PRESENT PROBLEMS IN ROMANCE LITERATURE 467 



from the year 1803 to our days, no men, no women have ever been 

 more patriotic Americans. Whatever was the native land of our 

 forefathers, however much we wish to preserve our family traditions, 

 we are all in this country sincerely attached to the American system 

 of government, to our American political institutions, which are 

 based on the Anglo-Saxon principles of individual liberty, upon which 

 Washington and his collaborators founded our American Repub- 

 lic. I hope that my colleagues at this Congress will pardon this 

 apparent digression from my subject, but as I speak before a cos- 

 mopolitan audience, I wish to be thoroughly understood when I say 

 that a native American may work with enthusiasm for the de- 

 velopment and diffusion of the Romance literatures in the United 

 States, and yet remain entirely loyal to the Constitution of the 

 United States. 



One word more on this part of my theme, and I shall pass to another 

 phase of it. One of the most important influences in America for the 

 study of an interesting Romance literature and for its production 

 is the Federation of "PAlliance francaise" in the United States, 

 founded in 1902 by Mr. James H. Hyde. The Association has been 

 very successful, and comprises societies in all parts of the U/nion and 

 25,000 members. Many college French circles arc affiliated with the 

 Federation, and the continued success of this large organization will 

 contribute to solve the important problem of how to encourage 

 the study of the French language and literature in the United States. 

 Is it not possible to establish Spanish and Italian societies, like the 

 Federation of "1'Alliance francaise," to bring together the different 

 Spanish and Italian groups scattered over the United States, or 

 may not the example of the Federation be followed in Mexico and in 

 South America? Nothing certainly would be more beneficial to the 

 development of the Romance literatures on the whole American 

 continent. 



In studying the problems in modern French literature I cannot 

 do any better than to base some of my remarks on the very important 

 article published by M. Gustave Lanson, in August. 1900, in the 

 Revue dc Synthcsc Historique. Many of these problems would pre- 

 sent themselves to any careful student of French literature, but 

 M. Lanson has stated them with such clearness and with such 

 a scientific method that I shall follow to some extent his pre- 

 sentation of problems which I have often mentioned in my own 

 teaching of French literature, but with far less scientific accuracy. 

 M. Lanson is highly endowed with I'cxjirtt tun'r< rsitaire. 



The historical method should be applied to literary criticism, that 

 is to say, the biography of the author and the history and ana- 

 lysis of his works should be studied simultaneously, and not as if 

 the one was independent of the other. The works form part of the 



