BOURGET AND FOGAZZARO IN THEIR ATTITUDE TOWARDS MORALITY AND RELIGION BY RACHEL AUGUSTA BREATHWIT A. B., University of Illinois, 1920 THESIS Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS IN ROMANCE LANGUAGES IN THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 1921 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS THE GRADUATE SCHOOL 191 Cu UJ oo C CnJ I HEREBY RECOMMEND THAT THE THESIS PREPARED UNDER MY SUPERVISION BY. jhol Augusta IB] ENTITLED B ry r? t lntni Morality and Reli BE ACCEPTED AS FULFILLING THIS PART OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF_ ‘ ■ u ♦ In Charge of.Th Head of DepartrHent Recommendation concurred in* Committee on Final Examination* *Required for doctor’s degree but net for master’s A t Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2016 https://archive.org/details/bourgetfogazzaroOObrea 1 Table of Contents. p ac ~ G g I . Introduction. II. Bourget, the Writer III. Fogazzaro, the Writer.. IV. The Social Aspects of Morality and Religion 29 V. Conclusion..... ]_09 VI. Bibliography 2 . Bourget and Fogazzaro in their Attitude towards Morality and Religion I. Introduction Contemporary literature rill, no doubt, always exert a strong fascination. We have a curious feeling of interest which makes us wonder if this man, so important to-day, will live, if his works will he enjoyed hy the people of to-morrow. It is with just this feeling of interest that we have entered into a comparative study of two such noteworthy men as Paul Bourget and Antonio Fogazzaro. From the neighboring countries of France and Italy, we have chosen novelists whose high seriousness of purpose so obvious to all, has placed them well up in the list of modern novelists and has made them famous throughout the Western World. No novelist is ever just like a brother novelist, but from time to time we find some whose general attitude towards life marks them as kinsmen. Paul Bourget comes just after Balzac and Zola, preaching to us a renewed interest in morals and religion. At the same time, Antonio Fogaz- zaro, in violent contrast with the sensual immoral D'Annunzio, pleads for the same cause. Thus we see that in their general atti- tude they are alike. It remains for this study to show wherein they agree and wherein they differ in their more specific attitude towards life and its duties. But first it will be well to present a brief expo srf of their position in literature, their literary life and the novelistic methods of each. *7 II. Bourget, the Writer Paul Bourget (horn 1852, -still living in 1921) has been ac- cl aimed as the traditionalist leader of the psychological school of novel writers. Now Just what is meant by a traditionalist? A man or woman who advocates a return to an old regime. And in France traditionalists in politics are those who advocate a return to the old monarchical system in society, as being the only remedy for modern ills. They usually do not insist on the re-installation of a King but stress particularly a renewed, interest in class dis- tinctions; they believe that the three classes of French Society, the nobles, the bourgeois, and the peasant, should remain true to their class and not strive to mount hurriedly from their position, but gradually through the process of evolution; and secondly » they defend the supremacy of the catholic Church. Paul Bourget is so decidedly a member of this group, that he has been criticized for it, some of his critics even going so far as to point out the very definite evils of the old regime. But whether or not we believe as the traditionalists and. accept their theories does not concern our present discussion. We are simply trying to present our au- thor as he is and not as we think he should be. Even a cursory study of Bourget 9 s novels would soon convince the reader that his traditionalistic ideas are the dominating force of all his works. But, besides being a traditionalist, Bourget is a psychologist and a believer in heredity. Stendhal was his chief source of in- 1 spirai-ion in the field of psychology. In the words of A.L.Gu^rard, "Bourget* s special domain is the psychological novel. In this field his direct masters were Gustave Flaubert and Balzac, but es- 1. Five !. Tasters of French Romance, p. 193 4 pecially Henri Beyle, or Stendhal. Balzac and Flaubert were keen analysts of* individual characters or passions: but their ambition was to give a total picture of life. For Stendhal, and for Bour- get after him, psychology, instead of being one of the elements, became the chief purpose of the work". Next to preaching a moral, Bourget's main ambition seems to be the logical presentation of the psychological analysis of every thought and action of each of his characters. He even carries it so far that we feel his characters are types pulled by the strings of his mind rather than living in- dividuals. But even as types, they stand out vividly in our minds and we feel that one would have to hunt far to find a vague