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diff --git a/3173-0.txt b/3173-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..136ac21 --- /dev/null +++ b/3173-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1514 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Essays on Paul Bourget, by Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Essays on Paul Bourget + +Author: Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) + +Release Date: August 20, 2006 [EBook #3173] +Last Updated: February 24, 2018 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ESSAYS ON PAUL BOURGET *** + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + +ESSAYS ON PAUL BOURGET + +by Mark Twain + + + +CONTENTS: + + WHAT PAUL BOURGET THINKS OF US + + A LITTLE NOTE TO M. PAUL BOURGET + + + + +WHAT PAUL BOURGET THINKS OF US + +He reports the American joke correctly. In Boston they ask, How much +does he know? in New York, How much is he worth? in Philadelphia, Who +were his parents? And when an alien observer turns his telescope upon +us--advertisedly in our own special interest--a natural apprehension +moves us to ask, What is the diameter of his reflector? + +I take a great interest in M. Bourget's chapters, for I know by the +newspapers that there are several Americans who are expecting to get +a whole education out of them; several who foresaw, and also foretold, +that our long night was over, and a light almost divine about to break +upon the land. + + “His utterances concerning us are bound to be weighty and well + timed.” + + “He gives us an object-lesson which should be thoughtfully and + profitably studied.” + +These well-considered and important verdicts were of a nature to restore +public confidence, which had been disquieted by questionings as to +whether so young a teacher would be qualified to take so large a class +as 70,000,000, distributed over so extensive a schoolhouse as America, +and pull it through without assistance. + +I was even disquieted myself, although I am of a cold, calm temperament, +and not easily disturbed. I feared for my country. And I was not wholly +tranquilized by the verdicts rendered as above. It seemed to me that +there was still room for doubt. In fact, in looking the ground over I +became more disturbed than I was before. Many worrying questions came +up in my mind. Two were prominent. Where had the teacher gotten his +equipment? What was his method? + +He had gotten his equipment in France. + +Then as to his method! I saw by his own intimations that he was +an Observer, and had a System that used by naturalists and other +scientists. The naturalist collects many bugs and reptiles and +butterflies and studies their ways a long time patiently. By this +means he is presently able to group these creatures into families and +subdivisions of families by nice shadings of differences observable in +their characters. Then he labels all those shaded bugs and things with +nicely descriptive group names, and is now happy, for his great work is +completed, and as a result he intimately knows every bug and shade of +a bug there, inside and out. It may be true, but a person who was not a +naturalist would feel safer about it if he had the opinion of the bug. I +think it is a pleasant System, but subject to error. + +The Observer of Peoples has to be a Classifier, a Grouper, a Deducer, a +Generalizer, a Psychologizer; and, first and last, a Thinker. He has +to be all these, and when he is at home, observing his own folk, he is +often able to prove competency. But history has shown that when he is +abroad observing unfamiliar peoples the chances are heavily against +him. He is then a naturalist observing a bug, with no more than a +naturalist's chance of being able to tell the bug anything new about +itself, and no more than a naturalist's chance of being able to teach it +any new ways which it will prefer to its own. + +To return to that first question. M. Bourget, as teacher, would simply +be France teaching America. It seemed to me that the outlook was +dark--almost Egyptian, in fact. What would the new teacher, representing +France, teach us? Railroading? No. France knows nothing valuable about +railroading. Steamshipping? No. France has no superiorities over us in +that matter. Steamboating? No. French steamboating is still of +Fulton's date--1809. Postal service? No. France is a back number +there. Telegraphy? No, we taught her that ourselves. Journalism? No. +Magazining? No, that is our own specialty. Government? No; Liberty, +Equality, Fraternity, Nobility, Democracy, Adultery the system is too +variegated for our climate. Religion? No, not variegated enough for +our climate. Morals? No, we cannot rob the poor to enrich ourselves. +Novel-writing? No. M. Bourget and the others know only one plan, and +when that is expurgated there is nothing left of the book. + +I wish I could think what he is going to teach us. Can it be Deportment? +But he experimented in that at Newport and failed to give satisfaction, +except to a few. Those few are pleased. They are enjoying their joy as +well as they can. They confess their happiness to the interviewer. They +feel pretty striped, but they remember with reverent recognition that +they had sugar between the cuts. True, sugar with sand in it, but sugar. +And true, they had some trouble to tell which was sugar and which was +sand, because the sugar itself looked just like the sand, and also had +a gravelly taste; still, they knew that the sugar was there, and would +have been very good sugar indeed if it had been screened. Yes, they are +pleased; not noisily so, but pleased; invaded, or streaked, as one may +say, with little recurrent shivers of joy--subdued joy, so to speak, not +the overdone kind. And they commune together, these, and massage each +other with comforting sayings, in a sweet spirit of resignation and +thankfulness, mixing these elements in the same proportions as the sugar +and the sand, as a memorial, and saying, the one to the other, and to +the interviewer: “It was severe--yes, it was bitterly severe; but oh, +how true it was; and it will do us so much good!” + +If it isn't Deportment, what is left? It was at this point that I seemed +to get on the right track at last. M. Bourget would teach us to know +ourselves; that was it: he would reveal us to ourselves. That would +be an education. He would explain us to ourselves. Then we +should understand ourselves; and after that be able to go on more +intelligently. + +It seemed a doubtful scheme. He could explain us to himself--that would +be easy. That would be the same as the naturalist explaining the bug to +himself. But to explain the bug to the bug--that is quite a different +matter. The bug may not know himself perfectly, but he knows himself +better than the naturalist can know him, at any rate. + +A foreigner can photograph the exteriors of a nation, but I think that +that is as far as he can get. I think that no foreigner can report its +interior--its soul, its life, its speech, its thought. I think that a +knowledge of these things is acquirable in only one way; not two or four +or six--absorption; years and years of unconscious absorption; years +and years of intercourse with the life concerned; of living it, indeed; +sharing personally in its shames and prides, its joys and griefs, +its loves and hates, its prosperities and reverses, its shows and +shabbinesses, its deep patriotisms, its whirlwinds of political passion, +its adorations--of flag, and heroic dead, and the glory of the national +name. Observation? Of what real value is it? One learns peoples through +the heart, not the eyes or the intellect. + +There is only one expert who is qualified to examine the souls and the +life of a people and make a valuable report--the native novelist. This +expert is so rare that the most populous country