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100% found this document useful (3 votes)
1K views

The Software Developer's Guide to Linux: A practical, no-nonsense guide to using the Linux command line and utilities as a software developer David Cohen - The ebook in PDF and DOCX formats is ready for download now

The document promotes 'The Software Developer's Guide to Linux' by David Cohen, a practical guide for software developers on using the Linux command line and utilities. It includes links to download the book and other related resources, as well as information about the authors and contributors. Additionally, it provides an overview of the book's contents and structure, covering various Linux topics and commands.

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The Software Developer’s
Guide to Linux

A practical, no-nonsense guide to using the Linux command line and


utilities as a software developer

David Cohen
Christian Sturm

BIRMINGHAM—MUMBAI
The Software Developer’s Guide to Linux
Copyright © 2024 Packt Publishing

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in
any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief
quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.
Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the information
presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or
implied. Neither the authors, nor Packt Publishing or its dealers and distributors, will be held liable for any
damages caused or alleged to have been caused directly or indirectly by this book.
Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all of the companies and products
mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee
the accuracy of this information.

Senior Publishing Product Manager: Aaron Tanna


Acquisition Editor – Peer Reviews: Gaurav Gavas
Project Editor: Parvathy Nair
Content Development Editor: Matthew Davies
Copy Editor: Safis Editing
Technical Editor: Karan Sonawane
Proofreader: Safis Editing
Indexer: Tejal Soni
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Developer Relations Marketing Executive: Meghal Patel

First published: January 2024


Production reference: 1230124

Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.


Grosvenor House
11 St Paul’s Square
Birmingham
B3 1RB, UK.

ISBN 978-1-80461-692-5

www.packt.com
Contributors

About the authors


David Cohen has, for the past 15 years, worked as a Linux system administrator, software
engineer, infrastructure engineer, platform engineer, site reliability engineer, security engineer,
web developer, and a few other things besides. In his free time, he runs the tutorialinux YouTube
channel where he’s taught hundreds of thousands of people the basics of Linux, programming,
and DevOps. David has been at Hashicorp since 2019—first as an SRE, then as a reference architect,
and now as a software engineer.
Thank you, Aleyna, for your unwavering support over the past few years as I’ve been developing and writing
this book. Without you, this would just be another of my promising-but-unfinished projects languishing in
some forgotten “Archive” directory. Thanks to Christian, who has stuck with me for over a decade as a friend
and a partner on practically every wild tech project idea I’ve come up with since we met. Finally, a big “thank
you” is also due to my friends and colleagues at Hashicorp and everywhere else I’ve been over the past 15 years,
who have made me a better engineer and encouraged projects like this.

Christian Sturm is a consultant on software and systems architecture, having worked in var-
ious technical positions for well over a decade. He has worked as an application developer for
the frontend and backend at companies large and small, such as zoomsquare and Plutonium
Labs. On top of that, he is also an active contributor to various open source projects and has a
deep understanding of fields including operating systems, networking protocols, security, and
database management systems.
About the reviewers
Mario Splivalo works as a consultant dealing with databases extended into modern cloud-
based architectures. He also helps companies design their infrastructure using IaaC tools such as
Terraform and AWS Cloudformation. For five years, Mario worked with Canonical as an OpenStack
engineer.

Mario’s fascination with computers started back when Commodore 64 dominated the user space.
He took his first steps using BASIC on his dad’s C64, quickly shifting to Assembler. He gradually
moved to PCs, finding a great love for programming, systems design, and database administra-
tion. He switched to Linux (Knoppix, then Ubuntu, and never looked back) in the early 2000s,
continuing as a database administrator, programmer, and system administrator.

Nathan Chancellor is an independent contractor working on the Linux kernel, based in Ar-
izona, US. As a developer, his focus is on improving the compatibility between the Linux kernel
and the LLVM toolchain. He has used Linux since 2016 and it has been his primary development
operating system since 2018. His distributions of choice are Arch Linux and Fedora.
Learn more on Discord
To join the Discord community for this book – where you can share feedback, ask questions to
the author, and learn about new releases – follow the QR code below:

https://packt.link/SecNet
Table of Contents

Preface  xxiii

Chapter 1: How the Command Line Works  1

In the beginning…was the REPL ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 1


Command-line syntax (read) ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 3
Command line vs. shell ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 4
How does the shell know what to run? (evaluate) • 5
A quick definition of POSIX • 6
Basic command-line skills �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 7
Unix filesystem basics • 7
Absolute vs. relative file paths • 8
Absolute vs. relative pathname review • 10
Opening a terminal • 10
Looking around – command-line navigation • 10
pwd - print working directory • 10
ls - list • 11
Moving around • 12
cd – change directory • 12
find – find files • 13
Reading files • 13
less – page through a file • 14
Making changes • 14
viii Table of Contents

touch – create an empty file, or update modification time for an existing one • 14
mkdir – create a directory • 14
rmdir – remove empty directories • 15
rm – remove files and directories • 15
mv – move or rename files and directories • 16
Getting help ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 17
Shell autocompletion �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 18
Conclusion ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 20

Chapter 2: Working with Processes  21

Process basics ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 22


What is a Linux process made of? • 23
Process ID (PID) • 24
Effective User ID (EUID) and Effective Group ID (EGID) • 25
Environment variables • 25
Working directory • 25
Practical commands for working with Linux processes ���������������������������������������������������� 26
Advanced process concepts and tools �������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 28
Signals • 28
Practical uses of signals • 29
Trapping • 29
The kill command • 29
lsof – show file handles that a process has open • 31
Inheritance • 33
Review – example troubleshooting session ����������������������������������������������������������������������� 33
Conclusion ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 35

Chapter 3: Service Management with systemd  37

The basics ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 38


init • 39
Processes and services ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 39
Table of Contents ix

systemctl commands �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 40


Checking the status of a service • 40
Starting a service • 41
Stopping a service • 41
Restarting a service • 41
Reloading a service • 42
Enable and disable • 42
A note on Docker ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 43
Conclusion ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 43

Chapter 4: Using Shell History  45

Shell history ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 45


Shell configuration files • 46
History files • 46
Searching through shell history • 47
Exceptions • 47
Executing previous commands with ! ������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 48
Re-running a command with the same arguments • 48
Prepending a command to something in your history • 48
Jumping to the beginning or end of the current line ��������������������������������������������������������� 49
Conclusion ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 49

Chapter 5: Introducing Files  51

Files on Linux: the absolute basics ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 52


Plaintext files • 52
What is a binary file? • 52
Line endings • 53
The filesystem tree ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 53
Basic filesystem operations ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 54
ls • 54
pwd • 55
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x Table of Contents

cd • 55
touch • 56
less • 57
tail • 57
mv • 57
Moving • 57
Renaming • 58
cp • 58
mkdir • 58
rm • 58
Editing files ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 59
File types ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 60
Symbolic links • 61
Hard links • 62
The file command • 62
Advanced file operations ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 63
Searching file content with grep • 63
Finding files with find • 64
Copying files between local and remote hosts with rsync • 65
Combining find, grep, and rsync • 66
Advanced filesystem knowledge for the real world ����������������������������������������������������������� 67
FUSE: Even more fun with Unix filesystems • 68
Conclusion ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 69

Chapter 6: Editing Files on the Command Line  71

Nano ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 72
Installing nano • 72
Nano cheat sheet • 72
File handling • 73
Editing • 73
Search and replace • 73
Table of Contents xi

