Louis Phélypeaux de Pontchartrain

“ Events so rapid have aged us so speedily that, when men remind us of our doings of a past period, it seems to us that they are talking of some other man than ourselves: and besides, to have changed is to have done what everybody does.
Louis-Philippe.
Philip did not think it necessary, as did the Restored Branch, to be the master in every village in order to reign; he considered that it was enough to hold sway in Paris: therefore, if ever he could turn the Capital into a warlike town, with an annual roll of sixty thousand pretorians, he would think himself safe. ”

“ In 1459 Philip sent an embassy under the duke of Cleves into Italy to take part in the conferences preparatory to a fresh expedition against the Turks, but this enterprise likewise fell to the ground. In 1456 the duke of Burgundy had given an asylum to the Dauphin Louis (afterwards Louis XI.) , who had quarrelled with his father and had been forced to leave France. The “fox who would rob his host’s hen-roost,” as the old king called Louis, repaid his protector by attempting to sow discord in the ducal family of Burgundy, and then retired to the castle of Genappe in Brabant. ”

“ Her family being so large that the income of more than nine thousand francs, pension and rentals, was insufficient, she continued, under Louis Philippe, to give lessons in harmony to Mesdemoiselles La Grave, as in the Restoration, with the strictness observed in her every-day life.
PHELLION (Felix) , eldest son of the preceding couple, born in 1817; professor of mathematics in a Royal college at Paris, then a member of the Academy of Sciences, and chevalier of the Legion of Honor. ”

“ Louis Phillippe is now a great king, and being truly a good one, merits our praises and good wishes; but unquestionably he was as great a man when he condescended to teach a few boys, in a far distant country, where republican habits and prejudices denied him the sympathy due to his misfortunes, and left him an isolated, exiled prince, "alone in his glory." ”

“ See on what slender threads hang great events! If Louis-Philippe had heard the reading of Pizarre, M. Fulchiron would have supported the Government of July, and perhaps Louis-Philippe might still be on the throne. So, after the fall of [Pg 422] Louis-Philippe, M. Fulchiron was as happy as the Prince of Monaco when they took away his principality from him.
"My political career is a failure," says M. Fulchiron, "and you see me once more a literary man! I shall not be a minister, but I will be an academician." ”

“ Old Phelps is at once guide, philosopher, and friend. He knows the woods and streams and mountains, and their savage inhabitants, as well as we know all our rich relations and what they are doing; and in lonely bear-hunts and sable-trappings he has thought out and solved most of the problems of life. As he stands in his wood-gear, he is as grizzly as an old cedar-tree ”

“ One is always a bit disarmed by Mr Phelps, he writes with such tolerance and good nature, indeed he possesses any number of sterling qualities—even has them printed, as it were, on his business cards like a telephone number. ”

“ There is little doubt that the latter instigated attacks on the English frontier before the war, and there is conclusive evidence that he had a hand in repeated forays after it began. Whether acting from fanaticism, policy, or an odious compound of both, he was found so useful, that the minister Ponchartrain twice wrote him letters of commendation, praising him in the same breath for his care of the souls of the Indians and his zeal in exciting them to war. "There is no better man," says an Acadian official, "to prompt the savages to any enterprise." ”

“ Phelps is held by all classes of society. It is to me a very sincere satisfaction that I am able to be the medium of conveying to him, on the eve of his departure, the fact that his presence here in this country has been appreciated by the whole British nation. ”

“ And so many men. Don't mention anything I've said to her. Stage folks are finicky, I dare say. Different from other folks. And you probably won't see her to speak to her again anyway. I don't mean to say I've filed my claim on her yet, but she's as good as said it's to be a partnership for life.”
“I'm not interested,” stiffly rejoined Gilbert. “We only met while traveling to Sacramento. If she's good enough to notice me I can't run away.”
“Of course not,” slowly agreed Phelps, furtively eying him. “Any time you feel like earning mighty good wages, I have a fat job for you. ”