can never have fifteen +conspicuously and confessedly competent ones in stock at one time. +This native specialist is not qualified to begin work until he has +been absorbing during twenty-five years. How much of his competency is +derived from conscious “observation”? The amount is so slight that it +counts for next to nothing in the equipment. Almost the whole capital +of the novelist is the slow accumulation of unconscious +observation--absorption. The native expert's intentional observation +of manners, speech, character, and ways of life can have value, for the +native knows what they mean without having to cipher out the meaning. +But I should be astonished to see a foreigner get at the right meanings, +catch the elusive shades of these subtle things. Even the native +novelist becomes a foreigner, with a foreigner's limitations, when he +steps from the State whose life is familiar to him into a State +whose life he has not lived. Bret Harte got his California and his +Californians by unconscious absorption, and put both of them into his +tales alive. But when he came from the Pacific to the Atlantic and tried +to do Newport life from study-conscious observation--his failure +was absolutely monumental. Newport is a disastrous place for the +unacclimated observer, evidently. + +To return to novel-building. Does the native novelist try to generalize +the nation? No, he lays plainly before you the ways and speech and life +of a few people grouped in a certain place--his own place--and that is +one book. In time he and his brethren will report to you the life and +the people of the whole nation--the life of a group in a New England +village; in a New York village; in a Texan village; in an Oregon +village; in villages in fifty States and Territories; then the farm-life +in fifty States and Territories; a hundred patches of life and groups +of people in a dozen widely separated cities. And the Indians will be +attended to; and the cowboys; and the gold and silver miners; and the +negroes; and the Idiots and Congressmen; and the Irish, the Germans, the +Italians, the Swedes, the French, the Chinamen, the Greasers; and the +Catholics, the Methodists, the Presbyterians, the Congregationalists, +the Baptists, the Spiritualists, the Mormons, the Shakers, the Quakers, +the Jews, the Campbellites, the infidels, the Christian Scientists, the +Mind-Curists, the Faith-Curists, the train-robbers, the White Caps, the +Moonshiners. And when a thousand able novels have been written, there +you have the soul of the people, the life of the people, the speech of +the people; and not anywhere else can these be had. And the shadings of +character, manners, feelings, ambitions, will be infinite. + + “'The nature of a people' is always of a similar shade in its + vices and its virtues, in its frivolities and in its labor. + 'It is this physiognomy which it is necessary to discover', + and every document is good, from the hall of a casino to the + church, from the foibles of a fashionable woman to the + suggestions of a revolutionary leader. I am therefore quite + sure that this 'American soul', the principal interest and the + great object of my voyage, appears behind the records of + Newport for those who choose to see it.”--M. Paul Bourget. + +[The italics ['') are mine.] It is a large contract which he has +undertaken. “Records” is a pretty poor word there, but I think the use +of it is due to hasty translation. In the original the word is 'fastes'. +I think M. Bourget meant to suggest that he expected to find the great +“American soul” secreted behind the ostentations of Newport; and that +he was going to get it out and examine it, and generalize it, and +psychologize it, and make it reveal to him its hidden vast mystery: +“the nature of the people” of the United States of America. We have been +accused of being a nation addicted to inventing wild schemes. I trust +that we shall be allowed to retire to second place now. + +There isn't a single human characteristic that can be safely labeled +“American.” There isn't a single human ambition, or religious trend, or +drift of thought, or peculiarity of education, or code of principles, or +breed of folly, or style of conversation, or preference for a particular +subject for discussion, or form of legs or trunk or head or face or +expression or complexion, or gait, or dress, or manners, or disposition, +or any other human detail, inside or outside, that can rationally be +generalized as “American.” + +Whenever you have found what seems to be an “American” peculiarity, you +have only to cross a frontier or two, or go down or up in the social +scale, and you perceive that it has disappeared. And you can cross the +Atlantic and find it again. There may be a Newport religious drift, or +sporting drift, or conversational style or complexion, or cut of face, +but there are entire empires in America, north, south, east, and west, +where you could not find your duplicates. It is the same with everything +else which one might propose to call “American.” M. Bourget thinks he +has found the American Coquette. If he had really found her he would +also have found, I am sure, that she was not new, that she exists in +other lands in the same forms, and with the same frivolous heart and the +same ways and impulses. I think this because I have seen our coquette; I +have seen her in life; better still, I have seen her in our novels, and +seen her twin in foreign novels. I wish M. Bourget had seen ours. He +thought he saw her. And so he applied his System to her. She was a +Species. So he gathered a number of samples of what seemed to be her, +and put them under his glass, and divided them into groups which +he calls “types,” and labeled them in his usual scientific way with +“formulas”--brief sharp descriptive flashes that make a person blink, +sometimes, they are so sudden and vivid. As a rule they are pretty +far-fetched, but that is not an important matter; they surprise, they +compel admiration, and I notice by some of the comments which his +efforts have called forth that they deceive the unwary. Here are a few +of the coquette variants which he has grouped and labeled: + + THE COLLECTOR. + THE EQUILIBREE. + THE PROFESSIONAL BEAUTY. + THE BLUFFER. + THE GIRL-BOY. + +If he had stopped with describing these characters we should have been +obliged to believe that they exist; that they exist, and that he has +seen them and spoken with them. But he did not stop there; he went +further and furnished to us light-throwing samples of their behavior, +and also light-throwing samples of their speeches. He entered those +things in his note-book without suspicion, he takes them out and +delivers them to the world with a candor and simplicity which show that +he believed them genuine. They throw altogether too much light. They +reveal to the native the origin of his find. I suppose he knows how he +came to make that novel and captivating discovery, by this time. If he +does not, any American can tell him--any American to whom he will show +his anecdotes. It was “put up” on him, as we say. It was a jest--to be +plain, it was a series of frauds. To my mind it was a poor sort of jest, +witless and contemptible. The players of it have their reward, such as +it is; they have exhibited the fact that whatever they may be they are +not ladies. M. Bourget did not discover a type of coquette; he merely +discovered a type of practical joker. One may say the type of practical +joker, for these people are exactly alike all over the world. Their +equipment is always the same: a vulgar mind, a puerile wit, a cruel +disposition as a rule, and always the spirit of treachery. + +In his Chapter IV. M. Bourget has two or three columns gravely devoted +to the collating and examining and psychologizing of these sorry +little frauds. One is not moved to