stics in order to leave unhampered whatever his
work may contain that is powerful and imperishable.

Alfred de Vigny alone, of the poets of his day, in his 'Colere de
Samson', has risen to a just appreciation of woman and of love; his
ideal is grand and tragic, it is true, and reminds one of that gloomy
passage in Ecclesiastes which says: "Woman is more bitter than death,
and her arms are like chains."

It is by this character of universality, of which all his writings show
striking evidence, that Alfred de Vigny is assured of immortality. A
heedless generation neglected him because it preferred to seek subjects
in strong contrast to life of its own time. But that which was not
appreciated by his contemporaries will be welcomed by posterity. And
when, in French literature, there shall remain of true romanticism only
a slight trace and the memory of a few great names, the author of the
'Destinees' will still find an echo in all hearts.

No writer, no matter how gifted, immortalizes himself unless he has
crystallized into expressive and original phrase the eternal sentiments
and yearnings of the human heart. "A man does not deserve the name of
poet unless he can express personal feeling and emotion, and only that
man is worthy to be called a poet who knows how to assimilate the varied
emotions of mankind." If this fine phrase of Goethe's is true, if true
poetry is only that which implies a mastery of spiritual things as well
as of human emotion, Alfred de Vigny is assuredly one of our greatest
poets, for none so well as he has realized a complete vision of the
universe, no one has brought before the world with more boldness the
problem of the soul and that of humanity. Under the title of poet he
belongs not only to our national literature, but occupies a distinctive
place in the world of intellect, with Lucretius, Dante, and Goethe,
among those inspired beings who transmit throughout succeeding centuries
the light of reason and the traditions of the loftiest poetic thought.

Alfred de Vigny was elected to a chair in the French Academy in 1846 and
died at Paris, September 17, 1863.

GASTON BOISSIER
Secretaire Perpetuel de l'Academie Francaise.

TRUTH IN ART

The study of social progress is to-day not less needed in literature
than is the analysis of the human heart. We live in an age of universal
investigation, and of exploration of the sources of all movements.
France, for example