ere a diatribe against
Voltaire, and as for Rousseau, his characters are polemics and systems
masquerading. Julie and Claire are entelechies--informing spirit
awaiting flesh and bones.

"You might slip off on a side issue at this, and say that we owe a
new and original literature to the Peace and the Restoration of the
Bourbons, for you are writing for a Right Centre paper.

"Scoff at Founders of Systems. And cry with a glow of fine enthusiasm,
'Here are errors and misleading statements in abundance in our
contemporary's work, and to what end? To depreciate a fine work, to
deceive the public, and to arrive at this conclusion--"A book that
sells, does not sell."' _Proh pudor_! (Mind you put _Proh pudor_! 'tis
a harmless expletive that stimulates the reader's interest.) Foresee the
approaching decadence of criticism, in fact. Moral--'There is but one
kind of literature, the literature which aims to please. Nathan has
started upon a new way; he understands his epoch and fulfils the
requirements of his age--the demand for drama, the natural demand of a
century in which the political stage has become a permanent puppet show.
Have we not seen four dramas in a score of years--the Revolution,
the Directory, the Empire, and the Restoration?' With that, wallow in
dithyramb and eulogy, and the second edition shall vanish like smoke.
This is the way to do it. Next Saturday put a review in our magazine,
and sign it 'de Rubempre,' out in full.

"In that final article say that 'fine work always brings about abundant
controversy. This week such and such a paper contained such and such an
article on Nathan's book, and such another paper made a vigorous reply.'
Then you criticise the critics 'C' and 'L'; pay me a passing compliment
on the first article in the _Debats_, and end by averring that Nathan's
work is the great book of the epoch; which is all as if you said nothing
at all; they say the same of everything that comes out.

"And so," continued Blondet, "you will have made four hundred francs in
a week, to say nothing of the pleasure of now and again saying what you
really think. A discerning public will maintain that either C or L or
Rubempre is in the right of it, or mayhap all the three. Mythology,
beyond doubt one of the grandest inventions of the human brain, places
Truth at the bottom of a well; and what are we to do without buckets?
You will have supplied the public with three for one. There you are, my
boy, Go ahead!"