DOI article:
Baring, Maurice: M. Anatole France
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21806#0271
By Maurice Baring 267
out of the window. Pierre’s father, who is looking on, calls him a
stupid little boy. Pierre is amazed and ashamed, but he soon
consoles himself: uJe considerai que mon pere n’etait pas un Saint
comme moi et ne partagerait pas avec moi la gloire des bien-
heureux.”
The next thing he thinks of is a hair-shirt, which he makes by
pulling out the horse-hair from an arm-chair. Here again he fails
more signally than ever. His nurse, Julie, not apprehending the
inward significance of the action, is conscious merely of the
outward and visible arm-chair, which is quite spoilt. So she
whips Pierre. This opens his eyes to the insurmountable difficulty
of being a saint in the family circle, and he understands why St.
Antony withdrew to a desert place. He resolves to seclude himself
in the maze at the “ Jardin des Plantes,” and he teils his mother
of his plan. She asks what put the idea into his head. He con-
fesses to a desire to be famous and to have “ Ermite et Saint du
Calendrier ” printed on his visiting-cards, just as his father had
“ Laureat de l’academie de medecine, etc.” on his.
Here his experiments in practical holiness cease. To the
young stoic :
“Lust of fame was but a dream
That vanished with the morn,”
although he has often hankered since that day, he confesses, for
a life of seclusion in the maze of the Jardin des Plantes.
Not unlike Shelley, who some one has said was perpetually in
the frame of mind of saying : “ Give me my cabbage and a glass
of water, and let me go into the next room.''’
Little Pierre passes through many phases and becomes very
clever, very cultured, and very subtle ; but the child in him
endures and he keeps alive a Harne of wistful wonder—wonder at
The Yellow Book—Vol. V. o the
out of the window. Pierre’s father, who is looking on, calls him a
stupid little boy. Pierre is amazed and ashamed, but he soon
consoles himself: uJe considerai que mon pere n’etait pas un Saint
comme moi et ne partagerait pas avec moi la gloire des bien-
heureux.”
The next thing he thinks of is a hair-shirt, which he makes by
pulling out the horse-hair from an arm-chair. Here again he fails
more signally than ever. His nurse, Julie, not apprehending the
inward significance of the action, is conscious merely of the
outward and visible arm-chair, which is quite spoilt. So she
whips Pierre. This opens his eyes to the insurmountable difficulty
of being a saint in the family circle, and he understands why St.
Antony withdrew to a desert place. He resolves to seclude himself
in the maze at the “ Jardin des Plantes,” and he teils his mother
of his plan. She asks what put the idea into his head. He con-
fesses to a desire to be famous and to have “ Ermite et Saint du
Calendrier ” printed on his visiting-cards, just as his father had
“ Laureat de l’academie de medecine, etc.” on his.
Here his experiments in practical holiness cease. To the
young stoic :
“Lust of fame was but a dream
That vanished with the morn,”
although he has often hankered since that day, he confesses, for
a life of seclusion in the maze of the Jardin des Plantes.
Not unlike Shelley, who some one has said was perpetually in
the frame of mind of saying : “ Give me my cabbage and a glass
of water, and let me go into the next room.''’
Little Pierre passes through many phases and becomes very
clever, very cultured, and very subtle ; but the child in him
endures and he keeps alive a Harne of wistful wonder—wonder at
The Yellow Book—Vol. V. o the