charac- ter in Bourget's novels. Besides being a novelist, we find that Bourjet began his lit- erary career as a poet and critic. Jean Lionnet with this meager reference to his poetry treats him as well as most other critics: H Ss jeunesse — si, par jeunesse, on entend inexperience et tatonne- ments — M. Paul Bourget l'a tout© depen see dans ses premieres P@es- ies(au temps oh, lecteur de Vigny, de Musset, de M. Sully — Prud’- hoSfcne, il rimait au bord de la mer, Georges Ancelys et Jeanne de Court iso Is ) et aussi, peut-@tre, dans quelques-unes des fantaisies comprises sous le tit re general de Pro fils Perdus . Mais, des qu*il aborda le roman, il se montra sur de son talent, vraiment msltre dans le gem-e particulier qu'il avait choisi ... et seneux comme un confesseur. " in running through the criticisms of Paul Bourget, it would be difficult to discover much more than this in regard to his ability as a poet. So also in the case of Fogazzaro, we shall see later, as Mr. Lionnet says, how his novels far overshadowed his early poetry. Bourget’s real entry into the literary world was as 1. L 1 Evolution des Id6es, V.I., p. 183 5. a critic in Essais de Psychologia Cont6Ji.-Dorc.in6 1 (1885) in which he made a name for himself over night. Let us quote here from J. Le- 1 malt re ; "Joignez que M. Paul Bourget est sans doute poete et ro fan- cier, mais est pcut-etre avant tout un critique et non pas un criti- que qui juge et qui raconte, mais un critique qui comprend et qui sent, qui s'est part iculierement applique' se repxeoenter des etats d'ame, "a les faire siens." And this is just what Bourget does in his criticism of modern authors (Stendhal, Balzac, Eurgeniev, Flau- bert, etc.) He endeavors to present the effect these authors caused on younger writers and particularly on himself and his work. Let us 2 hear what Jean Lionnet has to say about this work: " Les Essais ont une importance capitale dans 1* oeuvre de M. Paul Bourget, non seule- ment par leur haute valeur, qui permettrait de res placer entre L 'Ev - olution des lex ires de M. Brunetiere et Les Contemporains de 1,1. Jules Lemaltre mais aussi parce qu'on y trouve les renseignements les plus pre'cieux sur les conceptions, sur la mdthode, sur la nature d' esprit, enfin, de M. Paul Bourget lui-mSme." Later, Bourget showed himself equally skillful as an essayist and as a s ort-story 7/riter. His impressions of America, which he offered us 'under the title of Outre -Mer . and his impressions of Eng- land in Etudes et Portraits with the sub -title Etudes Anglaises . On his trip to America Bourget was very much surprised to find democra- cy, with its lack of class distinction, so successful in America. But he contents himself with thinking that the Americans are very different from the French and that what suits them, could never pre- vail in France. Most Americans condemn this book as being a false view of America which the rich people of Newport, New York, and Chi- cago foisted upon Mr. Bourget. Still, much of the work 1. Les Contemporains . V. 3, p. 340 2. Involution des Idses . V. 1, p. 184 t note. . 6 1 shows the keeness of an acute observer. Hark Twain made some bit- ter remarks about the work but those who have read the Jumping; Fro a know that he had little love for the French. Mr. Lemaitre in speak- ing of his Etudes Anglaises . is very favorable in his comment and sums up the idea of the book in this manner: "Tout ce qui se fait en Angleterre est, d'une facon ge^erale, exact ement le contraire de ce qui s'e fait en France." 3 All of his short stories are beautifully written, but it is as 4 a novelist that Bourget shines. M. R. de Bivasso says of him: "Far sa nature emotive, par son desir de faire oeuvre utile, non pour une elite, mais pour les masses, enfin, par temperament de createur et d'artiste, M. Bourget fut amene^ a adopter la forme du roman." All in all he has shown such fondness for the novel! stic form, that his novels now number more than forty. Most critics divide his works into two parts, the break coming with Le Disciple (1889) where he begins to show more seriousness of purpose and a more out-spoken feeling for religion; his definite conversion to Catholicism did not come, however, until 1902, with L’Stape. His early novels are full of a sensual love, an intimate portrayal of the affairs of the heart (especially of women and boudoirs) which is not so noticeable or else%ntirely lacking in his later novels. Hr. Friedrich Kubner 1. Mark Twain and Paul Bourget (by M. O' Hell) North American review . V. 160. p. 302, and Paul Bourget on the U. S. .by 3. L. Clemens, V. 160, p. 45 2. Les Contemporains . V. 9, p. 292 5. Of his short stories Le Saint (1390) is probably the best known. This charming character portrayal of an old Italian Monk can be found translated into English in The Chaht auquan . ( V . 