Introduction
This article delves into the life and aspirations of Frantz Mathéus, a respectable country doctor with a passion for metaphysics. Living in the small forest town of Graufthal, on the border of the Vosges and Alsace, Mathéus embodies the curious type of old-fashioned doctor, deeply rooted in German scholarship.
The Life of a Country Doctor
Maître Frantz Mathéus inherited the oldest house in the hamlet, an orchard, several greenhouses on the mountain, and a few acres of meadows in the valley. His modest wealth, supplemented by eggs, milk, cheese, and the occasional chicken from grateful peasants, was sufficient for his needs, his old servant Martha, and his horse Bruno.
A Passion for Metaphysics
Maître Frantz was a curious type of old-fashioned doctor, deeply rooted in the German tradition of doctores medicinæ, theologiæ on philosophiæ. His face reflected serenity and kindness. His dominant passion was metaphysics. He enjoyed reading Candide or A Sentimental Journey, but even more so, meditating on Baruch Spinoza's Tractatus theologico-politicus or Leibnitz's Monadology. He also conducted physics and chemistry experiments for recreation.
The Spontaneous Generation Theory
One day, after placing ergot rye flour in a bottle of water, he noticed that small eels had appeared after a month or two, which soon produced many others. Mathéus, thrilled by this discovery, concluded that if eels could be made from rye flour, humans could be made from wheat flour.
However, after further reflection, the learned doctor thought that this transformation must occur slowly and progressively: eels were born from rye, other fish of all kinds from eels, reptiles from these fish, quadrupeds, birds; and so on, up to and including man, all by virtue of the law of progress. He called this progression the scale of beings.
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The "Palingénésie psycologico-anthropo-zoologique"
Because Maître Frantz had studied Greek, Latin, and several other languages, he began composing a magnificent sixteen-volume work entitled Palingénésie psycologico-anthropo-zoologique, explaining spontaneous creation, the transformation of bodies, and the perigrination of souls, citing Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva, Isis and Osiris, Thales of Miletus, Heraclitus, Democritus, and all cosmological philosophers, ancient and modern.
He sent copies to German universities, and surprisingly, many philosophers adopted his system. He was awarded the titles of corresponding member of the Prague Surgical Institute, the Royal Society of Sciences of Göttingen, and veterinary advisor to the stud farms of Würzburg.
The Limits of Ambition
Encouraged by these illustrious endorsements, Mathéus resolved to produce a second edition of his Palingénésie, enriched with Hebrew and Syriac notes to clarify the text. However, his old servant, a woman of great wisdom, pointed out that this glorious undertaking was already costing him half of his fortune and that he would be forced to sell his house, orchard, and meadows to print the Syriac notes. She begged him to think a little more about earthly things and to moderate his anthropo-zoological zeal.
These judicious considerations greatly upset Maître Frantz, but he could not hide from himself that the good woman was right; he sighed deeply and locked his aspirations for glory in his heart.
A Return to Routine
All of this had happened long ago; Mathéus had resumed his normal life: riding out early in the morning to visit his patients; returning late, exhausted; and in the evening, instead of locking himself in his library, going down to the garden to prune his vines, deworm his trees, and weed his lettuce. After supper, Jean-Claude Wachtmann, the schoolmaster, Christian, the game warden, and a few gossips from the neighborhood would arrive with their spinning wheels. They sat around the table, talking about the rain and the weather, Mathéus talked about his patients, and then they went to bed quietly at night, only to start again the next day.
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The Unfulfilled Vocation
But this peaceful existence could not console Maître Frantz for having missed his calling; often, on his distant journeys, alone in the woods, he reproached himself for his fatal inaction. "Frantz," he said to himself, "your place is not in Graufthal; all those whom the Being of beings has made custodians of the treasures of science owe themselves to humanity. What will you answer, Frantz, to this great Being, when the hour of reckoning comes and he says to you in a thunderous voice: 'Frantz Mathéus, I endowed you with the most magnificent intelligence, I revealed to you things divine and human, I destined you, from the beginning of the ages, to spread the light of sound philosophy. Where are your works? In vain would you try to excuse yourself on the necessity of caring for your patients; these vulgar duties were not made for you; others would have fulfilled them in your place. Go, Frantz, go, you were not worthy of the trust I had placed in you, I condemn you to descend again in the scale of beings!'"
Sometimes the good man even woke up in the middle of the night, exclaiming: "Frantz! Frantz! you are very guilty!" His old servant would rush in, terrified: "What is happening, my God!" "It's nothing, it's nothing," Mathéus would reply; "I just had a bad dream."
A Chance Encounter
This moral state of the illustrious doctor could not last forever; the compression of his metaphysical tendencies was too strong. One evening, as he was returning to the village along the banks of the Zinsel, he met one of those peddlers of bibles and almanacs who penetrate even the high mountains to sell their wares. Maître Frantz had never lost his taste for books; he dismounted and inquired about the books the peddler was selling. By the greatest of chances, the peddler possessed a copy of the Anthropo-zoologie, which he had been unable to get rid of for fifteen years, and seeing Mathéus consider this work with a paternal love, he did not fail to tell him that this was all that was being sold, that everyone wanted to read this book, that it was no longer being made, and that it was becoming rarer every day, because of the demand.
Maître Frantz's heart beat strongly, his hand trembled, "O great Demiurge! great Demiurge!" he murmured, "it is here that I recognize your infinite wisdom: through the mouths of the simple, you recall the wise to their duties!"