Vi(m) ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 73
Vi/vim commands • 74
Modes • 74
Command mode • 74
Normal mode • 75
Tips for learning vi(m) • 76
Use vimtutor • 76
Think in terms of mnemonics • 76
Avoid using arrow keys • 76
Avoid using the mouse • 77
Don’t use gvim • 77
Avoid starting with extensive configuration or plugins • 77
Vim bindings in other software • 79
Editing a file you don’t have permissions for �������������������������������������������������������������������� 79
Setting your preferred editor �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 79
Conclusion ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 80

Chapter 7: Users and Groups  81

What is a user? ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 81


Root versus everybody else ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 82
sudo ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 82
What is a group? ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 84
Mini project: user and group management ����������������������������������������������������������������������� 84
Creating a user • 85
Create a group • 86
Modifying a Linux user • 86
Adding a Linux user to a group • 87
Removing a user from a group • 87
Removing a Linux user • 87
Remove a Linux group • 87
Advanced: what is a user, really? �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 88
User metadata / attributes • 88
xii Table of Contents

A note on scriptability ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 90


Conclusion ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 90

Chapter 8: Ownership and Permissions  93

Deciphering a long listing ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 93


File attributes ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 94
File type • 94
Permissions • 95
Number of hardlinks • 95
User ownership • 95
Group ownership • 95
File size • 96
Modification time • 96
Filename • 96
Ownership ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 96
Permissions ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 97
Numeric/octal • 98
Common permissions • 99
Changing ownership (chown) and permissions (chmod) ������������������������������������������������� 99
Chown • 99
Change owner • 99
Change owner and group • 100
Recursively change owner and group • 100
Chmod • 100
Using a reference • 101
Conclusion • 101

Chapter 9: Managing Installed Software  103

Working with software packages ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 104


Update your local cache of repository state • 105
Search for a package • 105
Table of Contents xiii

Install a package • 106


Upgrade all packages that have available updates • 106
Remove a package (and any dependencies, provided other packages don’t need them) • 106
Query installed packages • 107
Caution required – curl | bash ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 107
Compiling third-party software from source ������������������������������������������������������������������ 108
Example: compiling and installing htop • 110
Install prerequisites • 110
Download, verify, and unarchive the source code • 110
Configure and compile htop • 111
Conclusion ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 112

Chapter 10: Configuring Software  115

Configuration hierarchy ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 116


Command-line arguments ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 118
Environment variables ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 119
Configuration files ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 121
System-level configuration in /etc/ • 121
User-level configuration in ~/.config • 121
systemd units ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 122
Create your own service • 122
Quick note: configuration in Docker �������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 124
Conclusion ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 125

Chapter 11: Pipes and Redirection  127

File descriptors ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 128


What do these file descriptors reference? • 129
Input and output redirection (or, playing with file descriptors for fun and profit) ���������� 129
Input redirection: < • 129
Output redirection: > • 130
Use >> to append output without overwriting • 131
xiv Table of Contents

Error redirection with 2> • 132


Connecting commands together with pipes (|) ���������������������������������������������������������������� 133
Multi-pipe commands • 133
Reading (and building) complex multi-pipe commands • 134
The CLI tools you need to know ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 134
cut • 134
sort • 135
uniq • 136
Counting • 136
wc • 137
head • 138
tail • 138
tee • 138
awk • 139
sed • 139
Practical pipe patterns ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 140
“Top X”, with count • 140
curl | bash • 140
Security considerations for curl | sudo | bash • 141
Filtering and searching with grep • 142
grep and tail for log monitoring • 143
find and xargs for bulk file operations • 143
sort, uniq, and reverse numerical sort for data analysis • 144
awk and sort for reformatting data and field-based processing • 145
sed and tee for editing and backup • 145
ps, grep, awk, xargs, and kill for process management • 146
tar and gzip for backup and compression • 146
Advanced: inspecting file descriptors ������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 147
Conclusion ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 149
Table of Contents xv

Chapter 12: Automating Tasks with Shell Scripts  151

Why you need Bash scripting basics ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 152


Basics ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 152
Variables • 152
Setting • 152
Getting • 153
Bash versus other shells ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 153
Shebangs and executable text files, aka scripts ���������������������������������������������������������������� 154
Common Bash settings (options/arguments) • 154
/usr/bin/env • 155
Special characters and escaping • 156
Command substitution • 157
Testing ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 157
Testing operators • 157
[[ file and string testing ]] • 158
Useful operators for string testing • 158
Useful operators for file testing • 158
(( arithmetic testing )) • 159
Conditionals: if/then/else ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 160
ifelse • 160
Loops ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 160
C-style loops • 160
for…in • 161
While • 161
Variable exporting • 162
Functions ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 162
Prefer local variables • 163
xvi Table of Contents

Input and output redirection ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 164


<: input redirection • 164
> and >>: output redirection • 164
Use 2>&1 to redirect STDERR and STDOUT • 164
Variable interpolation syntax – ${} ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 165
Limitations of shell scripts ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 165
Conclusion ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 166
Citations ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 166

Chapter 13: Secure Remote Access with SSH  167

Public key cryptography primer �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 168


Message encryption • 168
Message signing • 169
SSH keys ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 169
Exceptions to these rules • 170
Logging in and authenticating • 171
Practical project: Set up a key-based login to a remote server ������������������������������������������ 171
Step 1: Open your terminal on the SSH client (not the server) • 171
Step 2: Generate the key pair • 172
Step 3: Copy the public key to your server • 172
Step 4: Test it out! • 172
Converting SSH2 keys to the OpenSSH format ����������������������������������������������������������������� 173
What we are trying to achieve • 173
How to convert the SSH2-formatted key to OpenSSH • 174
The other direction: Converting SSH2 keys to the OpenSSH format • 174
SSH-agent ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 175
Common SSH errors and the -v (verbose) argument �������������������������������������������������������� 176
File transfer ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 177
SFTP • 178
SCP • 178
Clever examples • 179
Table of Contents xvii

Without SFTP or SCP • 180


Directory upload and .tar.gz compression • 180
Tunnels ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 181
Local forwarding • 181
Proxying • 181
The configuration file ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 182
Conclusion ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 183

Chapter 14: Version Control with Git  185

Some background on Git ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 186


What is a distributed version control system? ����������������������������������������������������������������� 186
Git basics ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 187
First-time setup • 187
Initialize a new Git repository • 187
Make and see changes • 187
Stage and commit changes • 187
Optional: add a remote Git repository • 188
Pushing and pulling • 188
Cloning a repository • 188
Terms you might come across ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 189
Repository • 189
Bare repository • 189
Branch • 189
Main/master branch • 190
HEAD • 190
Tag • 190
Shallow • 190
Merging • 190
Merge commit • 191
Merge conflict • 191
Stash • 191
xviii Table of Contents

Pull request • 191


Cherry-picking • 192
Bisecting • 192
Rebasing • 193
Best practices for commit messages �������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 196
Good commit messages • 196
GUIs ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 197
Useful shell aliases ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 197
Poor man’s GitHub ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 198
Considerations • 198
1. Connect to your server • 198
2. Install Git • 198
3. Initialize a repository • 199
4. Clone the repository • 199
5. Edit the project and push your changes • 200
Conclusion ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 200

Chapter 15: Containerizing Applications with Docker  203

How containers work as packages ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 204


Prerequisite: Docker install ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 205
Docker crash course �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 205
Creating images with a Dockerfile ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 208
Container commands ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 210
docker run • 210
docker image list • 211
docker ps • 211
docker exec • 212
docker stop • 212
Docker project: Python/Flask application container �������������������������������������������������������� 212
1. Set up the application • 213
2. Create the Docker image • 215
Table of Contents xix