42, pp. 350- 360, Dec. 1905) 4. L , Unite / d'une Pensee . p. 59 gives a very concise and exact resume"" of Bourget' s leading novels, "Sein erster umfanglicher Roman Un Crime d ' Amour (1886) ist un di- agnostic minutieux d'une malaiie de 1 'ame. In Andre 1 " Cornel is (1883) ist da Ziel des Autors, une planche d'anatomie morale getreu dem augenblicklichen Stand der Psychoiogie zu liefern. Le Disciple (1889) ist die monographic eines merkwurdigen "Falles" und in ihrer Ausfiihrungs-weise die rigorose Erfullung obiger Taine-gola ' sober Satzungen. in Cosmoiolis (1892) kam es Bourget iarauf an, im Hin- und Wiierspiele der Personen uni Ereignisse ein unverriickbares Ge- setz waltend zu zeigen: Cette loi, dans le present livre, est la permanence de la race. Auch La Terre Promise (1892) musz als Ex- periment alroman anizesprochen werden. Will er doch eine Illustra- tion sein zu dem soziologisch-psyehologischen Problem: Jusqu' & quel point le fait d' avoir donne / volontairement la vie a un autre etre nous engage-t-il envers cet etre? Dans quelle me sure notre person— naiite / est-elle oblige 7 ' i'abdiquer 1 'independence de son developpe- ment devant cette existence nouvelle. La Duchesse Bleue (18#8) war sis une e'tude de la vie intellectuelle geplant und so lit e die Wech- selv/irkunr dreier gegensSt zlicher Kunstlerseelen Untersuchen. L * Et ape (1902) bestrebt sich, willkurlich experiment irend, gewisse Kulturumw&lzungen in Frank reich zu erklaren und zu beeinflussen. in Le ? ant feme (1901) hat sich der Autor verurteilt 'a 1 'analyse d'une si lamentable aberration morale; il lui faudra etudier et montrer une anomalie d'ame si criminellement pathologique. . . . Un Divorce (1904) und L 'Emigre (1907) sind wiederuzn Beitrage zu gewissen dringenden Lebensfragen des modernen Frankreich. Den Komplex sein- er Romane bestimmt Bourget selbst als une suite de monographies, des notes plus ou moins lie'es sur quelques etats de 1 1 ame contempo- i. Paul Bourget als Psycholog , PP. 6-7. . ' . raine." And all of* Bourget ’ s novels which have appeared since 1900, Le Sens de la Mort , Lazarin e, ( 1917 Nemesis , (1918), Laurence Al - bani (1919), Un Divorce (1904). Une Goeur de femme (1920), iin Drame 1 . dans le nonde (1921) etc,, have given us notes on..."etats de 1 ame contempo raine. " The present stud” will deal mainly with L * Et ep e L 'Emigre , Un Divorce and two of the dramas. For in these later years Bourget has also turned his hand to drama writing and has suceeded very well. Most of this work has teen done in conjunction with other dramatists as Mr. Curey, and Bourget h n s been accused of taking unto himself too much credit for these works. Un Cas de Conscience , Un Divorce , (dramatized), Le Tribun and La Barricade are his chief dramatic works. The last named caused a storm of protest from the labor unions, for it is a very definite protest against strikes. Mr. Bourget has replied to his critics in a preface printed with the text of this work. Now, let us look back and see just what influence Mr. Bourget's life or character may have had on his works. There seem to be three very definite influences, his love for luxury, his love and admira- tion for the aristocracy, and his cosmopolitanism. His father planned for him to be a teacher in the provinces and later rise to a higher position in Paris or some large town; but the youth, fas- cinated by Parisian life, could not endure the thought of such a long apprenticeship. He tutored in Paris, and began his career as a writer on the side. It seems that this hard experience filled him with a great lonzing for the good things of life. When he fin- ally became prominent in the world of letters, he set about seeking comfort and elegance. He even went so far as to be proud of call- ing himself the best cravatted man m Paris. This love for the 1. T n Revue des De ux Monde s — serially, 1921 vanities of life is found in all of his books but particularly in the early ones. He loves to give the details of a woman’s dress, of her boudoir and her drawing room. His love for the aristocracy makes him depict its position as a glorious one. Always in his private life he sought ”high society”. Many critics have laughed at this bourgeois, this great preacher of traditionalism, who be- lieved that one should not climb out of one’s class too quickly, burning his e'tanes and seeking a society hors de sa classe. Be that as it may, it is true that Bourget did love and admire the ar- istocracy and did portray it to advantage. But it is as a cosmo- politan that Bourget brings a wider import to his novels. Italy, England, and America seem the lands and peoples best known to him. He gives us some well drawn foreign characters and settings, but his chief skill lies in his all-around vision of things abroad which we see in his particularly French novels: for instance, - his use of well placed foreign expressions (which has been so gen- erally condemned by French critics). From these few details one can judfre that his life had but little real influence on his books. He strives to maintain a purely impersonal tone. But how can any writer with a thesis do that 0 And that is just what he is, a writer with a thesis. Let us quote Mr. R. Doumic on this point: M Chez lui, le recit n’est que 1 ' illustration de 1 ’- idee et chacun de ses livres a ete e'crit pour mettre en lumiere un fait general et une loi de la sensibilite. II a le sens des i&ees generales: cette tendance de 1 'esprit qui rattache un fait a la se'rie de tous ceux qui l’ont produit et voit chaque phenomene dans see causes, ce besoin de ne s’arr£ter dans la chaine des causes qu’a la plus lointaine et la plus generale." In his novels everv- 1. Portraits d’^crivains, p. 11. . 