinate , clouds . Their movements are sudden , uncertain , and irregular . They appear to be under the attracting influence of the great mass o £ cloud , and gradually , one after another , float towards to it and join themselves to it . These " ascitizi" had already been remarked by Virgil , who compared them to tufts of wooL They are the white patches which are seen to interrupt here and there the uniform dark surface of a great storm cloud . When the great dark cloud has increased so as to pass the zenith , and overspread the greater part of the sky , the observer sees beneath it many small ascitizi , without being able to discover where they come from or how they have formed . These ascitizi appear torn or rent , or as it were ragged fragments of cloud . They throw out here and there long arms . Their march is rapid , irregular , and uncertain , except that it is always horizontal . When in their opposite movements two of these clouds happen to approach each other , they appear to extend towards each other their irregular arms ; after having almost touched , an evident repulsion takes the place of the previous apparent attraction , and the same arms which had been outstretched to meet , now turn away from each other . * S Rapid as lightning" is an ancient simile ; but did the reader ever considerhow rapid lightning is?—we do not mean the '' greased lightning" of America , that country being too go-a-head to content itself with our snailpaced lightning—but the flash winch startles the European eye ? Arago sums up his inquiry by saying that the most brilliant and extensive flashes which appear to embrace the whole extent of the visible horizon have not a duration equal to the thousandth part of a second of lime ! Consider what a second is , then divide it ( mentally ) into a thousand parts , and , recalling , a fine flash of lightning , ask yourself if this conclusion is not paradoxical ! And ask yourself , moreover , how philosophers have come to that conclusion . M . Arago will tell you . His chapter is too long for analysis , but the following extract will interest : — Let us suppose the stick to describe a complete circle , and to take a tenth of a second only in doing so . In such case experiment proves that we see a luminous circumference in which the most attentive eye discovers no interruption to perfect continuity . The sense of vision reports that the glowing end of the stick occupies all points in the circumference of the circle simultaneously ; yet in reality it only attains each of these points successively , or one after another , and a tenth of a second elapses between its quitting any one of them and returning to it again . One important inference follows from this experiment . It will become evident if we fix our attention for a moment on some single point , say , for example , the uppermost point of the circle traced by the stick . When the glowing charcoal occupies this point , the rays of light which proceed from it form its image in the eye of the observer , on a particular part of the retina . When the charcoal moves , this image should also move , and indeed it doe 3 so , since we always see the charcoal where it actually is . But it would seem that as we see this second image the first image ought to have disappeared , since the cause which produced it , if it has not disappeared , has at least changed its place ; so far from this being the case , there is time for the glowing charcoal to make a complete round , to return to its first place , and reproduce on the retina of the spectator the image of the uppermost point of the circle , before the sensation resulting from its first passage through that point has ceased or been effaced . - It follows , then , that the impressions received by us through our sense of vision have a certain duration , or last a certain time . The human eye , at least , is so constituted that the sensation of light does not cease until a tenth of a second after the complete disappearance of the cause which produced it . M . Arago has a curious chapter on the geography of storms . He quotes Pliny ' s assertion that thunder is unknown in Egypt , as if Pliny were an authority of the slightest value . But he quickly adds that thunder is perfectly well known now-a-days in Egypt . If , however , I am unable to name any place within the warm or temperate regions of the old continent where thunder is never heard , it is quite otherwise in America . Those among the inhabitants of Lima in Peru ( 12 deg . S . lat . and 77 deg . 10 min . W . long . ) , who have never travelled , can form from their own experience no idea of thunder . We may add , that they are equally unacquainted with lightning , for even noiseless and sheet lightnings never appear in the atmosphere of Lower Peru , often misty , but never showing true clouds . I now pass from the tropical to the frigid zone . In 1778 , from the end of June to tho end of August , the Racehorse , commanded by Captain Phipps , was constantly navigating tho Spitsbergen seas . During the course of these two summer months , thunder was not once heard , nor was a single flash of lightning seen . My friend , the Rev . Dr . Scoresby , formerly so celebrated a whaling captain , and who has given so interesting a description of the polar seas , says that in his numerous voyages he only twice saw lightning beyond the parallel of 65 deg . In Captain Parry ' s attempt to reach the North Pole , his party travelled over the ice with their sledge boats from the 25 th of June to the 10 th of August , 1827 , between 81 deg . 15 mm . and 82 deg . 44 min . latitude . In this interval , they never saw lightning or heard thunder . The Hecla remained at anchor from the 20 th of June to the 28 th of August . At Hecla Cove , on the coast of Spitsbergen , in 79 dog . 55 min . north latitude , none of the observers on board or on shore ever heard thunder or saw lightning . ¦ Lastly , the Hecla navigated the icy seas between 71 deg . 28 min . and 79 deg . 59 min . lat . frpm the 1 st of May to tho 19 th June , and between the 28 th of August and tho 16 th September crossed tlie zone comprised between the 80 th and 02 nd parallel . During these periods also no indications of thunderstorms were perceived . From all these documents it may be affirmed that , beyond the 75 th parallel of latitude , thunder and lightning are unknown in the open sea and among islands . The observations of Captain Ross ' s Expedition corroborate thin result . In 1818 , tho ships commanded by that officer wore from the beginning of June to the end of September in Davis Straits and Baffin ' s Bay , between 64 deg . and 7 <> £ deg . north latitude . The meteorological tables corresponding to this season do not mention a single flash of lightning or wound of thunder . Captain Parry ' s Expeditions enable us to extend to regions much surrounded by land the rule which we have so far only boon entitled to apply to extensive seas and to islands . ' • The meteorological tables of tho first voyage of this intrepid navigator to Baffin ' s Bay , Barrow ' s Strait , and Melville Island commence in June , 1819 , and extend to September . 1820 , inclusive . This makes two summer seasons ( or eeasona of

    thunderstorms ); and duriri JE * tlie whole of these two seasons p ^ s ^ ed between t 0 deg . a ) pu 75 deg . N . lat ., thunder and lightning were never once heard Or / seen ^ ' ' ; ' Placing ourselves a very little way on this side df the 70 th . parallel of latitude , vie find thunder very * rare , perhaps scarcely heard once a year , but we canino longer s&y that we are absolutely beyond the region of thunderstorms . -. .- ¦ . There is one peculiarity in the geography-of thunder worth alluding to . The tropical countries are most visited bythunderstorms , and yet one country ( Lower Peru ) situated in the equinoctial zone is absolutely mnp cent of thunder . .. ' l J . We conclude our notice with this bit of practical advice , where to p la <^ oneself in a storm : — Men are often struck by lightning in the middle of open plains . , Many facts show that the danger is still greater under trees ; from this double remark , Dr . Winthrpp inferred that when surprised by a thunderstorm in the open country , the best thing to be done to avoid lightning is to place oneself at a little distance from some large tree j by a little distance , " he meant anything from sixteen to forty feet . A still more favourable station would be one intermediate between two trees , at the prescribed distance from both . Franklin approved these precepts . Henley , who also thought them confirmed both by theory and experience , recommended in the case of a single tree , five or six yards between the extremity of the longest branches .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 8, 1855, page 872, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2105/page/20/