3. Start a container from your image • 215


Containers vs. virtual machines ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 216
A quick note on Docker image repositories ���������������������������������������������������������������������� 217
Painfully learned container lessons ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 217
Image size • 218
C standard library • 218
Production is not your laptop: outside dependencies • 218
Container theory: namespacing ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 219
How do we do Ops with containers? ������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 220
Conclusion ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 220

Chapter 16: Monitoring Application Logs  223

Introduction to logging ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 224


Logging on Linux can get... weird • 224
Sending log messages • 225
The systemd journal ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 225
Example journalctl commands ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 226
Following active logs for a unit • 226
Filtering by time • 226
Filtering for a specific log level • 227
Inspecting logs from a previous boot • 227
Kernel messages • 227
Logging in Docker containers ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 228
Syslog basics ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 228
Facilities • 229
Severity levels • 230
Configuration and implementations • 230
Tips for logging ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 230
Keywords when using structured logging • 230
Severity • 231
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appeared, as it were, to hesitate to touch his form, and seemed to
draw near its victim with the deepest respect." His vigorous life, his
active intelligence, his inflexible uprightness of character—everything
seemed to point him out as a man beyond the common run of even
good men. We shall see his character as developed in the admirable
letters which form the basis of this sketch. Type of a Christian
patriot, he towers above his contemporaries by sheer nobility of
soul, and is an example of that moral stature to which no worldly
honors, no political position, no hereditary rank can add "one cubit."
Pro Deo, Patria et Rege was his lifelong motto, and it may safely be
said that if France had many such sons, no one in the past or in the
future could have rivalled or could hope to rival "la grande nation."
His first volume of collected poems was published in 1836, and one
by one eminent men of letters, struck by the beauty, severity, and
freshness of his diction, sought out the new light and entered into
brotherhood with him. His lifelong friendship with M. de Fresne,
however, dated from 1829, when he had already published The
Angel and the Child,[33] in a Paris magazine, and other pieces at
various intervals in local periodicals. A traveller from the capital
knocked at the unknown poet's door, and the tie knit by the first
external homage that had yet come to Reboul, was never dissolved.
The letters from which we draw his portrait, as traced by himself,
were all addressed to this first friend. In 1838, another and more
illustrious visitor came to the baker's home at Nîmes, the patriarch of
revived Christian literature in France, the immortal Châteaubriand.
He tells the story of his visit himself:
"I found him in his bakery, and spoke to him without knowing to
whom I was speaking, not distinguishing him from his companions in
the trade of Ceres; he took my name, and said he would see if the
person I wanted was at home. He came back presently and smilingly
made himself known to me. He took me through his shop, where we
groped about in a labyrinth of flour-sacks, and at last climbed by a
sort of ladder into a little retreat (réduit) something like the chamber
of a windmill. There we sat down and talked. I was as happy as in
my barn in London,[34] and much happier than in my minister's chair
in Paris."
Reboul was an ardent Catholic, an uncompromising "ultramontane,"
as their enemies designate those who refuse to render unto Cæsar
the things that are God's. He took a keen and sensitive interest in
the struggles of religion against infidelity, the prototypes, or rather
the counterparts, of those we see now waging in Italy and Germany.
On the occasion of one of these attacks on the church in 1844, he
writes these trenchant words:
"The sword is drawn between the religious and the political power: if
I were not a Frenchman before being a royalist, and a Catholic
before a Frenchman, I should find much to rejoice at in this check to
the hopes of a certain part of the episcopate who honestly believed
in the reign of religious freedom, on the word of the revolutionists.
But, good people! if revolution were not despotism, it would not be
revolution."
The unity of the church struck him as immeasurably grand. Speaking
of the great Spanish convert Donoso-Cortes and his religious works,
he says:
"What a marvellous faith it is which makes men situated at such
distances of time and place think exactly alike on the most difficult
and deepest subjects!"
A most striking passage in his writings is the following opinion on the
Reformation:
"Forgive my outspokenness," he writes to his friend M. de Fresne, "if
my opinion differs totally from yours. No, the Reformation was not
an outburst of holy and generous indignation against abuses and
infamies. This indignation possessed all the eminent and virtuous
men in the church, but it was not to be found among the reformers.
The Reformation, on the contrary, came to legalize corruption and
bend the precepts of the Gospel to the exigencies of the flesh.
Luther was literally the Mahomet of the West. Both acted through
the sword: the one established polygamy, the other divorce, a
species of polygamy far more fatal to morals than polygamy proper.
If you would know what the Reformation really was, look at its
founders and abettors, and see if chastity was dear to them. Henry
VIII. married six wives, of whom he divorced two and executed two
more; Zwinglius took a wife, Beza took a wife, Calvin took a wife,
Luther took a wife, the landgrave of Hesse wished to take a second
wife during the lifetime of his first, and Luther authorized him to do
so. The caustic Erasmus, whose Catholicism was not very strict,
could not help saying that the Reformation was a comedy like many
others, where everything ended with marriages. The real reformers
of the church, those who reformed her not according to the gospel
of passion, but the Gospel of Jesus Christ, were S. Charles
Borromeo, S. John of the Cross, S. Teresa, S. Ignatius Loyola, and
thousands of holy priests and bishops."
Not to weary the reader by constant comments on the text which
reveals this great Christian thinker's mind, we will append the
following significant quotations from his letters with as few breaks as
possible. They are gathered from a collection extending over a
period of more than thirty years:
"The secrets of the church are ruled by a divine order, and to judge
of them according to merely human fears or prudence, is to mistake
the nature of the church, and to ignore her past. Time takes upon
itself the vindication of decisions arrived at by a legitimate authority,
even though it be a temporal one; ... truth will come to the surface,
and is often manifested by the very men apparently most earnest in
combating it.... I believe this work (a religious publication of M. de
Broglie) is an event, as much because of the author's character and
the principles which his name is understood to represent, as because
of the epoch of its publication. This frank confession in the belief of
the supernatural in the teeth of the public rationalistic teaching of
the day—ever striving to wrap Christ in its own shroud of
philosophical verbiage and to bury him in the grave from which he
had risen—makes us pray to God and praise him, ... that his
kingdom may come.... The struggle nowadays is between God made
man, and man making himself God.... I wonder that you take the
trouble to break your head thinking about these German dreamers
(atheists); for my part, I gave orders long ago to the door-keeper of
my brain, if any of these gentleman should ask for me, to say that I
was 'not at home.' These old errors served up with the new sauce of
a worse darkness than before seem to me very indigestible.
