THE POET DOES HIS EXERCISES
This visit of the great surgeon was the event of the day, and it left a luminous trace in Modeste's soul. The young enthusiast ardently admired the man whose life belonged to others, and in whom the habit of studying physical suffering had destroyed the manifestations of egoism. That evening, when Gobenheim, the Latournelles, and Butscha, Canalis, Ernest, and the Duc d'Herouville were gathered in the salon, they all congratulated the Mignon family on the hopes which Desplein encouraged. The conversation, in which the Modeste of her letters was once more in the ascendant, turned naturally on the man whose genius, unfortunately for his fame, was appreciable only by the faculty and men of science. Gobenheim contributed a phrase which is the sacred chrism of genius as interpreted in these days by public economists and bankers,--
"He makes a mint of money."
"They say he is very grasping," added Canalis.
The praises which Modeste showered on Desplein had annoyed the poet.
Vanity acts like a woman,--they both think they are defrauded when love or praise is bestowed on others. Voltaire was jealous of the wit of a roue whom Paris admired for two days; and even a duchess takes offence at a look bestowed upon her maid. The avarice excited by these two sentiments is such that a fraction of them given to the poor is thought robbery.
"Do you think, monsieur," said Modeste, smiling, "that we should judge genius by ordinary standards?"
"Perhaps we ought first of all to define the man of genius," replied Canalis. "One of the conditions of genius is invention,--invention of a form, a system, a force. Napoleon was an inventor, apart from his other conditions of genius. He invented his method of ****** war.
Walter Scott is an inventor, Linnaeus is an inventor, Geoffrey Saint-
Hilaire and Cuvier are inventors. Such men are men of genius of the first rank. They renew, increase, or modify both science and art. But Desplein is merely a man whose vast talent consists in properly applying laws already known; in observing, by means of a natural gift, the limits laid down for each temperament, and the time appointed by Nature for an operation. He has not founded, like Hippocrates, the science itself. He has invented no system, as did Galen, Broussais, and Rasori. He is merely an executive genius, like Moscheles on the piano, Paganini on the violin, or Farinelli on his own larynx,--men who have developed enormous faculties, but who have not created music.
You must permit me to discriminate between Beethoven and la Catalani:
to one belongs the immortal crown of genius and of martyrdom, to the other innumerable five-franc pieces; one we can pay in coin, but the world remains throughout all time a debtor to the other. Each day increases our debt to Moliere, but Baron's comedies have been overpaid."
"I think you make the prerogative of ideas too exclusive," said Ernest de La Briere, in a quiet and melodious voice, which formed a sudden contrast to the peremptory tones of the poet, whose flexible organ had abandoned its caressing notes for the strident and magisterial voice of the rostrum. "Genius must be estimated according to its utility;
and Parmentier, who brought potatoes into general use, Jacquart, the inventor of silk looms; Papin, who first discovered the elastic quality of steam, are men of genius, to whom statues will some day be erected. They have changed, or they will change in a certain sense, the face of the State. It is in that sense that Desplein will always be considered a man of genius by thinkers; they see him attended by a generation of sufferers whose pains are stifled by his hand."
That Ernest should give utterance to this opinion was enough to make Modeste oppose it.
"If that be so, monsieur," she said, "then the man who could discover a way to mow wheat without injuring the straw, by a machine that could do the work of ten men, would be a man of genius."
"Yes, my daughter," said Madame Mignon; "and the poor would bless him for cheaper bread,--he that is blessed by the poor is blessed of God."
"That is putting utility above art," said Modeste, shaking her head.
"Without utility what would become of art?" said Charles Mignon. "What would it rest on? what would it live on? Where would you lodge, and how would you pay the poet?"
"Oh! my dear papa, such opinions are fearfully flat and antediluvian!
I am not surprised that Gobenheim and Monsieur de La Briere, who are interested in the solution of social problems should think so; but you, whose life has been the most useless poetry of the century,--
useless because the blood you shed all over Europe, and the horrible sufferings exacted by your colossus, did not prevent France from losing ten departments acquired under the Revolution,--how can YOU
give in to such excessively pig-tail notions, as the idealists say? It is plain you've just come from China."
The impertinence of Modeste's speech was heightened by a little air of contemptuous disdain which she purposely put on, and which fairly astounded Madame Mignon, Madame Latournelle, and Dumay. As for Madame Latournelle, she opened her eyes so wide she no longer saw anything.
Butscha, whose alert attention was comparable to that of a spy, looked at Monsieur Mignon, expecting to see him flush with sudden and violent indignation.
"A little more, young lady, and you will be wanting in respect for your father," said the colonel, smiling, and noticing Butscha's look.
"See what it is to spoil one's children!"
"I am your only child," she said saucily.
"Child, indeed," remarked the notary, significantly.
"Monsieur," said Modeste, turning upon him, "my father is delighted to have me for his governess; he gave me life and I give him knowledge;
he will soon owe me something."
"There seems occasion for it," said Madame Mignon.