10 thins?; is subordinated to the thesis he wants to preach and always it is one of tradition. He is so obsessed with these ideas that he tries to make all actions fit them whether they are the logical result or not: as, for instance, he tries to make all the troubles of the Monneron family in L * Etape come about because they have risen too hurriedly from the peasant stage. Whereas-everyone can see that their troubles (the seduction of the daughter, the forgery by the son etc.) are the direct result of Mr. and Mrs. Monneron' s lack of personal contact with their children. But whether or not Bourget succeeds in his theses, any wise reader can draw plenty of moral truths for himself, from the material that ^ourget presents. We mav decry this fault in Bourget but we must admit that he is a consurnale artist in the matter of diction. He has that power of personality which sweeps one away; that conciseness which makes one feel the value of every stroke and hold one's breath waiting for the next turn of his logical, clear thought. Let us quote the rather censorious M. Albert Guerard, "If any of the b©oks of Paul Bourget and Maurice Barres are still read half a century after their authors' death, it will be on the strength of their purely literary style. These we have no desire to belittle. Paul Bourget and Maurice Barres are both consummate artists.... Paul Bourget conquered a distinguished rank among minor poets before he made his mark in prose; he too can be a word-painter of no little pene- tration and charm; and his prose, often pedantic, has classical qualities of coherence and vigour. Of all living writers of fic- tion, he is probably the most skilful technician; the structure of his best novels is well nisch faultless; and his worst enemies re- cognize that his psychology, albeit ponderous, obtrusive, and over- l.Five Masters of rpenoh Romance, pp. 175-6 11 systematic, is careful, subtle, often convincing, not^seldom pro- found. w Let us quote again, but from Jules Lemaitre; "son style offre les memes contras tes Qis his characters): il est mievre et il est fort; il est pedantesque et il est simple; tout glace 7 d ’ ab- stractions, roide et guinde^ et soudain gracieux et languissant, ou pie in, colore, robust e. • Il est excellent et il est, peu s'en / A faut, detestable. M Mr. Lemaitre continues in this vein illustra- ting his meaning nor by superb bits of Pourget ' s virile French and now by some barbarism, more or less striking. Many people have criticized him for his use of foreign idioms but they always fit in so well with his thought that they never seem out of place. Taken all in all, however, we should find that Bourget is a careful, clear, logical and colorful writer who sweeps one away with the vi- gour of his thought and presentation. There now remain but three or four phases of Bourget* s method for us to discuss. One is his choice of characters. In reading his books and comparing him mentally with other novel writers we may have read, we note at once the realistic reasonableness and intelligence of hie characters. One feels as though these were thinking, reasoning people awake to the world and its evils. And when unfortunate events happen to these people, they become all the more striking and realistic in their intelligent understanding. The second phase is his ability to choose and condense his in- cidents so that they all work towards a logical conclusion. There is nothing superfluous in Bourget* s novels. For a systematic per- son, a lover of the logical chain of cause and effect Bourget *s novels would, be a veritable gold mine. In this busy world of to- day such novels as his are real joy. 1. Les Contempo rains, V. 3, p. 338. 