"Genius which devotes itself to evil, far from being a glory, is but a
gigantic infamy. Plato is right when he calls it a fatal industry.
"The French Revolution has done in the political world what the
Reformation did in the religious world; it has taken from reason her
leaning staff, and reason, trying to stand alone, has caused the
things we have seen—and so, alas! at this moment, the Revolution
cries out for a principle, but is itself the negation of all principle."
In politics, as we have seen, Reboul was a staunch legitimist, but a
shrewd observer. He was no dreamer, though his belief in the
ancient Bourbons was with him a perfect cultus. He never swerved
from the road which he had traced for himself. As a poet, his native
city was proud of him, France held out every honor to him, fellow-
littérateurs of all shades of opinion welcomed him as a brother,
governments flattered him, the people looked up to him. Had he
been ambitious, civic and parliamentary honors were ready for him;
had he been venal, his career might have been brilliant, lucrative,
and idle. In 1844, the mayor of Nîmes, M. Girard, proposed to him a
change of occupation, offering him the position of town-librarian, as
more suited to his tastes than the trade he followed. He was assured
that this appointment would entail no political obligation, that
perfect independence of speech and action would be guaranteed to
him, but, says M. de Poujoulat: "Reboul, intent above all on the
services he could render the cause among his own surroundings,
and solicitous of hedging in the dignity of his life with the most
spotless integrity, refused the mayor's offer. He did not even seek to
make a merit of his refusal; his friends knew nothing of it; M. de
Fresne alone was in the secret, and it was not divulged till years
after." The Cross of the Legion of Honor was twice offered him: once
by the government of Louis Philippe, through the agency of the
minister M. de Salvandy, who was fond of seeking out honest and
independent talent, but the loyal poet answered briefly: "He who
alone has the right to decorate me is not in France"; and again by
the empire, when it was urged that the decoration was a homage
such as might have been respectfully offered in les Arènes (the
Roman amphitheatre at Nîmes). Reboul proudly yet playfully replied
that "he had not yet quite reached the state of a monument," and
feeling plenty of vitality left in him, did not need the red ribbon. He
explains to his friend M. de Fresne that he asked the God of S. Louis
to enlighten his perplexities, to lift his soul above all small vanities,
to deliver him from political rancor, if he harbored any, and to guide
him to a decision which would leave him at peace with himself. "I
have not the presumption," he adds, "to think that I received an
inspiration from above, but I believe in the efficacy of prayer. I know
not if I was heard, but at any rate I did my best."
There is a grand Christian simplicity in this, which marks Reboul as a
man far beyond the average. Nothing dazzles him, because he
always has the glory of God before his eyes. His friend M. de
Poujoulat says of him:
"I find in Reboul a penetrating and serious good sense, broad views,
as it were luminous sheaves of thought; I see in him an
unprejudiced and discriminating observer of the affairs of his day.
The noise of popularity is not glory, and the stature our
contemporaries make for us is not our true one, but one raised by
artifice and conventionality. Here was a man who looked down from
the height of his solitude, said what he thought, and in his judgment
forestalled the verdict of posterity. Reboul was interested in the
individual works of his day, but he had only scant admiration for the
age that produced them. His conscience was the measure of his
appreciation both of men and events, and it was a measure hardly
advantageous to them."
In 1836, a few of his friends clubbed together to offer him at least a
pension, in the name of "an exile" (the Comte de Chambord), but he
refused even this with touching disinterestedness, saying: "There is
but one hand on earth from which I should not blush to accept a
gift: the representative of Providence on earth. The gifts of this hand
increase the honor and independence of the recipient, and bind him
to nothing save the public weal, but adverse circumstance having
sealed this fount of honor, I could not dream of drawing aught from
it, for l'exil a besoin de ses miettes,[35] and it is rather our duty to
contribute to its needs than to draw on it for our own." Later, when
pressing necessity made it incumbent upon him to accept help from
his friends and his sovereign, as he loyally called the exiled Comte
de Chambord, it was so great a sorrow to him that he could scarcely
enjoy the material benefit of such help. The poor and faithful poet
had "dreamed of leaving earth with the memory of a devotion wholly
gratuitous," and was sincerely grieved because it could not be so. He
received several letters from the Comte de Chambord and his wife,
some written in their own hand, others by their secretary, and he
addressed himself several times to these objects of his cultus in
terms of impassioned yet dignified loyalty. Henri V. fully appreciated
his homage, and treated him as a friend rather than a stranger.
Reboul visited the royal family at Frohsdorf, their Austrian retreat,
and received the most flattering marks of attention. To him it was
not a visit so much as a pilgrimage; his devotion to the person of his
sovereign was but the embodiment of his principle of fealty towards
hereditary monarchy. Speaking of the Requiem Mass celebrated at
Nîmes, in October, 1851, on the occasion of the death of the
Duchesse d'Angoulême, daughter of Louis XVI., he says:
"She had made a deep impression, and left durable memories
among the working classes of our town, on her passage through
Nîmes some years ago.... The people, my dear friend, the Christian
people, recognizes better than les beaux-esprits what true greatness
is, and is ever ready to bow before the majesty of a nobly-borne
sorrow. No orator could adequately describe the appearance of our
church to-day. This great gathering en blouse ou en veste,[36] these
faces browned by toil and want, bore an expression of nobility and
gravity fully suitable to such an occasion.... When one still has such
courtiers, is exile a reality?"
Reboul would never allow that the irregularities of its representatives
were enough of themselves to condemn a system. We have seen
how, while recognizing the degeneracy of many churchmen in the
XVIth century, he yet denounced the pretended reformers who
sought this pretext for attacking the church, and in politics his
judgments were equally clear and impartial. "If," he says, "it is still
possible to be a republican despite the Reign of Terror, it is not
impossible to be a royalist despite a few moral deviations which have
disgraced some of our kings. Was the Directoire (a genuine
republican product) an assembly of Josephs? And the houses of our
day—are they not of glass? It is not wise, therefore, to be
incessantly throwing stones.... After all, I return to my original
argument: notwithstanding the shadows which darken the great
qualities and high virtues of many of our kings, can you find
anything better?"
Reboul's political faith is traced at length in the following paragraph,
which may be called statesmanlike, since it contains a theory of
government: "The sovereign is by all means a responsible agent, but
I add to this, that the people also, when it makes itself sovereign, is
equally responsible. The habit of thought which separates the one
from the other is one of the misfortunes of our times. Without
sovereignty there can be no nation, nor even a people. There
remains but an agglomeration of individuals. When I say sovereign
you know, if you understand the language of politics, that I mean
any legitimate form of government. This is applicable to all
governments. Be sure that it is nonsense to talk of a nation as
making its own sovereign. A "nation" which as yet has no
sovereignty is no more a nation than a body without its head is a
real body."
Reboul not only believed in sovereignty, but in an aristocracy as a
necessary part of a sound national system. Commenting upon a
political article by M. de Villemain, he gives his ideas thus: "He is
mistaken if he believes, as he says he does, that a people can enjoy
