INTRODUCTION V

cscapes them. The common people are more sane; love is with them an incident in life, not the whole of life. The English, he continues, hâve grasped this fact, and so has Victor Hugo in Les Misérables,

Bazin ad vocates a novel which shall hâve two fundamental characteristics : it must first of ail be éducative. By this he does not mean that it shall hâve a distinctively moral tendency, but it must, at least, recreate the soûl by bringing before it visions of beauty, and it must lighten the burden of life. Such a work fulfils its whole destiny when it makes man better, when it leads him to valor, to sacrifice and to God. It must never debase man. The naturalistic novel does not and cannot meet this demand.

In the second place, ail literature that would merit the name "popular" must be inspirçd by genuine love of the common people, not by half contemptuous pity or by haughty condescension. In ail his Works, Bazin acts consistently upon this principle. His earlier novels are perhaps too rose-colored, but his later ones show deep sympathy intelligently directed.

His first novel, Ma Tante Giron^ passed almost unnoticed. It found, however, at least one reader capable of appreciating it in the person of Ludovic Halévy. Halévy was not acquainted with Bazin, but he was so impressed with the purity and freshness of the story that he urged the editor of the youmal des Débats to engage Bazin as a contributor. The latter joined the staff of t\it /outnal in 1887, and has ever since written for that paper and for the Correspondant*