1 ?!. Then there ip his treatment of* his characters. At first, in his early novels, women were his favorite theme and he always painted them best, but in these later novels it seems his sympathies have inclined more towards the painting of men. And always in his novels, those characters who profess the creed of Truth and Justice as opposed to the Catholic religion, be they men or women, are the strongest, most virile of his characters. Take Berthe Planet and 1 M. Darras in Un Divorce . They are far superior to Pfere Euvrard and Mme. Darras. The same is true in Le TriD'irn in L Emigre arid L * Etape With the-e few remarks we hope the reader wil 1 be better able to understand M. Bourget, the writer, before we consider his work more in detail. He is a traditionalist, a psychologist, a poet, es- sayist, critic, dramatist, short-storv writer and above all a novc- 1 list with "the narrative sense” who writes with a purpose. III. Fogazzaro, the Writer. Let us now examine the position and qualifications of Antonio Fogazza.ro (1842-1911) and compare his methods with those of Bourget. We shall find some points in common and many that are in striking contrast . Antonio Fogazzaro is a romantic-realist who writes with a ser- ious moral purpose. He is a romanticist in the portrayal of the major affairs of his novels and a realist in the presentation of his sup e rabundance of details. For instance if we consider his main characters, Piero Maironi and Jeanne Dessalle in _I1 SantOj Daniel and Hlenc in Daniele Cortis, wr»anco Maironjja Piccolo Monio 1. Clayton Hamilton, A i-^nual of the Art of Fiction, PP . 49 . N. Y. , 1918 13 . flirt ioa , Leila in Leila and in -fact almost all the leaning charac- ters of* his novels, we find their actions, their ideas and the pre- sentation thereof, cast over with a hazy veil of idealistic, mystic romanticism. In their general portrayal, Fogazzaro seems to he giv- ing us the children of his mind and his struggles. Put in his de- tailed portrayal of their life and the life of his minor characters he is absolutely realistic and re feel that he h?s Known them in real life. Such a dualism of portrayal seems hardly possible. Put let us stop for a moment and consider Piero Maroni, the hero of both the Piccolo Mondo Moderno fThe pinner) and II Santa pThe Saint - ). What could be more romantic than his soul-struggle in the 1 midst of the storm, where he confounds himself with nature? And what could be more realistic than that detail of the scene with the servant— girl where he thrusts his hand into the flame of the candle 2 to conquer his sensual love ? Consider, too, Franco Maironi, that passionate lover of music and nature who pours out his soul through his beloved piano, and yet finds time to come down to earth, and build a prosaic trellis for his flowers. It is j us t this ability of Fogazzaro* s in giving fitting details which makes us feel that these characters, however dreamy and romantic they may he, really existed in flesh and blood. And many of them really did exist, as Franco Maironi who is drawn from his father* Theresa Ri- gey , drawn from his mother, Jeanne drawn from a woman he met in a mountain hotel, Elena, from a friend with whom he corresponded, and so on. Despite this feeling of reality which he throws around his characters, it is that dreamy poetic feeling so characteristic of him which dominates his novels. 1 « The saint , pp. II 3-1.22 2. The Pinner, pp. 30-36 14 . He too began his literary career as a poet, with Una Rioordanza del la go di Como , (1863) an unimportant collection of lyrics. But unlike Bourget, he never lost his poetic sense, which we have found so dominant in his novels; for he continued to write poetrv through- out. his career. His first worth-while collection of poems was en- titled Valsolda (1876) and dealt with his beloved Valsolda, near his summer home on the shore of the lake of Lugano. Just two years before this (1874), his Miranda, a Ions: narrative poem, had ap- — - • i peared with moderate success. Sofia de For'naro calls it w ...a tra- gic poem of exquisite delicacy and distinction of style, revealing a feminine sensibility; an ardent aspiration toward spiritual truth 2 and the spiritual world.” Sebastian© Rumor i s also lavish in his praise of it: "Nel 1874 comparve Miranda , una novella in versi sciolti, una meraviglia di verity, psicologia, di delic&tezza, di poesia penetrant e. Quant e anime buone e gentili non hanno palpi- tato e pianto sulla misers sorte di Miranda. w Rumor also quotes the opinion of Fogazzaro's friend and tutor, Giacomo Zanelle, on this subject: "v ‘ha tanta copia di natural! pitture verissime, tanto calore di affetti intlmi profondi, non piu espressi in poesia; tanti tocchi maestri, ehe rivelano nell'autore una plena conoscenza delle piu delicate passioni d&L cuore, ch'io porro ser>- pre il suo libro non solo al disopr# di molti sonori, ma vacui facitori di versi, ma lo terro come un fiore zrazioso della nostra 4 moderns letteratura . " Donadoni, however, was rather unfavorably impressed by Miranda and by Fogazzaro fs ability as a poet, while 1. The Critic, Italian Writers of To-day , V. 41, p. 103 2. Antonio Fogazzaro , pp. 36-37 3. Anton i o Fogazzaro , pp. 43-44 4 . Antonio Fogazzaro, pp . 8 6-88 . • • . ' . 