freedom without an aristocracy, or, if this word is too much of a
bugbear in the ears of our age, without an intermediate class
between the sovereign and the people. Equality is a fine thing, but
revolutionary journalists must make up their minds that equality can
only be arrived at by the raising of one man and the lowering of all
the rest. It is almost a truism to say so, but these truisms are not
bad things in politics, being so often borne out by experience, and,
alas! by the convulsions of empires."
Our poet and politician could be witty when he liked, and, had he
not been so earnest a Christian, his satirical humor would have been
more often exercised on those from whom he differed so widely in
opinion. This humor crops out sometimes, as when, on the occasion
of an agricultural show (no very congenial fête to a man of his
stamp), he quaintly says: "I do not demur to any rational
encouragement given to agriculture, but I fancy Sully, to whom it
owes so much, would not have been quite so extravagant in the
choice of honors such as are now heaped upon it. A public and
gratuitous show, convocation of the Academy, the municipal council,
the prefect of the department, all that fuss for the coronation of a
few dumb animals! Do you not see in this a providential sarcasm—a
people allowed to crown swine after uncrowning its kings!"
A significant prophecy is contained in the last words of the following
paragraph: "I begin to doubt the efficacy of all these intellectual
struggles; our times need a stronger logic than that of pamphlets,
and I fear (God forgive me for the despairing thought)—I fear that
some great misfortune alone is capable of curing France." How
terrible the cure was when it came we all know, but we have yet to
see whether it has been efficient.
His brief career as deputy to the Constituent Assembly in 1848
derives a peculiar interest for the reader by reason of the seeming
contradiction it presents to his settled political creed. But Reboul
judged things by a higher standard than that of party prejudice. "A
Frenchman before a royalist," he vindicated his patriotism by active
measures in those stormy days when more voices were needed to
speak for the right in the councils of the nation. No doubt, with his
unfailing discernment, he saw the incongruity of his actual position
as a man of the people with that refusal of office which was in a
certain sense becoming—nay, required—in a legitimist of noble birth.
He says of his nomination: "I had firmly refused before, being
certain of my own incompetency, but our population would not hear
reason. These good people imagine that, because one can scribble
verses, one can therefore represent a borough. I was not able to
disabuse them; it was made a question of honor and patriotism, and
how could I refuse any longer? Here am I, therefore, who have
always lived far from political gatherings, I a man of retirement and
study, thrown into your whirlpool without well knowing what will
happen to me there."
He was not happy as a deputy. M. de Poujoulat says that Reboul's
countenance in those days was that of a man bored to death. When,
the following year, he retired from these unwonted honors, he
thanked God for "having rescued him from the storm," and wrote to
a friend: "I am quite happy again, and do not at all regret the
honors I have left. I wonder what interest there can be in such
heated disputes about vulgarized issues! I never felt more at home
than I do now, and nothing whispers to me that I have had any
loss."
Of a young and unfortunate colleague in the Assembly, a man who
had mistaken an irrepressible momentary exaltation for a genuine
vocation, and from a porter had vaulted to the position of a deputy,
while he further aspired to that of a poet, Reboul says with grave
sympathy and sterling sense: "His blind ambition often astounded
me, but it was so candid and so genuine that I had not the heart to
condemn it. I have often grieved over this frank nature, this child
who, in his gambols, would handle as a whip which he could use the
serpent that was to bite him. The best thing for him would be to go
back to his trade in the teeth of the world, and to make use of his
strength and youth; he would find in that a truer happiness than in
the shadow of an official desk, or in the corruptions of the literary
'Bohemia,' but such an effort, I fear, is beyond his strength of mind."
With what special right Reboul could give this sound, if stern, advice,
we shall see presently.
In poetry Reboul's inspiration was purely Christian, austere in its
morality, and trusting rather to the matter than the form. He
believed that the times required a poetic censorship, incisive, rapid,
and relentless; poetry was "the mould that God had given him in
which to cast his thoughts," and he felt bound to use it in season for
God's cause, without stopping to elaborate its form and perhaps
weaken its effect. Thus it came about that he was essentially a poet
of action, mingling with his fellow-men, following the vicissitudes of
the day and bearing his part valiantly in the battle of life. He was not
of the contemplative, subjective order of poets, nor was he among
the sensualists of literature. His art was to him neither a personal
consolation, occupying all his time and plunging him into a selfish
yet not unholy oblivion of the world, nor yet an instrument of gain
and a pander to the evil passions of others. It was a mission, not
simply a gift; a "talent" to be used and to bring in five-fold in the
interests of his heavenly Master. Many of his friends objected to the
crudity of form which sometimes resulted from this earnest
conviction, and later in life he did set himself to polish his style a
little more. All his verses bear this imprint of passionate earnestness;
he speaks to all, kings and people; he tells them of their duties in
times of revolution, he urges men to martyrdom, if need be, that the
truth may triumph; he exalts patriotism, fidelity, and
disinterestedness, and loses no opportunity to wrap wholesome
precepts in poetic form. His style is vigorous and impetuous, yet
domestic affections are no strangers to his pen. The world knows
him as the author of "The Angel and the Child," which has been
translated into all languages from English to Persian[37] and inspired
a Dresden painter with a beautiful rendering of the song on canvas.
He says of himself: "With me, poetry is but the veil of philosophy,"
and in this he has unconsciously followed the dictum of a great man
of the XVth century, Savonarola, who, in his work on the Division
and Utility of all Sciences, records the same truth: "The essence of
poetry is to be found in philosophy; the object of poetry being to
persuade by means of that syllogism called an example exposed
with elegance of language, so as to convince and at the same time
to delight us."[38]
Corneille was his favorite French poet, and his admiration for the
Christian tragedy of "Polyeucte" prompted him to write a drama in
the same style, called the "Martyrdom of Vivia." The scene was
placed in his own Nîmes, in the time of the Roman Empire. The
piece was full of beauties, and above all of enthusiasm, but, as
might have been expected, it was hardly a theatrical success. He
says himself: "The glorification of the martyrs of old is not a
sentiment of our day"; but when "Vivia" was performed under his
own auspices in his native town the result was far different. It
created a furor, and everything, even the accessories, was perfect.
Every one vied with each other to make it not only a success in
itself, but an ovation to the author. Reboul, when he once saw it
acted in Paris, was so genuinely overcome by it that, leaning across
the box toward his friend M. de Fresne, he whispered naïvely with
tears in his eyes: "I had no idea that it was so beautiful."
As a poet, he utterly despised mere popularity, and has recorded this
feeling both in verse and in prose. In his poem "Consolation in
Forgetfulness" he asks whether the nightingale, hidden among the
trees, seeks out first some attentive human ear into which to pour
its ravishing strains? Nay, he answers, but the songster gives all he
has to the night, the desert, and its silence, and if night, desert, and
silence are alike insensible, its own great Maker is ever at hand to
listen. But it is useless to translate winged verse into lame prose; the
next verse we will quote in the original:

