138 Memoir of Armand Carrel. 



perfect, in the " National," were either written currente calamo, or 

 dictated in an uninterrupted stream. In this respect he resembled 

 our Johnson, whose gorgeous sentences, however laboured they may 

 appear, were composed with almost all the rapidity of thought. The 

 language was natural to the man. He could express himself in no 

 other; and he spoke in this magnificent strain with the same readi- 

 ness as ordinary men make use of common phraseology. 



It may be interesting here to extract a few lines from a preface 

 which Carrel prefixed to an edition of the works of Paul Courier, 

 and which may now with much propriety be applied to himself. 

 "The life of an author," he says, "remarkable for the great origi- 

 nality of his ideas, is the best commentary on his writings; it is the 

 explanation, in fact, the history, as it may be termed, of his talents. 

 This is the more especially true, when the observation attaches to one 

 who in his younger days has not chosen literature as a profession ; 

 and whose imagination, at the period when the mind is most active 

 and lively, has not been weakened by the circumscribed space of the 

 four walls of a study, or restrained by the narrow sphere of literary 

 coteries. If at the present day there exist few writers, whose history 

 we are desirous of knowing, after having read their works, it is 

 because there are few of them who impress us with any very striking 

 decision of character, or who evince themselves as men tried, drawn 

 out, and finished, by the various proofs and numerous vicissitudes of 

 life." 



Such were Carrel's words in writing of another literary man, and 

 and we may say " Mutato nomine de se fabula narratur", for 

 his writings were a true personification of himself. The " Na- 

 tional," as soon as it was left solely under his control, acquired a 

 reputation greater perhaps than any other had hitherto possessed ; 

 for even those, who did not coincide in the boldness of his views and 

 his ardent bursts for universal freedom, could not fail to admire the 

 sincerity of the man and the glowing language in which he gave 

 utterance to the impulses of his heart. When politics became lan- 

 guid or warm discussions cooled, Carrel felt his influence diminish ; 

 and then he launched some minor point of argument, with which 

 his better judgment told him it was not worth his while to identify 

 himself. But when any event occurred either at home or abroad to 

 rouse him when there was a calamity to ward off, when there was 

 infamy to brand, perfidy to unmask, and, above all, when there was 

 danger to incite him, he burst out again in all his strength, seized 

 his pen a weapon with which he never failed to hit the mark 

 openly attacked, and carried on the war with equal courage, vigour, 

 and ability. On such occasions, and in the stirring times in which 

 he lived they occurred almost daily, the laws which fettered the press 

 were utterly disregarded by him, and seemed only to rouse his daring 

 to defiance. The ministry, in which his former and more facile 

 colleagues held office, had in vain attempted to seduce his stern in- 

 tegrity, and dreaded to stir up his wrath by a prosecution. They 

 therefore confined themselves to persecuting the minions of the 

 press, while, through fear, they allowed the great Triton to pursue 

 his career free and uncontrolled. But this forbearance was not what 