laugh. There is nothing funny in +the situation; it is only pathetic. The stranger gave those people his +confidence, and they dishonorably treated him in return. + +But one must be allowed to suspect that M. Bourget was a little to blame +himself. Even a practical joker has some little judgment. He has to +exercise some degree of sagacity in selecting his prey if he would save +himself from getting into trouble. In my time I have seldom seen such +daring things marketed at any price as these conscienceless folk have +worked off at par on this confiding observer. It compels the conviction +that there was something about him that bred in those speculators a +quite unusual sense of safety, and encouraged them to strain their +powers in his behalf. They seem to have satisfied themselves that all +he wanted was “significant” facts, and that he was not accustomed to +examine the source whence they proceeded. It is plain that there was a +sort of conspiracy against him almost from the start--a conspiracy to +freight him up with all the strange extravagances those people's decayed +brains could invent. + +The lengths to which they went are next to incredible. They told him +things which surely would have excited any one else's suspicion, but +they did not excite his. Consider this: + + “There is not in all the United States an entirely nude + statue.” + +If an angel should come down and say such a thing about heaven, a +reasonably cautious observer would take that angel's number and inquire +a little further before he added it to his catch. What does the present +observer do? Adds it. Adds it at once. Adds it, and labels it with this +innocent comment: + + “This small fact is strangely significant.” + +It does seem to me that this kind of observing is defective. + +Here is another curiosity which some liberal person made him a present +of. I should think it ought to have disturbed the deep slumber of his +suspicion a little, but it didn't. It was a note from a fog-horn for +strenuousness, it seems to me, but the doomed voyager did not catch it. +If he had but caught it, it would have saved him from several disasters: + + “If the American knows that you are traveling to take notes, he + is interested in it, and at the same time rejoices in it, as in + a tribute.” + +Again, this is defective observation. It is human to like to be praised; +one can even notice it in the French. But it is not human to like to +be ridiculed, even when it comes in the form of a “tribute.” I think a +little psychologizing ought to have come in there. Something like this: +A dog does not like to be ridiculed, a redskin does not like to be +ridiculed, a negro does not like to be ridiculed, a Chinaman does not +like to be ridiculed; let us deduce from these significant facts this +formula: the American's grade being higher than these, and the chain-of +argument stretching unbroken all the way up to him, there is room for +suspicion that the person who said the American likes to be ridiculed, +and regards it as a tribute, is not a capable observer. + +I feel persuaded that in the matter of psychologizing, a professional +is too apt to yield to the fascinations of the loftier regions of that +great art, to the neglect of its lowlier walks. Every now and then, at +half-hour intervals, M. Bourget collects a hatful of airy inaccuracies +and dissolves them in a panful of assorted abstractions, and runs the +charge into a mould and turns you out a compact principle which will +explain an American girl, or an American woman, or why new people yearn +for old things, or any other impossible riddle which a person wants +answered. + +It seems to be conceded that there are a few human peculiarities that +can be generalized and located here and there in the world and named +by the name of the nation where they are found. I wonder what they are. +Perhaps one of them is temperament. One speaks of French vivacity +and German gravity and English stubbornness. There is no American +temperament. The nearest that one can come at it is to say there are +two--the composed Northern and the impetuous Southern; and both are +found in other countries. Morals? Purity of women may fairly be called +universal with us, but that is the case in some other countries. We have +no monopoly of it; it cannot be named American. I think that there is +but a single specialty with us, only one thing that can be called by the +wide name “American.” That is the national devotion to ice-water. All +Germans drink beer, but the British nation drinks beer, too; so neither +of those peoples is the beer-drinking nation. I suppose we do stand +alone in having a drink that nobody likes but ourselves. When we have +been a month in Europe we lose our craving for it, and we finally tell +the hotel folk that they needn't provide it any more. Yet we hardly +touch our native shore again, winter or summer, before we are eager for +it. The reasons for this state of things have not been psychologized +yet. I drop the hint and say no more. + +It is my belief that there are some “national” traits and things +scattered about the world that are mere superstitions, frauds that have +lived so long that they have the solid look of facts. One of them is +the dogma that the French are the only chaste people in the world. Ever +since I arrived in France this last time I have been accumulating doubts +about that; and before I leave this sunny land again I will gather in a +few random statistics and psychologize the plausibilities out of it. If +people are to come over to America and find fault with our girls and +our women, and psychologize every little thing they do, and try to teach +them how to behave, and how to cultivate themselves up to where one +cannot tell them from the French model, I intend to find out whether +those missionaries are qualified or not. A nation ought always to +examine into this detail before engaging the teacher for good. This last +one has let fall a remark which renewed those doubts of mine when I read +it: + + “In our high Parisian existence, for instance, we find applied + to arts and luxury, and to debauchery, all the powers and all + the weaknesses of the French soul.” + +You see, it amounts to a trade with the French soul; a profession; a +science; the serious business of life, so to speak, in our high Parisian +existence. I do not quite like the look of it. I question if it can be +taught with profit in our country, except, of course, to those pathetic, +neglected minds that are waiting there so yearningly for the education +which M. Bourget is going to furnish them from the serene summits of our +high Parisian life. + +I spoke a moment ago of the existence of some superstitions that have +been parading the world as facts this long time. For instance, +consider the Dollar. The world seems to think that the love of money is +“American”; and that the mad desire to get suddenly rich is “American.” + I believe that both of these things are merely and broadly human, not +American monopolies at all. The love of money is natural to all nations, +for money is a good and strong friend. I think that this love has +existed everywhere, ever since the Bible called it the root of all evil. + +I think that the reason why we Americans seem to be so addicted to +trying to get rich suddenly is merely because the opportunity to make +promising efforts in that direction has offered itself to us with a +frequency out of all proportion to the European experience. For eighty +years this opportunity has been offering itself in one new town or +region after another straight westward, step by step, all the way from +the Atlantic coast to the Pacific. When a mechanic could buy ten town +lots on tolerably long credit for ten months' savings out of his wages, +and reasonably expect to sell them in a couple of years for ten times +what he gave