"Un grand nom coûte cher dans les temps où nous sommes,
Il fant rompre avec Dieu pour captiver les hommes."

The same idea is reproduced in his correspondence:


"The revolution has for a long time usurped, all over Europe, the
disposal of popularity and renown, and, alas! how many Esaus there
are who have sold their birthright for a mess of celebrity!... Our
excellent friend M. Le Roy had a quality of soul capable of
harmonizing with the sad memories of fallen greatness! Our siècle
de grosse caisse[39] has lost the secret of those high and sublime
feelings which the reserve of a simple-minded man may cover."
When, in 1851, his friends wished to nominate him as a candidate
for the French Academy, the highest literary honor possible, Reboul
answered M. de Fresne thus: "Your kind friendship has led you
astray. What on earth would you have me do in such a body?
Though I may, in the intimacy of private life, have spoken to you of
whatever poetic merits I have, I am far from wishing to declare
myself seriously the rival of the best talent of the capital. Such
pretension never entered my head. Nay, in these days I might have
written Athalie and yet deem myself unfit for the Academy. In
revolutionary times, things invade and overflow each other, and
nothing is more futile than the lamentations of literary men over the
nomination of politicians to the vacancies of the French Academy.
The revolution has always jealously guarded her approaches; the
Institut is her council." Ten years later he congratulates himself that
things have so far mended among academicians as that "one may
pronounce God's holy name in the halls of the academy"; but he
steadily refused to be nominated for a fauteuil.
Reboul's relations with the great men of his day were active and
cordial. No party feeling separated him from any on whom the stamp
of genius was set equally with himself. He corresponded with
distinguished personages of all countries, English, French, Italian,
etc., admired and appreciated the literature of foreign lands,
followed the intellectual movement of Europe in every branch of
learning, and supplied by copious reading of the best translations his
want of classical knowledge. The Holy Scriptures and the patristic
literature of the church were familiar and favorite studies with him;
in every sense of the word, he was a polished and appreciative
scholar. The accident of his birth and circumstances of his life in no
way interfered with this scholarship, and it would be a great mistake
to suppose that he was but a phenomenon, a freak of nature, a
working-man turned suddenly poet, but having beyond the gift of
ready versification no further knowledge of his art or grasp of its
possibilities. In 1834, having addressed to Lamennais a poetical
warning and remonstrance, he says that, receiving no answer, "he is
appalled by the silence of this man. Heaven forefend that the pillar
which once was the firmest support of the sanctuary should be
turned into a battering-ram!..." The Christian world knows that this
prophecy came true, but there are those who believe that on his
death-bed the erring son was drawn back to the bosom of his
mother.
In 1844, Reboul was chosen as spokesman by the deputation of
Nîmes to the reception awarded M. Berryer by the town of Avignon.
He says: "The illustrious orator said so many flattering things to me
that I was quite confounded. He called me his friend.... Then,
addressing us all, his words seemed so fraught with magic that the
immense audience hung breathless on his lips, but when he began
to speak of France his voice, trembling with love of our country, took
our very souls by storm, and you should have seen those southern
faces all bathed in tears of admiration. We had need of a respite
before applauding—but what an explosion it was!" At another time
he writes: "Where has Berryer lived that he should be able to escape
the influence of the hazy phraseology of our age and keep intact
that eloquence of his, at once so clear and so trenchant?"
Manzoni's genius seemed to make the two poets, though not
personally acquainted, companions in spirit. M. de Fresne, who knew
the Milanese littérateur, was charged with Reboul's homage to him
in verse, and Reboul himself speaks thus of the impression made on
a friend of his by Manzoni's Inni Sacri:
"We read and admired everything in the book. The hymn for the 5th
of May particularly struck Gazay; he was quite beside himself, as I
knew he would be. This nature, rugged and trenchant (osseuse et
brève), which is so impatient of the milk-and-water[40] style of
literature, found here a subject of enthusiasm; he rose from his
chair, walked up and down the room with gigantic strides, and barely
escaped breaking through the floor."
His judgment of Victor Hugo is both interesting and striking. In
1862, when Les Misérables was published, he comments thus on the
great herald and apologist of revolution:
"It is always the same glorification of the convict-prison and the
house of prostitution, a theme which has for many years been
dragged over our literature and our drama. I do not like Hugo's
bishop any more than Béranger's curé; the former is a fool and the
latter a drunkard. The author of Les Misérables is vigorous in his
style, no doubt, but he carries the defects of this quality to the last
pitch of absurdity. The style is vigorous and rugged, true—but c'est
du 'casse-poitrine' et du 'sacré chien,' de l'eau-de-vie de pommes-
de-terre.[41] I do not know what to expect from the next two
volumes, but up to this it all seems to me to breathe the air of a low
public-house (buvette de faubourg). The ostentatious praise of the
socialist organs confirms this opinion. The multitude, as well as
kings, has its flatterers. I think that honest poverty, lacking
everything, and yet shutting its eyes and ears to temptation, would
have been a type worthier of the author's reputation, if it were only
for a change!"
A year later, in 1863, we see Reboul reading with interest a criticism
of Lamartine on this same work, and recording his satisfaction at the
implied condemnation. "But," says our poet, "it is only, alas! the
blind leading the blind. One is astonished to see the devastation
created in these two great intellects by the forsaking of principle."
His relations with Lamartine were close and affectionate, but his
admiration for the poet yet left him a severe measure for the man.
In 1864, he wrote him an address in verse on dogma, or rather, as
he calls it, divine reason, as the foundation of all legislation, and
from his reasons drew consequences not over-favorable to the
"historian-poet." "But," he says, "I tried to be respectful without
ceasing to be frank." Lamartine answered him a few months later,
and promised him a visit. Reboul then says of him: "I found him as
amiable, as much a friend as ever; there must be something great in
the depths of that man's heart. May Providence realize one day my
secret hopes for his soul's welfare." When seven years before
Lamartine came to see him at Nîmes, Reboul was his cicerone to the
ruins and sights of the Roman colony, and the exquisitely graceful
compliment of the world-known poet to his brother artist was thus
worded: "This is worth more than all I saw during my Eastern
journey." Of Lamartine's poetical genius, and Victor Hugo's claims to
the renown of posterity, Reboul has no doubt, for he says that the
former's Lac and the latter's lyrics "will never die."
The reader may like to know the opinion of Lamartine himself on
Reboul. We find it in his Harmonies Poétiques, where he dedicates a
piece to him entitled "Genius in obscurity," and appends the
following anecdote, which will remind us of Châteaubriand's earlier
visit. This was the first time the two poets met, and, like most of
Reboul's friendships, it was sought by the greater man—or rather,
should we not say the higher-placed rather than greater?
"Every one knows the poetical genius, so antique in form, so noble
in feeling, of M. Reboul, poet and workman. Work does not degrade.
His life is less known; I was ignorant of it myself. One day, passing
through Nîmes, I wished, before going to the Roman ruins, to see
my brother-poet. A poor man whom I met in the street led me to a
little, blackened house, on the threshold of which I was saluted by
that delicious perfume of hot bread just from the oven. I went in; a
young man in his shirt sleeves, his black hair slightly powdered with
flour, stood behind the counter, selling bread to a few poor women. I
gave my name; he neither blushed nor changed countenance, but
quietly slipped on his waistcoat, and led me up-stairs by a wooden
staircase to his working room, above the shop. There was a bed,
and a writing-table, with a few books and some loose sheets of
paper covered with verses. We spoke of our common occupation. He
read me some admirable verses, and a few scenes of ancient
tragedy, breathing the true masculine severity of the Roman spirit.
One felt that this man had spent his life among the living mementos
of ancient Rome, and that his soul was, as it were, a stone taken
from those monuments, at whose feet his genius had grown like the
wild laurel at the foot of the Roman bridge over the Gard.
"I saw Reboul again in the Constituent Assembly. His was a free
soul, born for a republic; a heart simple and pure, and whose like
the people needs sorely to make it keep and honor the liberty it has
won, but will lose again unless it be tempered by justice and
hallowed by virtue."
It will be seen that Reboul himself did not agree with Lamartine's
estimate of him, nor indeed with many of the great poet's religious
and political views; but the tribute to our hero is only rendered more
honorable by this dissidence of opinion.
Many other names might be added to the list of Reboul's literary
acquaintances. Montalembert, at whose request he paraphrased in
verse the famous article published in the Correspondant, "Une
Nation en deuil," a plea for Poland written by the author of The
Monks of the West; Père Lacordaire, Mgr. Dupanloup, M. de Falloux,
Mme. Récamier, Mme. de Beaumont, a graceful poetess, Canonge,
his fellow-poet of Nîmes, Charles Lenormand, and hosts of others.
Artists too he held in great honor: Sigalon, a painter full of promise,
of a poor family in Nîmes, and whom Reboul characterizes as one
who, had he lived, would have been a modern Michael Angelo;
Orsel, of whom he speaks in these enthusiastic terms: "I showed my
