470 ROMANCE LITERATURE 



second volume of his History of France, presents to us a striking 

 tableau of the characteristics of each of the provinces, and gives 

 an admirable explanation of the influence of local causes, of topo- 

 graphy and geography, on the genius of a nation and of a man. 

 Great social and historical forces were at work at different epochs 

 in the different provinces of France, Spain, and Italy, and the Ro- 

 mance literatures and civilizations are the result of all these forces. 

 I wish to mention here as a model of complete and accurate bio- 

 graphy the work on Honor at de Bueil, Seigneur de Racan, by Pro- 

 fessor Louis Arnould, of the University of Poitiers. Several works 

 of this kind have been published lately by laborious and distin- 

 guished scholars. 



Just as historical legends are destroyed by our modern historians 

 who base their statement of facts upon well-authenticated documents, 

 so are legends in literary history destroyed by modern critics, whose 

 methods are scientific and exact. Let not criticism, however, be- 

 entirely mathematical, let the critic appreciate always the aesthetic 

 element in literature. Like the historian of political events, he should 

 be accurate and yet understand the interest, the poetry, always 

 inherent in humanity. If the artistic element in a literary work is 

 to be destroyed by criticism, then, in my opinion, that criticism is 

 false. As an example of useless, and, I may say, of harmful minute- 

 ness in criticism, I may mention one of the discoveries of a modern 

 iconoclast. I read, sometime ago. in a French magazine that M. 

 Edmond Eire had proved that Graziella was the daughter of a shoe- 

 maker, arid consequently that the incidents of Lamartine's excursion 

 to the Isle of Procida wore all invented by the great poet. It was 

 well known that the Confidences and Raphael were not accurate 

 autobiographies, and that their value consisted in the knowledge 

 which they gave us of the feelings of Larnartine, of his ('tat d'am< . 

 at certain periods of his life. Of what interest, therefore, is it to us 

 to know who was Graziclla? The charming girl created by Lamar- 

 tine is much more interesting and real than the .shoemaker's daugh- 

 ter discovered by M. Bin'. The former makes us understand the 

 poet's feelings much better than the latter. In our studies of the 

 Romance literatures let us endeavor to discover all erroneous state- 

 ments made by writers, but let us tise our judgment with regard 

 to publishing discoveries which are useless to our knowledge of men 

 and of works, and which may, in some degree, destroy the poetic- 

 illusions of the readers of the works. When M. Birc, however, proves 

 to us that it Avas materially impossible for Chateaubriand to have 

 visited the countries Avhich he describes in his Voyaycs en Ai)it'rique 

 and in his Munoircs d'Outre-tombe, he does a useful Avork, bec-ause he 

 discoA'ers the sources from Avhich Chateaubriand has drawn his 

 descriptions. 