15 . giving him full credit as a novelist. And yet Fogazzaro must have hated to give up his poetry, even though it were not so popular as Donaicni seems to think, for even as lately as 1908 he wrote two rather religious poems, "Canto dell 'angoscia e d ell 1 2 ergo ^lio " and 1 "Canto dell'umiltk e della g ioia. u Gallarati-Scotti has examined the works of Fogazzaro very carefully. Let us see what he says of / these poems: "E'che in quei canti egli metteva v er ament e , tut to st stesso:: vi riversava l 1 angoscia e la preghiera di cui era pieno il suo vecchio cuore e che nes o,, r,o piu sapevs ascoltare e compren- dere tra i suoi seguaci diieri,. Nells poesia egli trascendeva gli uomini e parlava solo a se stesso, senza vincolo alcuno, libero finalmente in quel m®ndo super lore dove non giungono gli echi delle piccole dispute che durano un giorno . ” Thus we see that opinions vary as to Fogazzaro ’s poetry and it is good or bad, according to the reader. But in general it holds no very important place. The same is true of his critical works. Perhaps the first one of this 2 sort is Per la morte di Eugenie Napoleone. Ode di Giosue carducci , August 12, 1879, to which Carducci answered in August 24, 1879. Vnd as far as we can discover this his only critical writ- ing. It is as an essayist and letter writer that he is most proli- fic, even rivaling therein Boureet's numerous progeny of novels. As contributions to periodicals and newspapers and as addresses be- fore various societies, we find any number of them. Two well-known collections of these essays are Discors i and Ascension! umane. As a letter writer, we find him throughout La Vita di Anto ruo Fo^az- 1. La Vita di Antonio Fogazzaro, p. 519 2. Burner, Antonio Fogazzaro, bibliog. , p. 100 ■ . > ' “ ! ' ,, , ' 16 . zaro by Gallarati-Scotti who was entrusted by him with much of his ■correspondence and who collected other examples from his friends 1 " For instance, we find fragments of his letters to Elena, the lady p who inspired the character of that name in Daniels Cortis . and let- ters to various people, Scotti, Bonomelli a on. Many of these letters are works of art in themselves. Fogazzaro as a short-story writer can not he said to excel these letters. He was, however, a short-story writer of t t caliber and ranks well with D’Annunzio and Matilde Serao. His two host known collections are Eedele, ed altri racconti (1387) and Idil 5 - M '-rev i . R . , "Alcune novelle, punto He dele Uu:. di Ernes Torransa . Per Una foal is — dQn Ant o . sono gioielli d’arte; piu d’una ha concetto morale sano e luminoso. Graziosissime le Eiahe per Mario , ch’egli JS « pressamente per la sua bambina Maria Malata, e prima tra guest e Hala^ari. Veri guadri dal vero, dai quali si possono trarre utili _ it o . 11 h J22: 2 ettorgole , - ^ ^ altri. In par e ^ } scriuti r: inor i il poeta ha lasciato piu libero corso alia sua vena » pi i 2 , .tine sarcasr c . Gerto non tutti guesti racconti ragmiungono la me — desima altezza* anzi ve n’ha gualcuno di poco o nessun valore. Ma guale pescatore puo vantarsi, per guanto fortunato, di non avere 4 raccolto che perle?” V/e might also glance at Gallarati-Scotti *s opinion of Eedele : ”11 volume e prii i ’ h ’or v Ha ■ ita di Antonio Yogas zaro . pw. 113-117. 6. I Lei , . 86- 17 . una raccolta varia di epoche e di spirit!, dove ace an to al buono tro viamo il mediocre e il mediocrissime. " As to Idillii Spczzat i . need say nothing, for that lovely idyll is quite well known to even first year Italian students. But let us consider Fogazzaro as a dramatist. His contribu- tion to this field was not so great, hut it is worthy of note that he even entered it. Of his first play II Gar o fan o (or garofolo) -so , he himself says "’Mandero una pillola drammatioa in dialetto: 1 1 Oar o f an o A o s s c tra il comico e il serio. A’un genere, che mi viene facilissimo e anche mi diverte le spirito inferiore ma non : ore . l " ( From a letter to Gallarat i -Scott i. IJovem- 1 2 ✓ her 9, 1901) . Let us also quote from Gii seppe Giacosa to whom the play was sent: "Giuseppe Giacosa disse a me--c ■■on fu il solo a dirlo tra i maggiori comnediograf i — che il teatr© italiano moderno non aveva nessuna pagina di un piu impress! o^ante verismo, di un verismo tutto interiore, fatt non di osservazione superficiale delle cose, ma di scienza dell’anima nella sue "onda ah i e z i one , nelle sue supreme vilta. Al sior checo Busolo rap present a nell'- ar . e fogazzariana 1 1 oppost o polo di quelle creature diaf ,ne che e~ rano salite al cielo dalla sua anima di sognatore." And yet this play was not a success on the stage. Scotti tells us very clearly y— ■*-- -■ — " no Aosso ehhe sulle scene del Teatro Manz un ito infe. ice. Il puhlico scgui i primi tre quarti del hrevis- sir o atto con Quriosits __ .one per la mirabi] dialogo , di cui ogni hattuta e un colpo di scalpello rivelator rise credendo che 1* an tore volesse solo far ridere . I,!a alia fine della scena, quando si accorse che il sorriso era solo a fior d*ae- 1* Lq litn di .mtonio Fogazzaro . n. 557. 2. Idem, p. 558. . - . . 