friends some of Orsel's sketches, which they found more true and
more holy than Raphael's style. I will not go so far, for the judgment
of ages and of so many connoisseurs unanimously proclaiming the
supremacy of the great Italian is a stronger authority in my eyes
than the exclamation of a few men in a given moment of
enthusiasm. Still I was astounded. Some vague remorse seized me
when I reflected that I had regarded this man with indifference, not
yet knowing his works! But when I think that I actually read so many
of my bad verses to one who had before his mind's eye such holy
and beautiful types, and that he was good enough to listen patiently,
it is not admiration, but veneration that I feel towards him."
Reber, the musician, who in 1853 was deservedly elected member of
the Institut de France, and Rose, a young sculptor, whose Christian
genius was worthy of being placed in contrast (in his admirable
bassi-relievi of the Stations of the Cross in the church of S. Paul, at
Nîmes) with the perfection of Hippolyte Flandrin's magnificent
frescos, were also among Reboul's artistic friends. In a comparison
instituted by our poet between popular and high art, we find the
following pungent comment: "M. Courbet has painted women fitted,
by the rotundity of their dimensions, to be exhibited at a fair, and his
name is incessantly in the papers. On the other hand, M. Ingres is
seldom if ever mentioned!"
Reboul's voluminous letters to M. de Fresne trace unconsciously a
most noble moral portrait of the writer. Here are a few characteristic
touches, putting in relief his manliness and freedom from petty
vanities or weak susceptibilities. There was not the shadow of a
meanness in Reboul's mind; his soul was simplicity itself, and was
rather like those dark, deep waters of some of the American lakes,
at whose bottom every pebble is distinctly visible.
"One of the advantages of the position in which it has pleased God
to place me," he says, "is that I hear the truth told me point-blank
and without any circumlocution whatever, and, thank God, I am
inured to this. I have found out since that what once galled my pride
has had other and important results, so that both friend and foe
have served me.... I bow to nothing save that which is beautiful
everywhere and at all times, and progress to my mind signifies only
the fashioning of my works more and more according to this eternal
standard. If I do not succeed, therefore, be sure that it is through
human helplessness and not intentional profanation."
He thus distinctly recognizes his art as a mission, a sacred thing to
be reverently handled, and not profaned by compromises with the
local and accidental spirit of the age. And again: "If the poet
condescends to these intrigues behind the scenes, he loses what
should be his greatest treasure: the consciousness of his own
dignity.[42] Theatrical plaudits, success, all that is outside ourselves:
the poet should seek to live at peace with his own soul, for alas!
man cannot fly from himself, and woe to him if he has need to blush
for his deeds before the tribunal of his own conscience.... There is
too much water in the wine of success to inebriate me.... Time,
which is God's mode of action, deprives us little by little of
everything which can be salutary guardianship, until that supreme
moment when it leaves us face to face with itself alone. Let us strive
to prepare ourselves for this awful tête-à-tête." Reboul possessed
the true pride of a noble heart which consisted in doing simply every
duty required of him alike by his poor condition and his admirable
talent. Of the former he never showed himself ashamed and
repeatedly refused to change it; yet this refusal was perfectly
honest. If he was in no ways ashamed of his lowly origin, at the
same time he was equally far from making it a boast. On the
publication of his Traditionelles (a volume of detached poems) M.
Lenormand devoted to it a laudatory and appreciative article in the
Correspondant. Reboul noticed this in the following words: "I have
only one observation to make, however: I would rather they had left
the 'baker' out of the question, certainly not because the allusion
humiliates me, but because I fear that it points towards making an
exception of my verses, as a moral lusus naturæ, and it is my ardent
wish, on the contrary, to be judged quite outside such
circumstances. I can say this the more frankly, because I have never,
in my Traditionelles, disguised my origin, and indeed, did I not fear
to be suspected of that hateful plebeian pride, I should even say
that I would not exchange my family for any other. This is between
ourselves."
And again, when the question of his nomination to the French
Academy was under discussion, he wrote a very similar sentence: "I
can hardly tell you why I would not accept this candidature. This,
perhaps, will best render my idea: I am not of the stuff of which
academicians are made. This is no outburst of plebeian pride—the
most insolent pride of any; it is merely my true estimate of my own
position." At another time he said, excusing himself for not having
asked a person of high position and a friend of his to the funeral of
his mother: "Whatever ignorance and enviousness may say to the
contrary, there are barriers between the different classes of society
which cannot be disregarded without unseemliness. My 'neglect' was
but the consequence of this conviction."
He has left carelessly here and there embedded in the text of an
everyday letter some phrase which seems like a proverb, so beautiful
and comprehensive is it. For instance, speaking of the costliness of
the Paris salons, he says: "The most beautiful abodes, my dear
friend, are those where the devil finds nothing to look upon." Of the
degeneracy of modern thought he speaks thus: "These noble
convictions are passing away, and every thing is subjected to the
feeble equations of reason; all things are discussed, calculated,
weighed, and the heart would appear to be a superfluity of creation,
so little are its holy inspirations followed!"
And of books and their readers he says: "We do not all read a book
alike, but each takes from it only what his individual nature is
capable of appropriating. The prejudices of divers schools of
literature, the rivalry of various political, philosophical, and religious
opinions, are all so many spectacles through which we judge the
beauties or defects of any work."
Reboul's domestic life was a calm and simple one; his mind craved
no pleasures beyond its silent circle, save those which he found in
books; and his attachment to his native city and his humble home
was as touching as it was sincere. His trade gave him enough for a
modest and assured way of life, and he coveted no more. It was a
less precarious source of gain than literature alone would have been;
it supported his family in comfort, and, above all, left his own mind
at ease; and it was only towards the end of his life that, having
generously assisted a relation in financial difficulties, he found
himself in real want. Then only, and not till then, did he accept, with
touching sadness and humility, the help his friends and his heart's
sovereign, the Comte de Chambord, had repeatedly pressed upon
him in happier days. His greatest relaxation was an hour spent with
his family or a few chosen literary friends in his mazet, an enclosed
garden with a little dwelling attached, in which were a sitting-room
and a kitchen, but no bed-rooms. We do not know if this is a
peculiar institution of Nîmes alone or of the whole south of France. It
is constantly mentioned by Reboul, and his letters are often dated
from it—nay, his verses were sometimes composed there. It was a
luxury of his later days, not of the time when he received
Châteaubriand and Lamartine in the "windmill chamber."
Reboul suffered for ten years before his death from a constitutional
melancholy, which the distraction of several interesting journeys in
Italy, Switzerland, and Austria only temporarily relieved; his general
health gave way by degrees, and he died on the 29th of May, 1864.
He who had vowed his life to the glory of God and his church was
called away from earth on the feast of Corpus Christi, having been
completely paralyzed on the left side three days before. He
recovered neither speech nor—to all appearance—consciousness,
and his death was as peaceful as a child's. His native town
celebrated his funeral with all the pomp of civic and religious honors;
the Bishop, Mgr. Plantier, made a funeral oration over his grave, and
a monument was soon raised to his memory by his grateful and
admiring fellow-citizens. More than that, the city of Nîmes took
charge of his family and assured their future, as a fitting homage to
the man whose life had been so nobly independent, so proudly self-
supporting. The Roman colony could not bear to see Reboul's
helpless relatives the pensionaries of a stranger, and the care it
extended to them was delicately offered not as a boon but a right.
People of all classes, all religions, all political opinions united in
mourning their great compatriot. We can end with no tribute of our
own more fitting than M. de Poujoulat's warm and eloquent words:
"Noble triumph of honest genius, of sublime and modest virtue!
many things will have fallen, many footsteps have been effaced,
while yet Reboul will be remembered. The only lasting glory is that
in which there is no untruth. Reboul has left like a Christian a world
and an epoch which often grieved his faith. He has gone to that
heaven which he had seen in his poetic visions, and in which his
imagination had placed so many noble types. He himself has now
become a type such as the Christian muse would fain see placed in
the immortal fatherland of the elect."
The recording angel may well have sung over his tomb these
triumphant words of the Gospel:
"Well done, thou good and faithful servant; because thou hast been
faithful in a few things, I will set thee over great things: enter thou
into the joy of thy Lord."
We have thus endeavored to present a portrait of a character not
often met with in our literature. This man of the people, and yet a
royalist; this delicately-toned poet, and yet a man of sturdy common
sense, affords a curious and interesting study. What has won our
especial admiration is his inflexible adherence to principle in all that
concerns faith and the rights of the Holy See.