for them, it was human for him to try the venture, and +he did it no matter what his nationality was. He would have done it in +Europe or China if he had had the same chance. + +In the flush times in the silver regions a cook or any other humble +worker stood a very good chance to get rich out of a trifle of money +risked in a stock deal; and that person promptly took that risk, no +matter what his or her nationality might be. I was there, and saw it. + +But these opportunities have not been plenty in our Southern States; so +there you have a prodigious region where the rush for sudden wealth is +almost an unknown thing--and has been, from the beginning. + +Europe has offered few opportunities for poor Tom, Dick, and Harry; +but when she has offered one, there has been no noticeable difference +between European eagerness and American. England saw this in the wild +days of the Railroad King; France saw it in 1720--time of Law and the +Mississippi Bubble. I am sure I have never seen in the gold and silver +mines any madness, fury, frenzy to get suddenly rich which was even +remotely comparable to that which raged in France in the Bubble day. +If I had a cyclopaedia here I could turn to that memorable case, and +satisfy nearly anybody that the hunger for the sudden dollar is no +more “American” than it is French. And if I could furnish an American +opportunity to staid Germany, I think I could wake her up like a house +afire. + +But I must return to the Generalizations, Psychologizings, Deductions. +When M. Bourget is exploiting these arts, it is then that he is +peculiarly and particularly himself. His ways are wholly original when +he encounters a trait or a custom which is new to him. Another person +would merely examine the find, verify it, estimate its value, and let it +go; but that is not sufficient for M. Bourget: he always wants to know +why that thing exists, he wants to know how it came to happen; and he +will not let go of it until he has found out. And in every instance he +will find that reason where no one but himself would have thought +of looking for it. He does not seem to care for a reason that is not +picturesquely located; one might almost say picturesquely and impossibly +located. + +He found out that in America men do not try to hunt down young married +women. At once, as usual, he wanted to know why. Any one could have told +him. He could have divined it by the lights thrown by the novels of +the country. But no, he preferred to find out for himself. He has a +trustfulness as regards men and facts which is fine and unusual; he is +not particular about the source of a fact, he is not particular about +the character and standing of the fact itself; but when it comes to +pounding out the reason for the existence of the fact, he will trust no +one but himself. + +In the present instance here was his fact: American young married women +are not pursued by the corruptor; and here was the question: What is it +that protects her? + +It seems quite unlikely that that problem could have offered +difficulties to any but a trained philosopher. Nearly any person would +have said to M. Bourget: “Oh, that is very simple. It is very seldom in +America that a marriage is made on a commercial basis; our marriages, +from the beginning, have been made for love; and where love is there is +no room for the corruptor.” + +Now, it is interesting to see the formidable way in which M. +Bourget went at that poor, humble little thing. He moved upon it in +column--three columns--and with artillery. + +“Two reasons of a very different kind explain”--that fact. + +And now that I have got so far, I am almost afraid to say what his +two reasons are, lest I be charged with inventing them. But I will not +retreat now; I will condense them and print them, giving my word that I +am honest and not trying to deceive any one. + +1. Young married women are protected from the approaches of the seducer +in New England and vicinity by the diluted remains of a prudence created +by a Puritan law of two hundred years ago, which for a while punished +adultery with death. + +2. And young married women of the other forty or fifty States are +protected by laws which afford extraordinary facilities for divorce. + +If I have not lost my mind I have accurately conveyed those two Vesuvian +irruptions of philosophy. But the reader can consult Chapter IV. of +'Outre-Mer', and decide for himself. Let us examine this paralyzing +Deduction or Explanation by the light of a few sane facts. + +1. This universality of “protection” has existed in our country from the +beginning; before the death penalty existed in New England, and during +all the generations that have dragged by since it was annulled. + +2. Extraordinary facilities for divorce are of such recent creation that +any middle-aged American can remember a time when such things had not +yet been thought of. + +Let us suppose that the first easy divorce law went into effect +forty years ago, and got noised around and fairly started in business +thirty-five years ago, when we had, say, 25,000,000 of white population. +Let us suppose that among 5,000,000 of them the young married women were +“protected” by the surviving shudder of that ancient Puritan scare--what +is M. Bourget going to do about those who lived among the 20,000,000? +They were clean in their morals, they were pure, yet there was no easy +divorce law to protect them. + +Awhile ago I said that M. Bourget's method of truth-seeking--hunting for +it in out-of-the-way places--was new; but that was an error. I +remember that when Leverrier discovered the Milky Way, he and the other +astronomers began to theorize about it in substantially the same fashion +which M. Bourget employs in his reasonings about American social facts +and their origin. Leverrier advanced the hypothesis that the Milky +Way was caused by gaseous protoplasmic emanations from the field of +Waterloo, which, ascending to an altitude determinable by their +own specific gravity, became luminous through the development and +exposure--by the natural processes of animal decay--of the phosphorus +contained in them. + +This theory was warmly complimented by Ptolemy, who, however, after much +thought and research, decided that he could not accept it as final. His +own theory was that the Milky Way was an emigration of lightning bugs; +and he supported and reinforced this theorem by the well-known fact that +the locusts do like that in Egypt. + +Giordano Bruno also was outspoken in his praises of Leverrier's +important contribution to astronomical science, and was at first +inclined to regard it as conclusive; but later, conceiving it to be +erroneous, he pronounced against it, and advanced the hypothesis that +the Milky Way was a detachment or corps of stars which became arrested +and held in 'suspenso suspensorum' by refraction of gravitation while on +the march to join their several constellations; a proposition for which +he was afterwards burned at the stake in Jacksonville, Illinois. + +These were all brilliant and picturesque theories, and each was received +with enthusiasm by the scientific world; but when a New England farmer, +who was not a thinker, but only a plain sort of person who tried to +account for large facts in simple ways, came out with the opinion that +the Milky Way was just common, ordinary stars, and was put where it was +because God “wanted to hev it so,” the admirable idea fell perfectly +flat. + +As a literary artist, M. Bourget is as fresh and striking as he is as +a scientific one. He says, “Above all, I do not believe much in +anecdotes.” + +Why? “In history they are all false”--a sufficiently broad +statement--“in literature all libelous”--also a sufficiently sweeping +statement, coming from a critic who notes that we are “a people who are +peculiarly extravagant in our