10 qua e che sotto V’ era il torbido mondo tragic© della malvagita umana e della morte nella sua realta eruda, ebbe un brivido di ri- 1 pugnanza. Si ribello all 1 * * * 5 inganno • TT But as Scotti says:”Ma la SCO: fitta del ?mr 1. n Acrmo non lo disanimo dal ritent - e una breve as i one drammatica in cui sembra aver vo'luto aff errare il lato opposto della realta. Rendendo omaggio alia Verita egli la voile cercare , col Ritratto MacM - J o . in un cuore aq.uisitair.ente amante di donna di moglie , di credent© . M And this play, because it went the extreme on the other side, failed also. Pogazzaro's last rr play ITadcyde (or ITadejde ) was not written to be played. As Scotti A ecsere pin. tentato dal palcoseenieo, il Fogs scrisse una terza scena non rapgresentabile , per ostacoli material! posti ne 11 1 intrecc io : Iladeyde . " Phis failure of Fogazzaro as a popular playwright is significant in comparison with the success of rget ' that field. His success, however, might have been due to his collaborators, nevertheless ust turn to Fogazzaro , the nov- , bl novelist, to find his greatest suc- cess. Fogazzaro like Bour get is a novelist par excellent. Bleat very 4 censorious critic, Eugnio Bonadoni says: "Il Fogazzaro e nato ro- - f' in Miranda, dove e il* motive f oi dam tale e sono parechhi caratteri del: ed ione r tica di poi." His novels are not numerous like Bourget 1 s and can be counter) on / 5 seven fingers (unless one count Miranda a novel, as Bonadoni does). 1. Ba Vita di Antonio ^oyazzaro . p. 360. Idem, p. 361. 5. Idem, p. 364. r : - o Bc/p. z zaro , p . 8 7 . 5. Idem, p. 25. 19 . They can --Iso he divided into two groups Just as Bourget’s,, the latter group showing his increased interest in religion, "Dal pun- t o di vista del contenuto religiose, i romanzi del Fogazzaro si potrehhe dividet'e in due gruppi: un© costituito da Mir an; , ’'a" hr a » Panic le Cortis ,, Mistero del octa : nel Cortis l’idea religiosa tends a estrinsecarsi in azione political negli altri romanzi ri- mane alio stato di nehulosa mistica. II secondo gruppo sarehhe rappresentato da Piccolo Monclo Antico . Piccolo Hondo Moderno . II 1 Santo/’ and Leila . Of Miranda we have already spoken. T/e shall now consider the others in order, giving some critics’ ideas of each one. "Essa, Hal or.hr a . non e solo un opera d’arte. S’ la storia O poetica del momento piu terpestoso e sensuale della sua vita.” This hook met with only moderate success which rather disheartened Pogazzaro. "Dans Daniel Cortis (1885) oe n'est pas a la politique que l’on s’interesse, mais au heau roran d T amour que couronne, un re- 3 noncement sublime, impose par le respect du devoir;..." "IP del. Daniele Corti s e per chi lo legge senza preconcetti e non dis- turhato dalle opinioni altrui un sentimento superiore dell’amore un 4 ■ * * esaltamento dello spirit o sull’ istinto." By many people this hook is considered as Pogazzaro’s first note-worthy novel. Three years la- ter it was followed* hy a much less important work, II Mistero del Poe t a . Lo schema del Mistero del Poeta e quello di una lunsra novel- 1 la, molto sent inentale e pooo verosimile ; una autohiograf ia poetica 1. Donadoni , Antonio Fogazzaro . p. 25. 2. Scotti, La Vita di Antonio I aro , p. 82. For further informa- ahout this novel see pp. 93-98--also the hihliog, in Rumor’s Antonio Fogazzaro . • Hauvette, Henri, Litter-- ture italienne . p. 491. . Scotti, La /ita di Antonio Fogazzaro . p. 140. 20 . 1 in cui mistico raooonta le vicende del suo amore." After this Fogazzaro began work on the first of his famous trilogy, The Patri ot locolo Hondo Antico ) , The Sinner ( Piccolo Hondo Antico ) , The Saint ( II Santo ). This novel ( The Patriot ) is undoubtedly his best novel, for he painted it from life. The scene is laid in Valsolde and all his minor characters are drawn from the people he knev; there. The main characters are mostly beloved friends and relatives, Uncle Piero, Franco, Therese, and so on. The absolute realism and sym- pathetic portrayal of the details of life there, are amazing in their insight. We might almost call this an Italian Wain Street . "L'ultimo romanzo del Fogaszaro s 1 2 3 intit ola Piccolo Hondo Antico (1896), ultimo per data, ma primo per alti e profondi mtimenti religiosi ; per la verita de ' personaggi e dell 1 ambient e in cui vi- vono e si agitano; per 1’arte semplice severa, squisita con cui fu ritratt o . 11 The sequel of this novel. The Sinner . (1901), pictures the life and trials of Piero Maroni, the son of the protagonists of The Patriot . This man shows Fogazzaro's belief in heredity by combining in himself the two strikingly different characters of his mother and father. "L’analisi di Piccolo Hondo Iloderno ( The Sinner ) e 1* anal i si di una crisi d’anima del Fogazzaro. E non crediamo di ingannarci cercando nelle luci e nelle ombre anche di questo roman- 3 ze, le luci e le ombre di un’ora della sua vita." Sofia de Fornaro s in speaking of it, in " Picvsolo Hondo Tioderno . . .those deli- c eriergic o del dovere, come egli seppe intender- lo e praticarlo, nella sua laboriosa e limpida esistenza. ' " 5. Ant onio Fo -a? zero , V. 50, p. 222 6. A saint in Fiction, V. 249, P. 236 L iving Age . 