Rousseau was the apologist of reverie;
Chateaubriand will build the monument of it in order to break it in
Rene. Rousseau preaches Deism with all his eloquence in the "Vicaire
Savoyard;" Chateaubriand surrounds the Roman creed with all the garlands
of his poetry in the "Genie du Christianisme." Rousseau appeals to
natural law and pleads for the future of nations; Chateaubriand will
only sing the glories of the past, the ashes of history and the noble
ruins of empires. Always a role to be filled, cleverness to be
displayed, a _parti-pris_ to be upheld and fame to be won--his theme,
one of imagination, his faith one to order, but sincerity, loyalty,
candor, seldom or never! Always a real indifference simulating a passion
for truth; always an imperious thirst for glory instead of devotion to
the good; always the ambitious artist, never the citizen, the believer,
the man. Chateaubriand posed all his life as the wearied Colossus,
smiling pitifully upon a pygmy world, and contemptuously affecting to
desire nothing from it, though at the same time wishing it to be
believed that he could if he pleased possess himself of everything by
mere force of genius. He is the type of an untoward race, and the father
of a disagreeable lineage.
But to return to the two episodes.
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