“ It's the only thing. I don't think I could look the world in the face again if you were to be hanged." He moved over to the bunk, and sat down beside Phelps. The candle had burned low, and the wick, spluttering in the melted tallow, left the room in a fitful gloom.
"I never killed any man unless I had to," Phelps continued slowly. "I didn't mean to kill old Puckett that night. ”

“ Masters of trades, and respectable shopkeepers, and professional men, and their families are in the boxes; and Mr Phelps is as great a benefactor to that neighbourhood as if he had established a public park, or opened a lyceum for education. There is a perceptible difference, we are told, in the manners of the district. You can’t raise a man in any one department without lifting him up in all. Improve his mind, you refine his character; teach him even mathematics, he will learn politeness; give him good society, he will cease to be coarse ”

“ For the first time, she perceived that General Adgate recalled Pontycroft in a measure. Tall, thin, spare, his aquiline features were like Pontycroft's, his bearing was that of a distinguished man. “He has Harry Pontycroft's air of knowing that he knows,” reflected Ruth softly; tenderly to her soul she quoted a line Pontycroft long ago had ironically applied to himself:
“He who Knows that he Knows, follow him.” ”

“ He sheds his learning in such a pleasant way that his reader feels wise without troubling himself to become so; neither can you help feeling that Phelps walks around on his feet, sees with his eyes, thinks with his own head, yet—and this is the miracle of it—he writes your own thoughts, and always he does it just before you thought of doing it yourself. ”

“ We'll eat and walk down to Phelps' camp. Younker, you're dog-tired and best stay here.”
And he nudged Gilbert's leg with the toe of his moccasin.
“Can't see your colors,” growled the sailor, dropping heavily on the grass. “Two much land. Every breeze is a squall over the weather bow. Come of quitting blue water.”
“Now, Ben! None of that,” rumbled Weymouth Mass. Then to Gilbert: “I'd think you'd go in for hunting gold. You look to be able-bodied. Somewhere in these old mountains is the mother-lode. The source of all gold! Thrown up by a volcano. Some one will find it some time. ”

“ Every sane person will appeal to the great laws of God ever present in history and in his own consciousness, and by these he will try the spirits, whether they be of God or of man. The great jury of the public opinion will decide this thing also; we have much of the evidence before us. The burden of proof, however, rests with Dr. Phelps himself. Fortunately he is a man of character, property, and position, and he chooses to stand where he does; no man will hinder him if none heed him. Many believe, but may be thankful for any help to their unbelief. ”

“ Phelps thought that if he could do so much during eighteen years by his personal, isolated, and independent endeavour, much more could be done in permanence under some public method of safeguard and guarantee. Phelps's services to the literary drama can hardly be over-estimated. His mature judgment is not to be lightly gainsaid. It is just to his memory to put his faith to a practical test. ”

“ Tobin swallowed, breathed hard, then meekly surrendered:
“I pass. You win. Hi, you Pipps. Come away from that saloon winder. We'll mosey down to that claim of yours and watch you earn a honest four-bits. Signs look like lots of folks is keen to see you work.”
Armed with pick and shovel Pretty Soon Jim led the way for a mile from the business center. Trailing along some distance behind the three men came a score or more of citizens. Phelps brought up the rear with a group of personal friends. Until he glimpsed Gilbert he had laughed much. ”

“ In a dull sort of a way he wondered why, if pledged to Phelps, she could have as good as promised him the pleasure of escorting her home. In Vermont engaged couples were very punctilious in their deportment. Both man and woman shut out the world on surrendering to love. Gilbert began to feel as if he had been caught trying to steal that which belonged to another. ”

“ He did not disguise from himself that his interference in such a delicate matter as a quarrel, or an estrangement, between husband and wife, might make the breach worse.
When he arrived at Mergatroyd, he had not resolved what course to take. He sat up half the night with Philip.
'You will find,' said the latter with some pride, 'that I have maintained the business in a healthy condition; it is not in the condition it was during the Continental war which affected linen as well as other things, but that was of its nature ephemeral. It rests on a sound basis. ”