language--” and when it is a matter of +social life, “almost all biased.” It seems to amount to stultification, +almost. He has built two or three breeds of American coquettes out +of anecdotes--mainly “biased” ones, I suppose; and, as they occur “in +literature,” furnished by his pen, they must be “all libelous.” Or did +he mean not in literature or anecdotes about literature or literary +people? I am not able to answer that. Perhaps the original would be +clearer, but I have only the translation of this installment by me. I +think the remark had an intention; also that this intention was booked +for the trip; but that either in the hurry of the remark's departure +it got left, or in the confusion of changing cars at the translator's +frontier it got side-tracked. + +“But on the other hand I believe in statistics; and those on divorces +appear to me to be most conclusive.” And he sets himself the task of +explaining--in a couple of columns--the process by which Easy-Divorce +conceived, invented, originated, developed, and perfected an +empire-embracing condition of sexual purity in the States. IN 40 YEARS. +No, he doesn't state the interval. With all his passion for statistics +he forgot to ask how long it took to produce this gigantic miracle. + +I have followed his pleasant but devious trail through those columns, +but I was not able to get hold of his argument and find out what it +was. I was not even able to find out where it left off. It seemed to +gradually dissolve and flow off into other matters. I followed it +with interest, for I was anxious to learn how easy-divorce eradicated +adultery in America, but I was disappointed; I have no idea yet how +it did it. I only know it didn't. But that is not valuable; I knew it +before. + +Well, humor is the great thing, the saving thing, after all. The +minute it crops up, all our hardnesses yield, all our irritations and +resentments flit away, and a sunny spirit takes their place. And so, +when M. Bourget said that bright thing about our grandfathers, I broke +all up. I remember exploding its American countermine once, under +that grand hero, Napoleon. He was only First Consul then, and I was +Consul-General--for the United States, of course; but we were very +intimate, notwithstanding the difference in rank, for I waived that. One +day something offered the opening, and he said: + +“Well, General, I suppose life can never get entirely dull to an +American, because whenever he can't strike up any other way to put in +his time he can always get away with a few years trying to find out who +his grandfather was!” + +I fairly shouted, for I had never heard it sound better; and then I was +back at him as quick as a flash--“Right, your Excellency! But I reckon +a Frenchman's got his little stand-by for a dull time, too; because when +all other interests fail he can turn in and see if he can't find out who +his father was!” + +Well, you should have heard him just whoop, and cackle, and carry on! He +reached up and hit me one on the shoulder, and says: + +“Land, but it's good! It's im-mensely good! I'George, I never heard it +said so good in my life before! Say it again.” + +So I said it again, and he said his again, and I said mine again, and +then he did, and then I did, and then he did, and we kept on doing it, +and doing it, and I never had such a good time, and he said the same. In +my opinion there isn't anything that is as killing as one of those dear +old ripe pensioners if you know how to snatch it out in a kind of a +fresh sort of original way. + +But I wish M. Bourget had read more of our novels before he came. It +is the only way to thoroughly understand a people. When I found I was +coming to Paris, I read 'La Terre'. + + + + + + +A LITTLE NOTE TO M. PAUL BOURGET + + [The preceding squib was assailed in the North American Review + in an article entitled “Mark Twain and Paul Bourget,” by Max + O'Rell. The following little note is a Rejoinder to that + article. It is possible that the position assumed here--that + M. Bourget dictated the O'Rell article himself--is untenable.] + +You have every right, my dear M. Bourget, to retort upon me by +dictation, if you prefer that method to writing at me with your pen; but +if I may say it without hurt--and certainly I mean no offence--I believe +you would have acquitted yourself better with the pen. With the pen +you are at home; it is your natural weapon; you use it with grace, +eloquence, charm, persuasiveness, when men are to be convinced, and with +formidable effect when they have earned a castigation. But I am sure +I see signs in the above article that you are either unaccustomed +to dictating or are out of practice. If you will re-read it you will +notice, yourself, that it lacks definiteness; that it lacks purpose; +that it lacks coherence; that it lacks a subject to talk about; that it +is loose and wabbly; that it wanders around; that it loses itself early +and does not find itself any more. There are some other defects, as you +will notice, but I think I have named the main ones. I feel sure that +they are all due to your lack of practice in dictating. + +Inasmuch as you had not signed it I had the impression at first that +you had not dictated it. But only for a moment. Certain quite simple and +definite facts reminded me that the article had to come from you, for +the reason that it could not come from any one else without a specific +invitation from you or from me. I mean, it could not except as an +intrusion, a transgression of the law which forbids strangers to mix +into a private dispute between friends, unasked. + +Those simple and definite facts were these: I had published an article +in this magazine, with you for my subject; just you yourself; I stuck +strictly to that one subject, and did not interlard any other. No one, +of course, could call me to account but you alone, or your authorized +representative. I asked some questions--asked them of myself. I answered +them myself. My article was thirteen pages long, and all devoted to you; +devoted to you, and divided up in this way: one page of guesses as to +what subjects you would instruct us in, as teacher; one page of doubts +as to the effectiveness of your method of examining us and our ways; two +or three pages of criticism of your method, and of certain results which +it furnished you; two or three pages of attempts to show the justness +of these same criticisms; half a dozen pages made up of slight +fault-findings with certain minor details of your literary workmanship, +of extracts from your 'Outre-Mer' and comments upon them; then I closed +with an anecdote. I repeat--for certain reasons--that I closed with an +anecdote. + +When I was asked by this magazine if I wished to “answer” a “reply” + to that article of mine, I said “yes,” and waited in Paris for the +proof-sheets of the “reply” to come. I already knew, by the cablegram, +that the “reply” would not be signed by you, but upon reflection I knew +it would be dictated by you, because no volunteer would feel himself at +liberty to assume your championship in a private dispute, unasked, +in view of the fact that you are quite well able to take care of your +matters of that sort yourself and are not in need of any one's help. +No, a volunteer could not make such a venture. It would be too immodest. +Also too gratuitously generous. And a shade too self-sufficient. No, he +could not venture it. It would look too much like anxiety to get in at a +feast where no plate had been provided for him. In fact he could not get +in at all, except by the back way, and with a false key; that is to say, +a pretext--a pretext invented for the occasion by putting into my mouth +words which I did not use, and by wresting sayings of mine from their +plain and true meaning. Would he resort to methods like those to get +in? No; there are no people