be said, "It cannot be better
done," but there may be--in fact there is nearly sure to be--something
in the individual taste of each reader which will make the appeal of one
to his heart, if not to his head, more intimate and welcome. That has
nothing to do with their general literary value, which in each case is
consummate. And happy are those who can appreciate both.

Consummateness, in the various kinds, is, indeed, the mark of Merimee's
stories. The variety is greater than in those of Gautier, because, just
as "Theo" had the advantage of Prosper in point of poetry, he had a
certain disadvantage in point of range of intellect, or, to prevent
mistake, let us say interest--which perhaps is only another _tropos_ (as
the Greeks would have said and as the chemists in a very limited sense
do say after them) of the same thing. Beauty was Gautier's only idol;
Merimee had more of a pantheon.

[Sidenote: _Colomba._]

As to _Colomba_ compared with _Carmen_, there is, I believe, a sort of
sectarianism among Prosperites. I hope I am, as always, catholic. I do
not know that, in the terms of classical scholarship, it is "castigated"
to the same extent as its rival in point of superfluities. Not that I
wish anything away from it; but I think a few things might be away
without loss--which is not the case with _Carmen_. Yet, on the other
hand, the danger of the type seems to me more completely avoided.[223]
At any rate, my admiration for the book is not in any way bribed by that
Rossetti portrait of a Corsican lady to which I have referred above. For
though she certainly _is_ Colomba, I never saw the face till
years--almost decades--after I knew the story.

[Sidenote: Its smaller companions--_Mateo Falcone_, etc.]

But of the smaller tales which usually accompany her, who shall
exaggerate the praise? _Mateo Falcone_, that modern Roman father (by the
way, there is said to be more Roman blood in Corsica than in any part of
the mainland of Italy, and the portrait above mentioned is almost pure
Faustina), is another of those things which are _a prendre ou a
laisser_. It could not, again, be better done; and if any one will
compare it with the somewhat similar anecdote of lynch-law in Balzac's
_Les Chouans_, he ought to recognise the fact--good as that also is.
_Les Ames du Purgatoire_ is also "first choice." Of what may be called
the satellites of the great _Don Juan_ story--satellites with a nebula
instead of a planet for their cen