DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61284#0327
THE DOG THAT WEPT 171
indicate that it is only for a reflecting mind that what is beautiful exists.
For a dog or a horse it is there, at the most, only in a very slight degree.”
So that even so modern a philosopher as Lord Haldane, while he would
probably demur to the conclusion that the tears of the dog on the Jura
were caused by sentimental emotion, would not deny that, “in a very
slight degree,” the animal from which Madame Lebrun parted with so much
regret did appreciate the beauty of that Alpine sunrise. It may be that
the cause of his tears was the intensity of the sun’s rays, which, according
to Madame, are “ a thousand times more radiant upon the mountains
than in the plains.”
Alpinists may laugh at Madame Lebrun’s “ highest peaks of the Jura,”
whereon cows browse tranquilly on the rich herbage, but a hundred years
ago mountains were still more provocative of dread than of pleasure to
most travellers, and her ascent of the slopes of the Wunschenstein was really,
for the period, no bad performance for a middle-aged woman. “ That
excursion,” she wrote to her friend, “ will always remain in my memory.
Why were you not with me, my dear Comtesse ! That is always my
refrain.”
The next letter from Switzerland leaves Madame at Vevey, thinking
again of Rousseau and of Julie. Both that author and his creations were
in her mind as she enjoyed a moonlight tour on the lake. “ My Adelaide
being too tired to go with me, I set off alone with the fat innkeeper ; he
was not Saint-Preux, I was not Julie, none the less I was happy. My
boat was the only one to be seen ; the vast silence all around me was not
disturbed except by the light noise made by the oars.”
From Vevey at one end of Lake Leman to Coppet at the other was
an inevitable voyage for Madame Lebrun, seeing that at Coppet, in that
autumn of 1808, was established the irrepressible and brilliant Madame de
Stael, then recently exiled from France by Napoleon on account of the
political allusions in her novel Corinne, which had appeared in the previous
year. The Emperor himself, by the way, was supposed to have written
the review of the novel for the Moniteur.
The week which the artist spent at Coppet was a memorable one in
the life even of a woman who had enjoyed such exceptional opportunities
for meeting with notable people. The house was always full of guests,
and among those who were there during her visit were Benjamin Constant,
whose close friendship with Madame de Stael is historic, and Madame
Recamier. Napoleon’s bete noire was no ordinary hostess. The visitors
indicate that it is only for a reflecting mind that what is beautiful exists.
For a dog or a horse it is there, at the most, only in a very slight degree.”
So that even so modern a philosopher as Lord Haldane, while he would
probably demur to the conclusion that the tears of the dog on the Jura
were caused by sentimental emotion, would not deny that, “in a very
slight degree,” the animal from which Madame Lebrun parted with so much
regret did appreciate the beauty of that Alpine sunrise. It may be that
the cause of his tears was the intensity of the sun’s rays, which, according
to Madame, are “ a thousand times more radiant upon the mountains
than in the plains.”
Alpinists may laugh at Madame Lebrun’s “ highest peaks of the Jura,”
whereon cows browse tranquilly on the rich herbage, but a hundred years
ago mountains were still more provocative of dread than of pleasure to
most travellers, and her ascent of the slopes of the Wunschenstein was really,
for the period, no bad performance for a middle-aged woman. “ That
excursion,” she wrote to her friend, “ will always remain in my memory.
Why were you not with me, my dear Comtesse ! That is always my
refrain.”
The next letter from Switzerland leaves Madame at Vevey, thinking
again of Rousseau and of Julie. Both that author and his creations were
in her mind as she enjoyed a moonlight tour on the lake. “ My Adelaide
being too tired to go with me, I set off alone with the fat innkeeper ; he
was not Saint-Preux, I was not Julie, none the less I was happy. My
boat was the only one to be seen ; the vast silence all around me was not
disturbed except by the light noise made by the oars.”
From Vevey at one end of Lake Leman to Coppet at the other was
an inevitable voyage for Madame Lebrun, seeing that at Coppet, in that
autumn of 1808, was established the irrepressible and brilliant Madame de
Stael, then recently exiled from France by Napoleon on account of the
political allusions in her novel Corinne, which had appeared in the previous
year. The Emperor himself, by the way, was supposed to have written
the review of the novel for the Moniteur.
The week which the artist spent at Coppet was a memorable one in
the life even of a woman who had enjoyed such exceptional opportunities
for meeting with notable people. The house was always full of guests,
and among those who were there during her visit were Benjamin Constant,
whose close friendship with Madame de Stael is historic, and Madame
Recamier. Napoleon’s bete noire was no ordinary hostess. The visitors