uit
la terre . . ." It was true. The earth had for him a compelling charm.
He looks upon her august and furrowed face with the fierce insight of
real passion. His is the power of detecting the one immutable quality
that matters in the changing aspects of nature and under the
ever-shifting surface of life. To say that he could not embrace in his
glance all its magnificence and all its misery is only to say that he was
human. He lays claim to nothing that his matchless vision has not made
his own. This creative artist has the true imagination; he never
condescends to invent anything; he sets up no empty pretences. And he
stoops to no littleness in his art--least of all to the miserable vanity
of a catching phrase.

ANATOLE FRANCE--1904

I.--"CRAINQUEBILLE"

The latest volume of M. Anatole France purports, by the declaration of
its title-page, to contain several profitable narratives. The story of
Crainquebille's encounter with human justice stands at the head of them;
a tale of a well-bestowed charity closes the book with the touch of
playful irony characteristic of the writer on whom the most distinguished
amongst his literary countrymen have conferred the rank of Prince of
Prose.

Never has a dignity been better borne. M. Anatole France is a good
prince. He knows nothing of tyranny but much of compassion. The
detachment of his mind from common errors and current superstitions
befits the exalted rank he holds in the Commonwealth of Literature. It
is just to suppose that the clamour of the tribes in the forum had little
to do with his elevation. Their elect are of another stamp. They are
such as their need of precipitate action requires. He is the Elect of
the Senate--the Senate of Letters--whose Conscript Fathers have
recognised him as _primus inter pares_; a post of pure honour and of no
privilege.

It is a good choice. First, because it is just, and next, because it is
safe. The dignity will suffer no diminution in M. Anatole France's
hands. He is worthy of a great tradition, learned in the lessons of the
past, concerned with the present, and as earnest as to the future as a
good prince should be in his public action. It is a Republican dignity.
And M. Anatole France, with his sceptical insight into an forms of
government, is a good Republican. He is indulgent to the weaknesses of
the people, and perceives that political institutions, whether contrived
by the wisdom of the few or the