FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130  
131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   >>   >|  
out. The alliance of a Jesuit Church with the Empire, and the subserviency of education to their common objects, were typified by the presence of the _sous-prefet_ and the _maire_ in their gold-laced coats of office, who arrived escorted by a guard of soldiers with fixed bayonets. The harangue of the reverend head of the establishment was highly political, and amply merited by its recommendations of the duty of obedience to authority the eulogy of the _sous-prefet_ on "the good direction" which the brotherhood were giving to the studies of youth. There is no garrison at Avranches. But all the soldiers in the place seemed to have been collected to give a military character to the scene. Other incentives of military aspiration were not wanting; and the boy who delivered the allocution told us, amidst loud applause, that he and his companions were being brought up to be, "not only good Christians, but, in case of need, good soldiers." In France under the Empire a military character is studiously given to every act of public, and almost of social life. There you see everywhere the pomp of war in the midst of peace, as in America you saw everywhere peace in the midst of civil war. The images of war and conquest are constantly kept before the eyes of a people naturally full of military vanity, and now, by the decay alike of religious and political faith, almost entirely bereft of all other aspirations. There is at the same time a vast standing army, which is not occupied, as the army of the Roman Empire was, in defending the frontiers, nor, as the Austrian army is, in holding down disaffected provinces, and which is full of the memory of the Napoleonic conquests, and longs again to overrun and pillage Europe in the name of "glory." There is no restraining influence either of morality or of religion to keep the war spirit in check. The French priesthood are as ready as any priests of Jupiter or Baal to bless national aggression, if by so doing they can gain political power. In what can all this end? In what but a European war? The children in the schools of the Christian Brothers are no doubt faithfully taught the precepts of a religion of peace; but there is a teaching of a different kind before their eyes, which, it is to be feared, they more easily imbibe and less easily forget. It was amusing, on this and other occasions, to see the state which surrounds the subordinate officials of the Empire. I had found the head of
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130  
131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
military
 

Empire

 

political

 

soldiers

 

prefet

 
easily
 
religion
 

character

 
surrounds
 

Napoleonic


memory

 

subordinate

 
provinces
 

Europe

 
conquests
 

overrun

 
religious
 
disaffected
 

pillage

 

Austrian


aspirations

 

officials

 

standing

 

bereft

 

holding

 

frontiers

 

defending

 

occupied

 

spirit

 

Christian


Brothers

 
forget
 

schools

 

children

 

European

 
faithfully
 

feared

 
imbibe
 

taught

 
precepts

teaching
 

amusing

 
priesthood
 
French
 

influence

 

morality

 
priests
 

Jupiter

 
occasions
 

aggression