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When a French peasant becomes what in rustic phraseology is called a substantial man, owning or hiring a considerable extent of land, he ceases to be called 'paysan, and is designated 'cultivateur. The very word 'peasant, as I have shown elsewhere, will, in process of time, become a survival, so steady and sure is the social upheaval of rural France.
Turn over a dictionary of French contemporary biography how often do these words come after a well-known, even distinguished, name: 'Fils d'un paysan'! The first care of our young punters was to cut willow-branches, and spread at the bottom of the boat in order to keep our feet dry.
Is it possible to believe ourselves here? Stamp and see if the ground is real!" "There is a blouse! a paysan, as in the pictures he wears the cap! he has the wooden shoes!" "It is our brother the Frenchman!" There was more nevertheless. Celestial angels, I too have been in heaven. I have been a French Canadian in Paris!
A gentleman is building his chateau, when in sinking his foundations he finds the rock like a petrified sponge but not like a sponge in this, that the galleries are artificial. A paysan lets himself down his well to clean it out, as the water is foul. He finds that in the side of the shaft is the opening of a passage; he enters, follows it, and finds a labyrinth of galleries.
Different from these was Restif de la Bretonne, who applied Rousseau's theories with less worthy aims in his Paysan perverti and Monsieur Nicolas, ou Le Coeur humain devoile. If mention is made of him here, it is because he was a pioneer in the path of realism, which Balzac was to explore more thoroughly, and because the latter undoubtedly caught some of his grosser manner.
'Le paysan, c'est l'aristocrat de l'avenir, French people say; and true enough we see every day sons of peasants like the late Paul Bert, enrolled in the professional ranks, attaining not only a respectable position, but eminence in science, literature, and art.
Reclus's Anarchist writings are: Produit de la Terre et de l'Industrie, 1885; Richesse et Misère; Évolution et Révolution, 6th ed., Paris, 1891; and À mon Frère le Paysan, Geneva, 1894.
Even Lesage, so exact in his description of all that is exterior, lacked this literary truthfulness. His Spain is a land of fancy; his Spaniards are not Spanish; Gil Blas, albeit he comes from Santillana, is a Frenchman. Marivaux was wiser in placing his Vie de Marianne and his Paysan parvenu in France.
But they, which do shew the low esteem they have of us, have the confidence to demand that we shall have a cessation on our parts, and yet they at liberty to take what they will; which is such an affront, as another cannot be devised greater. At noon home to dinner, where I find Mrs. Wood, formerly Bab. Shelden, and our Mercer, who is dressed to-day in a paysan dress, that looks mighty pretty.
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