anted tact to appreciate the "fine shades" of Barbizonian etiquette.
And, once they were condemned, the process of extrusion was ruthless in
its cruelty; after one evening with the formidable Bodmer, the Bailly of
our commonwealth, the erring stranger was beheld no more; he rose
exceeding early the next day, and the first coach conveyed him from the
scene of his discomfiture. These sentences of banishment were never, in
my knowledge, delivered against an artist; such would, I believe, have
been illegal; but the odd and pleasant fact is this, that they were
never needed. Painters, sculptors, writers, singers, I have seen all of
these in Barbizon; and some were sulky, and some blatant and inane; but
one and all entered at once into the spirit of the association. This
singular society is purely French, a creature of French virtues, and
possibly of French defects. It cannot be imitated by the English. The
roughness, the impatience, the more obvious selfishness, and even the
more ardent friendships of the Anglo-Saxon, speedily dismember such a
commonwealth. But this random gathering of young French painters, with
neither apparatus nor parade of government, yet kept the life of the
place upon a certain footing, insensibly imposed their etiquette upon
the docile, and by caustic speech enforced their edicts against the
unwelcome. To think of it is to wonder the more at the strange failure
of their race upon the larger theatre. This inbred civility--to use the
word in its completest meaning--this natural and facile adjustment of
contending liberties, seems all that is required to make a governable
nation and a just and prosperous country.

Our society, thus purged and guarded, was full of high spirits, of
laughter, and of the initiative of youth. The few elder men who joined
us were still young at heart, and took the key from their companions. We
returned from long stations in the fortifying air, our blood renewed by
the sunshine, our spirits refreshed by the silence of the forest; the
Babel of loud voices sounded good; we fell to eat and play like the
natural man; and in the high inn chamber, panelled with indifferent
pictures and lit by candles guttering in the night air, the talk and
laughter sounded far into the night. It was a good place and a good life
for any naturally-minded youth; better yet for the student of painting,
and perhaps best of all for the student of letters. He, too, was
saturated in this atmosphere of style