of that kind. So then I knew for a certainty +that you dictated the Reply yourself. I knew you did it to save yourself +manual labor. + +And you had the right, as I have already said and I am +content--perfectly content. + +Yet it would have been little trouble to you, and a great kindness to +me, if you had written your Reply all out with your own capable hand. + +Because then it would have replied--and that is really what a Reply is +for. Broadly speaking, its function is to refute--as you will easily +concede. That leaves something for the other person to take hold of: +he has a chance to reply to the Reply, he has a chance to refute the +refutation. This would have happened if you had written it out instead +of dictating. Dictating is nearly sure to unconcentrate the dictator's +mind, when he is out of practice, confuse him, and betray him into using +one set of literary rules when he ought to use a quite different set. +Often it betrays him into employing the RULES FOR CONVERSATION BETWEEN +A SHOUTER AND A DEAF PERSON--as in the present case--when he ought to +employ the RULES FOR CONDUCTING DISCUSSION WITH A FAULT-FINDER. +The great foundation-rule and basic principle of discussion with a +fault-finder is relevancy and concentration upon the subject; whereas +the great foundation-rule and basic principle governing conversation +between a shouter and a deaf person is irrelevancy and persistent +desertion of the topic in hand. If I may be allowed to illustrate by +quoting example IV., section 7 from chapter ix. of “Revised Rules for +Conducting Conversation between a Shouter and a Deaf Person,” it will +assist us in getting a clear idea of the difference between the two sets +of rules: + +Shouter. Did you say his name is WETHERBY? + +Deaf Person. Change? Yes, I think it will. Though if it should clear off +I-- + +Shouter. It's his NAME I want--his NAME. + +Deaf Person. Maybe so, maybe so; but it will only be a shower, I think. + +Shouter. No, no, no!--you have quite misunderSTOOD me. If-- + +Deaf Person. Ah! GOOD morning; I am sorry you must go. But call again, +and let me continue to be of assistance to you in every way I can. + + +You see it is a perfect kodak of the article you have dictated. It is +really curious and interesting when you come to compare it with yours; +in detail, with my former article to which it is a Reply in your hand. +I talk twelve pages about your American instruction projects, and your +doubtful scientific system, and your painstaking classification of +nonexistent things, and your diligence and zeal and sincerity, and your +disloyal attitude towards anecdotes, and your undue reverence for unsafe +statistics and for facts that lack a pedigree; and you turn around and +come back at me with eight pages of weather. + +I do not see how a person can act so. It is good of you to repeat, with +change of language, in the bulk of your rejoinder, so much of my own +article, and adopt my sentiments, and make them over, and put new +buttons on; and I like the compliment, and am frank to say so; but +agreeing with a person cripples controversy and ought not to be allowed. +It is weather; and of almost the worst sort. It pleases me greatly to +hear you discourse with such approval and expansiveness upon my text: + +“A foreigner can photograph the exteriors of a nation, but I think +that is as far as he can get. I think that no foreigner can report its +interior;”--[And you say: “A man of average intelligence, who has +passed six months among a people, cannot express opinions that are worth +jotting down, but he can form impressions that are worth repeating. For +my part, I think that foreigners' impressions are more interesting +than native opinions. After all, such impressions merely mean 'how the +country struck the foreigner.'”]--which is a quite clear way of saying +that a foreigner's report is only valuable when it restricts itself to +impressions. It pleases me to have you follow my lead in that glowing +way, but it leaves me nothing to combat. You should give me something to +deny and refute; I would do as much for you. + +It pleases me to have you playfully warn the public against taking one +of your books seriously.--[When I published Jonathan and his Continent, +I wrote in a preface addressed to Jonathan: “If ever you should insist +in seeing in this little volume a serious study of your country and of +your countrymen, I warn you that your world-wide fame for humor will be +exploded.”]--Because I used to do that cunning thing myself in earlier +days. I did it in a prefatory note to a book of mine called Tom Sawyer. + + + NOTICE. + + Persons attempting to find a motive in + this narrative will be prosecuted; + persons attempting to find a moral in it + will be banished; persons attempting to + find a plot in it will be shot. + BY ORDER OF THE AUTHOR + PER G. G., CHIEF OF ORDNANCE. + + +The kernel is the same in both prefaces, you see--the public must +not take us too seriously. If we remove that kernel we remove the +life-principle, and the preface is a corpse. Yes, it pleases me to have +you use that idea, for it is a high compliment. But it leaves me nothing +to combat; and that is damage to me. + +Am I seeming to say that your Reply is not a reply at all, M. Bourget? +If so, I must modify that; it is too sweeping. For you have furnished +a general answer to my inquiry as to what France through you--can teach +us.--[“What could France teach America!” exclaims Mark Twain. France +can teach America all the higher pursuits of life, and there is more +artistic feeling and refinement in a street of French workingmen than in +many avenues inhabited by American millionaires. She can teach her, not +perhaps how to work, but how to rest, how to live, how to be happy. +She can teach her that the aim of life is not money-making, but that +money-making is only a means to obtain an end. She can teach her +that wives are not expensive toys, but useful partners, friends, and +confidants, who should always keep men under their wholesome +influence by their diplomacy, their tact, their common-sense, without +bumptiousness. These qualities, added to the highest standard of +morality (not angular and morose, but cheerful morality), are conceded +to Frenchwomen by whoever knows something of French life outside of the +Paris boulevards, and Mark Twain's ill-natured sneer cannot even so much +as stain them. + +I might tell Mark Twain that in France a man who was seen tipsy in his +club would immediately see his name canceled from membership. A man who +had settled his fortune on his wife to avoid meeting his creditors would +be refused admission into any decent society. Many a Frenchman has blown +his brains out rather than declare himself a bankrupt. Now would Mark +Twain remark to this: 'An American is not such a fool: when a creditor +stands in his way he closes his doors, and reopens them the following +day. When he has been a bankrupt three times he can retire from +business?']--It is a good answer. + +It relates to manners, customs, and morals--three things concerning +which we can never have exhaustive and determinate statistics, and so +the verdicts delivered upon them must always lack conclusiveness and be +subject to revision; but you have stated the truth, possibly, as nearly +as any one could do it, in the circumstances. But why did you choose a +detail of my question which could be answered only with vague hearsay +evidence, and go right by one which could have been answered with deadly +facts?