“ There is no conceit, we are apt to say, like that born of isolation from the world, and there are no such conceited people as those who have lived all their lives in the woods. Phelps was, however, unsophisticated in his until the advent of strangers into his life, who brought in literature and various other disturbing influences. I am sorry to say that the effect has been to take off something of the bloom of his simplicity, and to elevate him into an oracle. ”

“ When attempting to pay his way in he found himself facing Roger, who grinned broadly and informed:
“Money's no good. Queenie says you're her guest to—night.
This was an unexpected courtesy and he felt a flash of pleasure. Then he saw Phelps' gloomy face just inside the door and knew he had overheard Roger's words and was resenting Miss Montez's display of favoritism. As Gilbert passed through the doorway the mine-owner curtly remarked:
“You git in free. I have to pay.” ”

“ But in a few moments the bell called again.
"Forty! I forgot to tell you. I've kept track of you, you know, all this while. I never meant to let you get into any scrape. I wasn't so bad as that. And, girl, I can have the exchange at Peony Centre if you'd rather stay on in the old home. It's a small job—there's a bigger in Boston for the taking—but I'd like to please you. Think it over, will you?"
"I'll think it over, Joe."
"And, Forty, girl, do you think you care enough for me"—
"I never cared for any man but you, Joe Fillebrown, in all my life." ”

“ Others took the hint and endeavored to outrace the Georgia miner.
While Phelps wiped the sweat from his forehead and stared stupidly at the nuggets Tobin refilled his pipe and lazily remarked:
“Always the way. Man digs a hole a few feet deep, then quits, when ten minutes' more work would fetch him a fortune. Go ahead, Jim. Next pocket oughter pan out a bushel.”
“Stop! Wait a minute!” gasped Phelps, raising a trembling hand. “I sold this claim. I'll buy it back. ”

“ The only thing that one really knows about human nature is that it changes. Change is the one quality we can predicate of it. The systems that fail are those that rely on the permanency of human nature, and not on its growth and development. The error of Louis XIV was that he thought human nature would always be the same. The result of his error was the French Revolution. It was an admirable result. All the results of the mistakes of governments are quite admirable. ”

“ Philip, and many another successful man of business who has been exalted to a position of comfort and warmth, has the inner garment of his soul scarred by the wheels of the chariot in which he has mounted. Philip felt his own awkwardness, his want of ease in other society than that narrow circle in which he had turned, his inability to move with that freedom and confidence which characterizes those born and reared in generous society. ”

“ For it is not because they are reasons existing in cogitation, but the phantasy receives the resemblances of intellectual and divine forms according to its own proper nature, exhibiting in its shadowy bosom the forms of formless natures, and clothing with figure things entirely free from the affections of figure. To this ambiguity we must say, that the species of imaginative motion is neither alone partible, nor impartible ”

“ Phelps’ face immediately parted with its combined expression, which was replaced by that peculiar one which talkative women always put on when they have an opportunity of indulging their propensity. “Ah, yes,” she sighed, “ah, dear yes, Major Pierpoint, she is indeed an orphan. She is a good child, and has a face that will be either the making or the breaking of her. I feel towards her just as if she was my own flesh and blood; though, between you and I, Major, I am neither kith nor kin to her or hers, though I lets her call me aunt for affection-like.” ”

“ The old captain eyed the sea and measured the incoming rollers with his deep-set eye.
[115]
“Ye cayn’t do it,” he pronounced. “There ain’t a dory in Windover can live in that”—he pointed his gaunt arm at the breakers.
“Anyhow, we’ll try!” rang out a strong voice. Cries from the wreck arose again. Some of the younger men pushed the dory off. Bayard sprang to join them.
“I can row!” he cried with boyish eagerness; “I was stroke at Harvard!”
“This ain’t Charles River,” replied one of the men; “better stand back, Parson.” ”