The Resolution to Preach
On returning to Graufthal, Maître Frantz was in a state of extreme agitation; he went back and forth at random, a host of incoherent ideas pressing in his mind: Should he sit in Göttingen? Should he go to Prague? Should he reprint the Palingénésie with new notes? Or should he apostrophize the century on its indifference in anthropo-zoological matters? All of this tormented him, moved him; but these means seemed too long to him, and his impatience no longer allowing any delay, he resolved to follow the example of the ancient prophets and to go himself to preach his doctrine in the universe.
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The Eve of Saint Boniface
When Frantz Mathéus had made the generous resolution to enlighten the world with his light, a strange, indefinable calm descended into his soul. It was the eve of Saint Boniface, around six o'clock in the evening; a splendid sun illuminated the valley of Graufthal and cut out against the clear sky the motionless arrows of the tall fir trees.
The good man was sitting in the antique armchair of his fathers, near the small leaded window; his eyes roamed over the silent hamlet and extended around the vaporous mountains. The peasants were mowing the grass on the shady edge of the forests; the women and old Martha herself, armed with their rakes, turned the hay while singing the old songs of the country. The Zinsel murmured softly in its bed of reeds; a vague humming filled the air; long lines of ducks went up the river and sometimes threw their nasal cries through the space; the hens slept in the shade of the walls, on the sticks of the carts, among the harrows, the plows and the gear of the plowing; some chubby children dragged themselves and played on the threshold of the thatched cottages, and the guard dogs, their muzzles between their paws, yielded themselves to the overwhelming ardor of the day.
The Pain of Leaving
This calm spectacle imperceptibly moved Mathéus's heart; silent tears wet his venerable cheeks; he took his head already graying between his hands, and his elbows on the edge of the window, he began to sob like a child. A host of endearing memories presented themselves to his memory: this rustic dwelling, asylum of his father; this small garden, whose trees he had cultivated and sown the smallest plants; these old oak furniture, browned by time, all reminded him of his peaceful happiness, his habits; his friends, his childhood, and one would have said that each of these inanimate objects took a touching voice to implore him not to leave them, to reproach him for his ingratitude and to pity him in advance for his isolation in the world.
And the heart of Frantz Mathéus was the echo of all these voices, and new tears, at each memory, overflowed more abundantly from his eyes. Then, when he thought of this poor hamlet of which he was in a way the unique providence; when he looked through his tears at each of these small doors where he had stopped so many times to give consolations, to distribute help and relieve human suffering; when he remembered all the hands that had pressed his, all the looks of affection and love that had blessed him, then he remained as if overwhelmed by the weight of his resolution and dared not think of the hour of departure.
"What will Christian Schmitt say, he thought, he whose wife I saved from a cruel disease, and who does not know how to show me his gratitude? What will Jacob Zimmer say, whom I preserved from ruin, when he no longer had a poor farthing to rebuild his barn? What will old Martha say, she who cares for me like a tender mother, who brings me my coffee with cream every morning, who mends my breeches and stockings, and who cannot go to bed until she has covered me well and pulled the cotton cap over both ears? Poor Martha! poor, poor good old Martha! only yesterday she was knitting me warm socks, and setting aside the dozen new shirts she spun for me with her own hands! And what will Georges Brenner say, who brought me, fifteen days ago, wood for the coming winter, out of affection, the brave man, for he would receive nothing! Yes! what will Georges Brenner say when he learns that his wood will be burned by another? He will get angry, he is a man of the canine race, who does not understand reason and who will never let me leave."
Such were the reflections of Frantz Mathéus, and if his resolution had not been firm, unshakeable, so many obstacles would have broken his courage. But as the sun inclined towards the Falberg and the coolness of the night spread in the valley, he felt the calm and serenity return in his soul; his eyes rose to the sky with love, the last rays of twilight illuminated his inspired forehead; one would have said that he was praying in silence: Frantz Mathéus dreamed of the incalculable consequences of his system for the happiness of future races, and the arrival of Martha alone was able to interrupt the course of his sublime meditations.
He heard his old servant enter the kitchen, put her rake in the corner of the door and take the dishes to prepare supper. These sounds familiar to his ear, Martha's steps which he would have recognized among a thousand, the rumors of the hamlet, the song of the haymakers and mowers who returned joyfully to their homes, the small windows which lit up one by one, all this still moved the good man : he dared not move from his seat; his hands joined, his head bowed, he collected with tenderness these confused noises: "Listen to these friendly voices, he said to himself, for perhaps you will never hear them again! never!."
The Difficult Conversation
Suddenly Martha opened the door; she could not see her master and asked: "Are you there, Monsieur le docteur - Yes, Martha, I am there, replied Mathéus in a trembling voice. -My God, Monsieur, how can you thus remain in the darkness? I run to look for light. -It is useless, I prefer to speak to you thus. I prefer to tell you. Come. Listen to me!"
Mathéus could not utter another word, his heart beat strongly; he thought: "If I saw her face when I tell her. what I have to tell her. it would cause me too much pain" Martha felt from the doctor's accent that she was going to learn some dire news, her knees buckled. "Monsieur le docteur, she said, what is the matter with you? your voice trembles! -It's nothing. it's nothing, my good, my dear Martha. it's nothing. Sit down there. near me; I must tell you. " But the words expired again on his lips. After a few moments of silence, he resumed: "You will not be angry with me. it will not be necessary to be angry with me. " The old servant, in great anxiety, ran to find the lamp; when she returned, she saw Mathéus pale as death. "Monsieur, she exclaimed, you are sick, you are suffering, I see it well. "
Convincing Martha
But the illustrious doctor had had time to gather his thoughts; a luminous idea had just struck his mind: "If I succeed in convincing Martha, all will be well, and this will clearly prove that the whole of humanity could not resist the eloquence of Frantz Mathéus. " Full of this conviction, he rose. "Martha, he said, look at me well …
tags: #crèche #les #myrtilles #poissy #avis