FOOTNOTES:

[28] Lettres de Jean Reboul de Nîmes, avec une Introduction par M. de Poujoulat.
Michel Lévy Frères. Paris, 1866.
[29] Romans xi. 24.
[30] Uncultivated tracts of land bordering the sea-shore of Brittany.
[31] 1 Kings ix. 21.
[32] This name was given to the market-women who had their regular seats
around the guillotine, and knitted diligently, at the same time insulting the victims
while the executioner did his bloody work.
[33] See a translation of this poem in The Catholic World for July.
[34] Alluding to his own vicissitudes during the French emigration.
[35] Literally, "Exile needs even its very crumbs."
[36] Smock-frock, or working-clothes.
[37] By Monchharem, a young Persian attached to the staff of Marshal Paskievicz.
[38] See the second article on Jerome Savonarola, Catholic World, July, 1873.
[39] Literally "big-drum century."
[40] More expressive in the original, le blanc d'œuf battu—literally "white of eggs
beaten up."
[41] Untranslatable: the meaning is, that the vigor is that of a prize-fighter, the
ruggedness not of a philosopher, but of a low ruffian.
[42] Simpler and more forcible in the original: le sentiment de lui-même—"the
consciousness of himself."
MARY.

Dear honored name, beloved for human ties,


But loved and honored first that One was given
In living proof to erring mortal eyes
That our poor flesh is near akin to heaven.

Sweet word of dual meaning: one of grace,


And born of our kind Advocate above;
And one by memory linked to that dear face
That blessed my childhood with its mother-love,

And taught me first the simple prayer, "To thee,


Poor banished sons of Eve, we send our cries."
Through mist of years, those words recall to me
A childish face upturned to loving eyes.

And yet to some the name of Mary bears


No special meaning, or no gracious power;
In that dear word they seek for hidden snares,
As wasps find poison in the sweetest flower.

But faithful hearts can see, o'er doubts and fears,


The Virgin link that binds the Lord to earth;
Which to the upturned, trusting face appears
Greater than angel, though of human birth.

The sweet-faced moon reflects on cheerless night


The rays of hidden sun to rise to-morrow;
So unseen God still lets his promised light,
Through holy Mary, shine upon our sorrow.
MORE ABOUT BRITTANY: ITS CUSTOMS, ITS
PEOPLE, AND ITS POEMS.
All great national gatherings dating from an early period have a
religious origin. The assemblies of the Welsh, Bretons, and Gauls
were convoked by the Druids, and in the laws of Moëlmud are
designated "the privileged synods of fraternity and union which are
presided over by the bards." These, in losing their pagan character
under the influence of Christianity, nevertheless retained many of
their forms and regulations, together with the customary place and
time of meeting. True to her prudent mode of action among the
peoples she was converting, the church, instead of destroying the
temples, purified them, and, instead of overthrowing the menhir and
dolmen, raised the cross above them.
It was almost invariably at the solstices that the Christian assemblies
of the Celtic nations were accustomed to take place, as the pagan
ones had done before them, when, in the presence of immense
multitudes, the bards held their solemn sittings, and vied with each
other in poetry and song, while athletes ran, wrestled, and
performed various feats of agility and strength. In Wales, the
sectaries who divided the land amongst them have deprived these
assemblies of all religious character and association whatsoever, and
the manners, language, and traditions are all that remain
unchanged. In Brittany, on the contrary, the religious element is the
dominant one, and impresses its character not only upon the antique
observances, but also upon the rustic literature—that is to say, the
poesy—with which the land abounds.
The most favorable opportunities for hearing these popular ballads
occur at weddings and agricultural festivities, such as the gathering-
in of the harvest and vintage, the linadek, or flax-gathering—for it is
believed that the flax would become mere tow or oakum unless it
were gathered with singing—the fairs, the watch-nights, when,
around the bed of death, the relatives and neighbors take their turn
to watch and pray, while those who are waiting pass much of the
time in singing or listening to religious ballad-poems of interminable
length, or ditties like the following, Kimiad ann Ene—"The Departure
of the Soul"—which chiefly consists of a dialogue between the soul
and its earthly tenement:
THE DEPARTURE OF THE SOUL.
Come listen to the song of the happy Soul's departure, at
the moment when she quits her dwelling.
She looks down a little towards the earth, and speaks to
the poor body which is lying on its bed of death.
SOUL.
"Alas, my body! Behold, the last hour is come; I must quit
thee and this world also.
"I hear the rapping of the death-watch. Thy head swims;
thy lips are cold as ice; thy visage is all changed. Alas,
poor body! I must leave thee!"
BODY.
"If my visage is changed and horrible, it is too true that
you must leave me.
"You are, then, unmindful of the past; despising your poor
friend, who is, alas! so disfigured. Likeness is the mother
of love: since you have no longer any left to me, lay me
aside."
SOUL.
"No, dearest friend, I despise you not. Of all the
Commandments, you have not broken one.
"But it is the will of God (let us bless his goodness) to put
an end to my authority and your subjection. Behold us
parted asunder by pitiless death. Behold me all alone
between heaven and earth, like the little blue dove who
flew from the ark to see if the storm was over."
BODY.
"The little blue dove came back to the ark, but you will
never return to me."
SOUL.
"Nay, truly, but I will return to thee, and solemnly promise
so to do; we shall meet again at the Day of Judgment.
"As truly shall I return to thee as I now go forth to the
particular judgment, the thought of which, alas! makes
me tremble.
"Have confidence, my friend. After the northwest wind
there falls a calm on the sea.
"I will come again and take thee by the hand; and wert
thou heavy as iron, when I shall have been in heaven, I
will draw thee to me like a loadstone."
BODY.
"When I shall be, dear Soul, stretched in the tomb, and
destroyed in the earth by corruption;
"When I shall have neither finger nor hand, nor foot nor
arm, in vain will you try to raise me to you."
SOUL.
"He who created the world without model or matter has
power to restore thee to thy first form.
"He who knew thee when thou wast not shall find thee
where thou wilt not be!
"As truly shall we meet again as that I now go before the
terrible tribunal, at the thought whereof I tremble,
"Feeble and frail as a leaf in the autumn wind."

God hears the Soul, and hastens to answer it saying,


Courage, poor Soul, thou shalt not be long in pain.
Because thou hast served me in the world, thou shalt
have part in my felicities.
And the soul, always rising, casts again a glance below,
and beholds her body lying on the funeral bier.
"Farewell, my poor body, farewell! I look back yet once
more, out of my great pity for thee."
BODY.
"Cease, then, dear Soul, cease to address me with golden
words. Dust and corruption are unworthy of pity."
SOUL.
"Saving thy favor, O my body! thou art truly worthy, even
as the earthen vessel that has held sweet perfumes."
BODY.
"Adieu, then, O my life! since thus it must be. May God
lead you to the place where you desire to be.
"You will be ever awake and I sleeping in the grave. Keep
me in mind, and hasten your return.
"But tell me, why is it thus that you are so gay and glad at
leaving me, and yet I am so sad?"
SOUL.
"I have so exchanged thorns for roses, and gall for
sweetest honey."
Then, joyous as a lark, the soul mounts, mounts, mounts,
ever upwards towards heaven. When she reaches heaven,
she knocks at the gate, and humbly asks my lord S. Peter
to let her enter in.
"O you, my lord S. Peter! who are so kind, will you not
receive me into the Paradise of Jesus?"
S. PETER.
"Truly thou shalt enter into the Paradise of Jesus, who,
when thou wast on earth, didst receive him into thy
dwelling."

The soul, at the moment of entering, once more turns her


head, and sees her poor body like a little mole-hill.
"Till we meet again, my body—and thanks—till we meet
again, till we meet again in the valley of Jehosaphat.
"I hear sweet harmonies I never heard before. The day
breaks, and the shadows are fled away.
"Behold, I am like a rose-tree planted by the waters of the
river of life."
This dialogue bears a remarkable resemblance to at least three
similar compositions by S. Ephrem Syrus, Deacon of Edessa, who
died A.D. 372. With the Breton poem it may not be uninteresting to
compare the following wild Northern dirge, which may be unknown
to some amongst our readers:
SCOTTISH LYKE-WAKE DIRGE.
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