is manner in society is constrained without
being timid; it is disdainful when he is on his guard, and vulgar when
he is at ease; his air of disdain suits him best, and so he is not
sparing in the use of it. He took pleasure already in the part of
embarrassing people by saying disagreeable things: an art which he has
since made a system of, as of all other methods of subjugating men by
degrading them.

VISCOUNT DE CHATEAUBRIAND

Born in France in 1768, died in 1848; entered the French
army in 1786; traveled in America in 1791-92; emigrated to
England, where in 1797 he published his "Essai Historique,
Politique et Moral"; returned to France in 1800; converted
to the Catholic faith through the death of his mother;
published in 1802 "The Genius of Christianity"; made
secretary of legation in Rome by Napoleon in 1803, and later
minister to the republic of Valais, but resigned in 1804
after the execution of the Duke of Enghien; supported the
Bourbons in 1814; made a peer of France in 1815; ambassador
to England in 1822; Minister of Foreign Affairs in 1823;
published his "Memoirs" in 1849-50.

IN AN AMERICAN FOREST[48]

When, in my journeys among the Indian tribes of Canada, I left
European dwellings, and found myself, for the first time, alone in the
midst of an ocean of forests, having, so to speak, all nature
prostrate at my feet, a strange change took place within me. In the
kind of delirium which seized me, I followed no road; I went from tree
to tree, now to the right, now to the left, saying to myself, "Here
there are no more roads to follow, no more towns, no more narrow
houses, no more presidents, republics, or kings--above all, no more
laws, and no more men." Men! Yes, some good savages, who cared nothing
for me, nor I for them; who, like me, wandered freely wherever their
fancy led them, eating when they felt inclined, sleeping when and
where they pleased. And, in order to see if I were really established
in my original rights, I gave myself up to a thousand acts of
eccentricity, which enraged the tall Dutchman who was my guide, and
who, in his heart, thought I was mad.

[Footnote 48: From the "Essay on Revolutions." While in America,
Chateaubriand visited Canada, traveling inland through the United
States from Niagara to Florida. He arrived home in Paris at the time
of the execution of Louis XVI. His "Essay on Revolutions" was
publis