'To study man as he is, not man the metaphysical puppet but
physiological man, whose nature is determined by his surroundings,
and to show all his organism in full play. That's my idea! Is it not
farcical that some should constantly and exclusively study the functions
of the brain on the pretext that the brain alone is the noble part of
our organism? Thought, thought, confound it all! thought is the product
of the whole body. Let them try to make a brain think by itself alone;
see what becomes of the nobleness of the brain when the stomach is
ailing! No, no, it's idiotic; there is no philosophy nor science in
it! We are positivists, evolutionists, and yet we are to stick to the
literary lay-figures of classic times, and continue disentangling the
tangled locks of pure reason! He who says psychologist says traitor to
truth. Besides, psychology, physiology, it all signifies nothing. The
one has become blended with the other, and both are but one nowadays,
the mechanism of man leading to the sum total of his functions. Ah, the
formula is there, our modern revolution has no other basis; it means the
certain death of old society, the birth of a new one, and necessarily
the upspringing of a new art in a new soil. Yes, people will see what
literature will sprout forth for the coming century of science and
democracy.'

His cry uprose and was lost in the immense vault of heaven. Not a breath
stirred; there was nought but the silent ripple of the river past the
willows. And Sandoz turned abruptly towards his companion, and said to
him, face to face:

'So I have found what I wanted for myself. Oh, it isn't much, a little
corner of study only, but one that should be sufficient for a man's
life, even when his ambition is over-vast. I am going to take a family,
and I shall study its members, one by one, whence they come, whither
they go, how they re-act one upon another--in short, I shall have
mankind in a small compass, the way in which mankind grows and behaves.
On the other hand, I shall set my men and women in some given period
of history, which will provide me with the necessary surroundings and
circumstances,--you understand, eh? a series of books, fifteen, twenty
books, episodes that will cling together, although each will have a
separate framework, a series of novels with which I shall be able to
build myself a house for my old days, if they don't crush me!'

He fell on his back again, spread out his arms on the grass, as i