"Oh, bon Dieu! que de gloire! Oh, bon Dieu! que d'honneurs!
Messieurs, ce jour pour ma Muse est bien doux;
Mais maintenant, d'etre quitte j'ai perdu l'esperance:
Car je viens, plus fier que jamais,
Vous payer ma reconnaissance,
Et je m'endette que plus!"
{4} This is the impromptu, given on the 5th July, 1840:
"Toulouse m'a donne un beau bouquet d'honneur;
Votre festin, amis, en est une belle fleur;
Aussi, clans les plaisirs de cette longue fete,
Quand je veux remercier de cela,
Je poursuis mon esprit pour ne pas etre en reste
Ici, l'esprit me nait et tombe de mon coeur!"
{5} 'Causeries du Lundi,' iv. 240 (edit. 1852).
{6} "La politesse du coeur," a French expression which can scarcely be translated into English; just as "gentleman" has no precise equivalent in French.
CHAPTER XI. JASMIN'S VISIT TO PARIS.
Jasmin had been so often advised to visit Paris and test his powers there, that at length he determined to proceed to the capital of France. It is true, he had been eulogized in the criticisms of Sainte-Beuve, Leonce de Lavergne, Charles Nodier, and Charles de Mazade; but he desired to make the personal acquaintance of some of these illustrious persons, as well as to see his son, who was then settled in Paris. It was therefore in some respects a visit of paternal affection as well as literary reputation. He set out for Paris in the month of May 1842.
Jasmin was a boy in his heart and feelings, then as always. Indeed, he never ceased to be a boy—in his manners, his gaiety, his artlessness, and his enjoyment of new pleasures.
What a succession of wonders to him was Paris—its streets, its boulevards, its Tuileries, its Louvre, its Arc de Triomphe—reminding him of the Revolution and the wars of the first Napoleon.