Names collect their own crowds. They are greedy and live their own separate lives, scarcely connected with the real natures of the men who bear them.The crowd which the seeker after fame envisages consists of shadows, that is, of creatures who do not even have to be alive so long as they are capable of one thing, which is to repeat his name. He wants them to repeat it often, and to repeat it in front of others, so that as many as possible may hear it and learn how to say it themselves. But what these shadows are apart from this -- their height, their appearance, how they live and work -- is a matter of total indifference to the man whose fame they spread.
Another question was presented which was yet more perplexing: It had been decided that thirty-six women should be admitted to the royal table. But in what proportion should they be selected for the municipal banquet from the new nobility, which held their titles by the terms of the Charter, and the old nobility, which had regained theirs? This was the problem to be solved. The new nobility was confounded when it saw that only five places were reserved for it. The common citizens considered themselves still more humiliated, since, among all the thirty-six ladies, there were only two who did not belong to the nobility, and because at a fete given by the city the municipal body was not represented by any woman.
Following is the list of the thirty-six ladies, as it appeared in the Moniteur: The Duchess of Fleury, the Duchess of Duras, the Countess of Blacas, the Marchioness of Avaray, the Marchioness of Boisgelin, the Countess of Escars, the Marchioness of Breze, the Duchess of Serent, the Countess of Damas, Madame de Choisy, the Duchess of Vauguyon, the Princess of Beaufremont, the Countess of Narbonne, the Viscountess of Narbonne, the Duchess of Maille, the Countess of Durfort, the Countess of Nansouty, the Marchioness of Lagrange, the Marchioness of La Rochejacquelein, the Duchess of Rohan-Montbazon, the Princess of Chalais, the Duchess of Coigny, the Duchess of Mouchy, the Duchess of Rohan, the Princess of Solre, the Princess of Wagram, the Countess of Bournonville, Madame Ferrand, Countess Maison, Marechale Suchet, the Duchess of Albufera, Marechale Oudinot (Duchess of Reggio), the Princess of Laval, the Duchess of Harcourt, the Marchioness of Tourzel and the Baroness of Montboissier.
Resignation is the salve for wounded self-love. Difficulties of etiquette are arranged according to inexorable laws. The fete takes place on the 27th of August. It is very fine.
We shall explain later the situation of these women.
It should be recalled that every time the Inca kings wanted to promulgate a new law, they always attributed its authorship to their ancestor Manco Capac who, they said, had promulgated certain laws during his lifetime and left others dormant in order that his successors might make them public whenever they proved to be necessary. They added that all of these laws had been taught him by his father the Sun, before he was sent to the earth.
This fact makes it doubly certain that knowledge of these conditions can not begin too early.
The principles governing confinement and recovery are so simple to-day, compared with the past, that we are confident that we shall see the day when the laborious child-birth will be looked upon as proof of a mistake. Among other great reforms may be mentioned the limitation of offspring, the defects of heredity, skin troubles, etc.
Foremost in these movements stand the Woman's Christian Temperance Union.
1- Elias Canetti, tr. Carol Stewart. Crowds and Power. NYC: FSG, 1984.
2- Imbert De Saint-Amand, tr. James Davis. Famous Women of the French Court. NYC: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1892.
3- Garcilaso de la Vega, tr. "A.G." The Royal Commentaries of the Incas. Orion Press, 1961.
4- Mary R. Melendy, M.D., Ph.D. ("Graduate of Hahnemann Medical College, Chicago; Graduate of the Bennett Eclectic Medical College, Chicago; Student at Rush Medical Clinic, Cook County Hospital; Lecturer on Diseases of Women and Children in the American Health University, Etc., Etc."). The Ideal Woman: for Maidens-Wives-Mothers: a book giving full information on all the mysterious and complex matters pertaining to women. E.E. Miller, 1915.
