THE BEAUTIES OF FRANCE 



491 



from smooth green lawns before and 

 smooth green water behind, with an iso- 

 lated keep — remnant of a former cas- 

 tle — and massive construction. Lofty 

 and commanding, its walls blossom with 

 little turrets, with engaging dormers at 

 unexpected intervals and places, with 

 gables and finials and all the delicate, 

 graceful detail the French Renaissance 

 builder knew so well how to apply, while 

 its setting is ravishing, among brilliant 

 formal gardens along the rose-covered 

 banks of the captivating little Cher, 

 across which it throws one thick, arcaded 

 arm sublimely mirrored back in all its 

 gracious coloring and detail. 



THE CHATEAU BUILDER'S MASTERPIECE 



The climax of the chateau builder's 

 art is reached in Azay-le-Rideau, the 

 utter perfection of residential beauty. 

 Not a trace of its fortress progenitor ex- 

 ists here, but only the genius which could 

 express pure beauty in elegant, slender 

 turrets, lofty roof, exquisitely carved 



moldings and casements, harmony and 

 balance of every part and detail. No 

 moat surrounds the soft-colored gray 

 walls ; but the waters of the unhurried 

 Indre flow in immemorial calm beneath 

 rows of brilliant flowers and expand to 

 one side in a quiet pool gemmed with 

 many little cups of lilies. Azay is so 

 lovely, so complete, so satisfying, it en- 

 tirely baffles any word of praise or de- 

 scription. It must be seen to be under- 

 stood and understood before one can 

 appreciate what France has done. 



Men have called her La Belle France. 

 Nature gave her all the resources of her 

 inexhaustible storehouse — climate, con- 

 trast of -scenery, charm, atmosphere — 

 everything lavishly. And in his turn the 

 Frenchman did not fail. With the primi- 

 tive laws of perfection and beauty before 

 him on every side, he was inspired to 

 dream and to toil, to conceive and 

 achieve, and so to add the human touch 

 to the natural, to round out and comple- 

 ment the gifts of the great Earth Mother. 



THE WORLD'S DEBT TO FRANCE 



WHEN we reckon the debt that 

 civilization owes to France we 

 very soon discover that civili- 

 zation, with that remarkable country left 

 out, would be like man without a soul. 

 She has gravitated from one extreme to 

 another — from intense religious convic- 

 tion to free thinking and back, from ab- 

 solutism to republicanism and back, from 

 grave to gay and gay to grave, from suf- 

 fering and sorrow to rejoicing and happi- 

 ness — until she has become the pendulum 

 of human progress, all the while driving 

 onward the wheels of civilization. 



Whether we take her for her ideals of 

 government, for her literature, for her 

 science, or for her intensely humanistic 

 and democratic qualities, France tells us 

 of leadership, of daring to venture like a 

 general born to command, of the estab- 

 lishment of the empire of her ideas and 

 her ideals throughout the world. 



Reviewing these phases of her life and 

 history and services to humanity in their 

 order, one naturallv starts with those 



wonderful times men call "The Revolu- 

 tion," for there the modern France was 

 born. Never did a race of people suffer 

 as the French people suffered in those 

 days. Man is not a natural revolutionist. 

 War is a solemn and an awful thing at 

 best, with its sacrifice of life, its vast 

 exactions against property, and its ter- 

 rible risks of defeat. Peoples, therefore, 

 bear much and suffer long always before 

 they rise in revolt against their own gov- 

 ernments. 



Never was war more reluctantly en- 

 gaged in than when the people started 

 the French Revolution. Things had been 

 endured patiently by them for genera- 

 tions. The unrestrained hand of kingly 

 rule that knew no right but the "divine 

 right of kings" had multiplied vastly the 

 burdens of the people until men could 

 endure no longer. 



THE THROES OE OPPRESSION 



They found themselves and their lives 

 at the disposal of the king. Often they 



