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Some idea may be formed of how far M. Charrière has raised this branch of industry, when it is stated that but a few years since, the whole number of workmen occupied in this department was but 30 and now he alone employs 150!
M. d'Haussonville regards the novels of Mmes. de Charrière, de Souza, de Duras, de Boigne, as mere imitations or as having been inspired by that masterpiece of Mme. de La Fayette. He says: "In fact, novels in general, that depict the struggle between passion and duty, with the victory on the side of virtue, emanate more or less from it."
Although the progress which France has made in almost every branch of industry is most extraordinary, yet none is so striking as the advance which has been effected in cutlery, as I well remember when I first came to France, it was a common joke amongst the English, when speaking of the rarity of an object, to observe that it was as scarce as a knife in France that would cut, its appearance also was as dull as its edge, soon however their cutlery, with their ideas, began to brighten, and to sharpen; but even as recently as 1830, they were still so outshone by England, that if it was known that you were going from Paris to London, with the intention of returning, every lady asked you to bring her a pair of scissors, every man a pair of razors, and by all medical friends you were assailed to bring them over lancets or other machines for cutting and maiming human flesh; thanks to the genius, talents, and perseverance of M. Charrière, one is no longer troubled with such commissions, he having improved every description of surgical instruments to such a degree of perfection, that now many of our English surgeons provide themselves from his establishment on returning to England; not only has M. Charrière produced every variety of instrument used by our faculty, but he has invented several others, which have merited and obtained the thanks of his country, with letters and medals from several scientific societies.
I have known instances where the lives of children have been saved by this machine, the parents declaring to me that such was the case, and that they considered that every mother ought to be provided with so useful an instrument. The address of M. Charrière is No. 9, Rue de l'Ecole-de-Médecine.
There is scarcely a disease and certainly not a single operation that can be performed on the human frame, for which M. Charrière has not the requisite materials in the utmost perfection, even for the fabrication of artificial noses; and for one invention he merits the gratitude of all mothers, the biberon, a machine for the purpose of supplying an infant with milk, when circumstances prevent the mother from affording that nourishment.
But with it all he was a boor, for when he had won the favor of Madame De Stael he wrote a long letter to Madame Charriere, with whom he had lived for several years in the greatest intimacy, giving reasons why he had forsaken her, and ending with an ecstacy in praise of the Stael. If a man can do a thing more brutal than to humiliate one woman at the expense of another, I do not know it.
M. Charrière in fact possesses one quality which generally ensures success, a passion for his art; he is not to be regarded simply as a vender of cutlery, but as one possessing a scientific knowledge of his profession, and as a mechanic of considerable talent.
It was the grandmother who was bringing up the boy. She and a kind-hearted fellow, François Charrière, a sculptor, who as he said himself, was nothing of a genius, but who, however, designed models and advantageously sold them to the manufacturers of lamps in the Rue Saint-Louis au Marais. It was Charrière who, in fulfilment of a vow made to his friend Marsy, acted as guardian to the boy.
Benjamin Constant and Madame de Charrière. Some of us think Blake a great poet; but this is scarcely a general opinion, and he does not appear till the century was three parts over. Especially the most popular and voluminous if not the most important of all the periodical and the novel. The danger being of many sorts usually in the direction of various kinds of excess.
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