182 INDOOR STUDIES 



He illustrates in his field excesses and violences as 

 great as those which have marked the history of 

 the French people. His offenses against good taste, 

 against one's sense of fitness and proportion, are, in 

 their way, on a par with the monstrous doings of 

 the French Kevolution. The writer shocks one's 

 artistic perceptions, as the people shock one's reason 

 and humanity. And in both cases it was rehellion 

 run mad. The revolt of the people against the 

 authority of the state and of the priests became 

 frenzy, and the revolt of Hugo against the classic 

 standards became rodomontade. He was a roman- 

 ticist, which he construed to mean just the contrary 

 of the classicist. One law of Greek art and of 

 Greek life was, nothing in excess, — a wise measure 

 in all things; therefore Hugo piles on the agony: 

 the classic authors were calm, they avoided every- 

 thing sensational, all undue emphasis; therefore 

 will Hugo rave and be sensational: they cultivated 

 a sobriety and temperance which instinctively 

 avoided everything that was calculated to weaken 

 an impression; therefore does the Frenchman give 

 free reign to his rhetoric and ride roughshod over 

 all such tame consideration. Kelevancy, harmony 

 of parts, unity of impression, — these are some of 

 the excellences of the classics; but "Les Mis^ra- 

 bles," with all its power and effectiveness, is like 

 a man with elephantiasis in some of his members. 

 When about a third of it is cut away the story has 

 some unity. Where the classics are dramatic, Hugo 

 is melodramatic, — note Gilliat in " The Toilers " 