--facts in everybody's reach, facts which none can dispute. I +asked what France could teach us about government. I laid myself pretty +wide open, there; and I thought I was handsomely generous, too, when +I did it. France can teach us how to levy village and city taxes which +distribute the burden with a nearer approach to perfect fairness than is +the case in any other land; and she can teach us the wisest and surest +system of collecting them that exists. She can teach us how to elect +a President in a sane way; and also how to do it without throwing the +country into earthquakes and convulsions that cripple and embarrass +business, stir up party hatred in the hearts of men, and make peaceful +people wish the term extended to thirty years. France can teach us--but +enough of that part of the question. And what else can France teach +us? She can teach us all the fine arts--and does. She throws open her +hospitable art academies, and says to us, “Come”--and we come, troops +and troops of our young and gifted; and she sets over us the ablest +masters in the world and bearing the greatest names; and she, teaches us +all that we are capable of learning, and persuades us and encourages us +with prizes and honors, much as if we were somehow children of her own; +and when this noble education is finished and we are ready to carry it +home and spread its gracious ministries abroad over our nation, and we +come with homage and gratitude and ask France for the bill--there is +nothing to pay. And in return for this imperial generosity, what does +America do? She charges a duty on French works of art! + +I wish I had your end of this dispute; I should have something worth +talking about. If you would only furnish me something to argue, +something to refute--but you persistently won't. You leave good +chances unutilized and spend your strength in proving and establishing +unimportant things. For instance, you have proven and established these +eight facts here following--a good score as to number, but not worth +while: + +Mark Twain is-- + +1. “Insulting.” + +2. (Sarcastically speaking) “This refined humorist.” + +3. Prefers the manure-pile to the violets. + +4. Has uttered “an ill-natured sneer.” + +5. Is “nasty.” + +6. Needs a “lesson in politeness and good manners.” + +7. Has published a “nasty article.” + +8. Has made remarks “unworthy of a gentleman.”--[“It is more funny than +his” (Mark Twain's) “anecdote, and would have been less insulting.”] + +A quoted remark of mine “is a gross insult to a nation friendly to +America.” + +“He has read La Terre, this refined humorist.” + +“When Mark Twain visits a garden... he goes in the far-away corner where +the soil is prepared.” + +“Mark Twain's ill-natured sneer cannot so much as stain them” (the +Frenchwomen). + +“When he” (Mark Twain) “takes his revenge he is unkind, unfair, bitter, +nasty.” + +“But not even your nasty article on my country, Mark,” etc. + +“Mark might certainly have derived from it” (M. Bourget's book) “a +lesson in politeness and good manners.” + +A quoted remark of mine is “unworthy of a gentleman.”-- + +These are all true, but really they are not valuable; no one cares much +for such finds. In our American magazines we recognize this and suppress +them. We avoid naming them. American writers never allow themselves to +name them. It would look as if they were in a temper, and we hold that +exhibitions of temper in public are not good form except in the very +young and inexperienced. And even if we had the disposition to name +them, in order to fill up a gap when we were short of ideas and +arguments, our magazines would not allow us to do it, because they think +that such words sully their pages. This present magazine is particularly +strenuous about it. Its note to me announcing the forwarding of your +proof-sheets to France closed thus--for your protection: + +“It is needless to ask you to avoid anything that he might consider as +personal.” + +It was well enough, as a measure of precaution, but really it was not +needed. You can trust me implicitly, M. Bourget; I shall never call +you any names in print which I should be ashamed to call you with your +unoffending and dearest ones present. + +Indeed, we are reserved, and particular in America to a degree which you +would consider exaggerated. For instance, we should not write notes like +that one of yours to a lady for a small fault--or a large one.--[When +M. Paul Bourget indulges in a little chaffing at the expense of the +Americans, “who can always get away with a few years' trying to find +out who their grandfathers were,”] he merely makes an allusion to an +American foible; but, forsooth, what a kind man, what a humorist Mark +Twain is when he retorts by calling France a nation of bastards! How the +Americans of culture and refinement will admire him for thus speaking in +their name! + +Snobbery.... I could give Mark Twain an example of the American +specimen. It is a piquant story. I never published it because I feared +my readers might think that I was giving them a typical illustration of +American character instead of a rare exception. + +I was once booked by my manager to give a causerie in the drawing-room +of a New York millionaire. I accepted with reluctance. I do not like +private engagements. At five o'clock on the day the causerie was to be +given, the lady sent to my manager to say that she would expect me to +arrive at nine o'clock and to speak for about an hour. Then she wrote +a postscript. Many women are unfortunate there. Their minds are full +of after-thoughts, and the most important part of their letters is +generally to be found after their signature. This lady's P. S. ran thus: +“I suppose he will not expect to be entertained after the lecture.” + +I fairly shouted, as Mark Twain would say, and then, indulging myself in +a bit of snobbishness, I was back at her as quick as a flash: + +“Dear Madam: As a literary man of some reputation, I have many times had +the pleasure of being entertained by the members of the old aristocracy +of France. I have also many times had the pleasure of being entertained +by the members of the old aristocracy of England. If it may interest +you, I can even tell you that I have several times had the honor of +being entertained by royalty; but my ambition has never been so wild as +to expect that one day I might be entertained by the aristocracy of New +York. No, I do not expect to be entertained by you, nor do I want you to +expect me to entertain you and your friends to-night, for I decline to +keep the engagement.” + +Now, I could fill a book on America with reminiscences of this sort, +adding a few chapters on bosses and boodlers, on New York 'chronique +scandaleuse', on the tenement houses of the large cities, on the +gambling-hells of Denver, and the dens of San Francisco, and what not! +[But not even your nasty article on my country, Mark, will make me do +it.]--We should not think it kind. No matter how much we might have +associated with kings and nobilities, we should not think it right to +crush her with it and make her ashamed of her lowlier walk in life; for +we have a saying, “Who humiliates my mother includes his own.” + +Do I seriously imagine you to be the author of that strange letter, +M. Bourget? Indeed I do not. I believe it to have been surreptitiously +inserted by your amanuensis when your back was turned. I think he did +it with a good motive, expecting it to add force and piquancy to your +article, but it does not reflect your nature, and I know it will grieve +you when you see it. I also think he interlarded many other things which +you will disapprove of when you see them. I am certain that all the +harsh names discharged at me come from him, not you. No doubt you could +have proved me entitled to them with as little trouble as it has cost +him to do it, but it would have been your disposition to hunt game of a +higher quality. + +Why, I even doubt if it is you who furnish me all that excellent +information about Balzac and those others.--[“Now the style of M. +Bourget and many other French writers is apparently a closed letter to +Mark Twain; but let us leave that alone. Has he read Erckmann-Chatrian, +Victor Hugo, Lamartine, Edmond About, Cherbuliez, Renan? Has he read +Gustave Droz's 'Monsieur, Madame, et Bebe', and those books which leave +for a long time a perfume about you? Has he read the novels of Alexandre +Dumas, Eugene Sue, George Sand, and Balzac? Has he read Victor Hugo's +'Les Miserables' and 'Notre Dame de Paris'? Has he read or heard the +plays of Sandeau, Augier, Dumas, and Sardou, the works of those Titans +of modern literature, whose names will be household words all over +the world for hundreds of years to come? He has read La Terre--this +kind-hearted, refined humorist! When Mark Twain visits a garden does he +smell the violets, the roses, the jasmine, or the honeysuckle? No, he +goes in the far-away corner where the soil is prepared. Hear what he +says: 'I wish M. Paul Bourget had read more of our novels before he +came. It is the only way to thoroughly understand a people. When I found +I was coming to Paris I read La Terre.'”]--All this in simple justice +to you--and to me; for, to gravely accept those interlardings as yours +would be to wrong your head and heart, and at the same time convict +myself of being equipped with a vacancy where my penetration ought to be +lodged. + +And now finally I must uncover the secret pain, the wee sore from +which the Reply grew--the anecdote which closed my recent article--and +consider how it is that this pimple has spread to these cancerous +dimensions. If any but you had dictated the Reply, M. Bourget, I would +know that that anecdote was twisted around and its intention magnified +some hundreds of times, in order that it might be used as a pretext to +creep in the back way. But I accuse you of nothing--nothing but error. +When you say that I “retort by calling France a nation of bastards,” + it is an error. And not a small one, but a large one. I made no such +remark, nor anything resembling it. Moreover, the magazine would not +have allowed me to use so gross a word as that. + +You told an anecdote. A funny one--I admit that. It hit a foible of +our American aristocracy, and it stung me--I admit that; it stung me +sharply. It was like this: You found some ancient portraits of French +kings in the gallery of one of our aristocracy, and you said: + +“He has the Grand Monarch, but where is the portrait of his +grandfather?” That is, the American aristocrat's grandfather. + +Now that hits only a few of us, I grant--just the upper crust only--but +it hits exceedingly hard. + +I wondered if there was any way of getting back at you. In one of your +chapters I found this chance: + +“In our high Parisian existence, for instance, we find applied to arts +and luxury, and to debauchery, all the powers and all the weaknesses of +the French soul.” + +You see? Your “higher Parisian” class--not everybody, not the nation, +but only the top crust of the Nation--applies to debauchery all the +powers of its soul. + +I argued to myself that that energy must produce results. So I built +an anecdote out of your remark. In it I make Napoleon Bonaparte say +to me--but see for yourself the anecdote (ingeniously clipped and +curtailed) in paragraph eleven of your Reply.--[So, I repeat, Mark Twain +does not like M. Paul Bourget's book. So long as he makes light fun +of the great French writer he is at home, he is pleasant, he is the +American humorist we know. When he takes his revenge (and where is the +reason for taking a revenge?) he is unkind, unfair, bitter, nasty.] + +For example: See his answer to a Frenchman who jokingly remarks to him: + +“I suppose life can never get entirely dull to an American, because +whenever he can't strike up any other way to put in his time, he can +always get away with a few years trying to find out who his grandfather +was.” + +Hear the answer: + +“I reckon a Frenchman's got his little standby for a dull time, too; +because when all other interests fail, he can turn in and see if he +can't find out who his father was.” + +The first remark is a good-humored bit of chaffing on American snobbery. +I may be utterly destitute of humor, but I call the second remark a +gratuitous charge of immorality hurled at the French women--a remark +unworthy of a man who has the ear of the public, unworthy of a +gentleman, a gross insult to a nation friendly to America, a nation that +helped Mark Twain's ancestors in their struggle for liberty, a nation +where to-day it is enough to say that you are American to see every door +open wide to you. + +If Mark Twain was hard up in search of, a French “chestnut,” I might +have told him the following little anecdote. It is more funny than his, +and would have been less insulting: Two little street boys are abusing +each other. “Ah, hold your tongue,” says one, “you ain't got no father.” + +“Ain't got no father!” replies the other; “I've got more fathers than +you.” + +Now, then, your anecdote about the grandfathers hurt me. Why? Because +it had a point. It wouldn't have hurt me if it hadn't had point. You +wouldn't have wasted space on it if it hadn't had point. + +My anecdote has hurt you. Why? Because it had point, I suppose. It +wouldn't have hurt you if it hadn't had point. I judged from your remark +about the diligence and industry of the high Parisian upper crust that +it would have some point, but really I had no idea what a gold-mine I +had struck. I never suspected that the point was going to stick into the +entire nation; but of course you know your nation better than I do, and +if you think it punctures them all, I have to yield to your judgment. +But you are to blame, your own self. Your remark misled me. I supposed +the industry was confined to that little unnumerous upper layer. + +Well, now that the unfortunate thing has been done, let us do what we +can to undo it. There must be a way, M. Bourget, and I am willing to do +anything that will help; for I am as sorry as you can be yourself. + +I will tell you what I think will be the very thing. + +We will swap anecdotes. I will take your anecdote and you take mine. I +will say to the dukes and counts and princes of the ancient nobility of +France: + +“Ha, ha! You must have a pretty hard time trying to find out who your +grandfathers were?” + +They will merely smile indifferently and not feel hurt, because they can +trace their lineage back through centuries. + +And you will hurl mine at every individual in the American nation, +saying: + +“And you must have a pretty hard time trying to find out who your +fathers were.” They will merely smile indifferently, and not feel hurt, +because they haven't any difficulty in finding their fathers. + +Do you get the idea? The whole harm in the anecdotes is in the point, +you see; and when we swap them around that way, they haven't any. + +That settles it perfectly and beautifully, and I am glad I thought of +it. I am very glad indeed, M. Bourget; for it was just that little wee +thing that caused the whole difficulty and made you dictate the Reply, +and your amanuensis call me all those hard names which the magazines +dislike so. And I did it all in fun, too, trying to cap your funny +anecdote with another one--on the give-and-take principle, you +know--which is American. I didn't know that with the French it was +all give and no take, and you didn't tell me. But now that I have made +everything comfortable again, and fixed both anecdotes so they can never +have any point any more, I know you will forgive me. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Essays on Paul Bourget +by Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ESSAYS ON PAUL BOURGET *** + +***** This file should be named 3173-0.txt or 3173-0.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/1/7/3173/ + +Produced by David Widger + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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