24 . But let us pass now to a consideration of Fogazzaro’s life in so far as it influenced his works. There seem to have "been four main factors; his quiet home life, his study of law, his sickness, and his continual struggles with his passions. As a toy, his fa- ther planned as worthwhile career for him, the study of law. lb never appealed to the toy and he begged to be allowed to become a literary man^but his father, thinking him lacking in talent, refused. Thus Fo.gazzaro's literary work was delayed (for as an obedient son he took his law degree, ) until the age of thirty-one when he be- gan work on his poem Miranda which so pleased his father that he provided funds for its publication. Thus we see that he brought to his work a maturity unknown to many an author. As to his sickness, we are not certain just what it was ex- cept that it lasted throughout his life. It made him melancholy and unable to work for long stretches at a time. Many a hard and heavy schedule did his will power plan out, only to have it fail from his lack of physical strength. Many a morning his will-power would be urging him to arise, but his weary body craved the soft bed. Any love of luxury that he may have had is due only to this Physical weakness and to no fault of will-power. So it came about from this that his books were filled with a melancholy tinge and appeared usually many years ap°rt, for his strength neither ot — ind nor body was sufficent like that of Bourget to produce a new work every year or so. We see his quiet home life reflected in his works more per- haps than these other characteristics. He was not a cosmopolitan like Bourget and made but few trips even into neighboring European countries. Most of his knowledge of foreign lands was gained Sul cA. through a study of their literature, ^as Heine's works, Chateaubri- 25 . and's works, and works of American, French, and English writers on evolution and the Catholic church. Ke clung to his home-land, _Yal~[ solda, and it has colored most of hi^ works, as Piccolo Mondo An - t ico , Val solda , and so on. Only one of his works, II Mistero del Poeta has a foreign setting, (Germany). All the rest of his novels are laid in Italy and usually in provincial Italy; an Italy which he knew well. But as to his struggle with his passions, it is the dominant force of his life. Read bits of his diary in Scotti's Vita di An- 2 tonio vogazzaro and one can not help but be struck by the all per- vading influence of this struggle. He tells us nothing definite of the causes of his passions bujt we do know that the sensual in Fogazzero was very strong and was liable to be awakened by any charming lady. He usually, however, kept it well under control 3 and his struggles to overcome it were usually in secret. And yet these soul struggles are the very ones which offered the re*l material for his novels, for Antonio Fogazzaro’s novels arepainted from life and his own experiences* Never by anvchance » could he be called a writer with a thesis, except in jl Sa.uto which is a very successful thesis novel. The dominant experiences of his life were his struggles with his passions, therefore he has Put them in every one of his novels, unless it be Piccolo Mo ndo — An— 4 tico . Miranda , Mai ombre, Daniel e Gertie , il Miste ro del Poeta, Piccolo Mondo Moderno , I I Santo , and Leila all have it. He him- self says of Malombra,, ”Misto strano di creta, e di spinto mal tein- j 1. There is one transition setting in Belgium, in II Santo , but it is not of importance. 2. pp.172-188 3. Scotti, p.31 4. And it is not a"romance a these”, Scotti, p. 276 26 prato. Ardori dello spirito che lo portavano agli amori i&eali \ 1 piti eterei, febbri che lo portavano alls iboiezioni, Lottava." r '...il Daniels Cortis non & un romanzo a tesi. E * sempli cement e la storia di una tentazione , " says Scott i. And later on he says again, "Ha appunto perch£ il Daniele Cor tis non h un libro a tesi, ma un libro di poesia scritto a liber azione e a consolasione propria, es- so ha avuto una influenza sulle anime assai piu profonda che non l'avrebbe un romanzo di voluta finalita morale." Of all these works Piccolo Hondo Moderno is perhaps the most striking in this respect. Piero Maironi comes very near losing his struggle and at times we are amazed at the very sensual Fogazzaro we see in him. And yet don't be alarmed, for even then he could never approach the low sensuality of Bourget in even his most decent books. In 4 5 Samar ith and g-otte di Passion! . two of Fogazzaro’ s poems, is the 6 same sort of struggle. It is true of all his work what Scotti says of his poetry, "Scopriremo piu oltre , nel Fogazzaro un poeta pi& grande, quando il suo canto nascer^. dal suo torment o e dal; a sua fede e quan&o non cherchera di interpretare il linguaggio di un mondo ignoto, ma ascoltera semplicemante quello del suo cuore." Phis use of his own experiences, this painting of characters and scenes which he knew in real life, this writing without a thesis, 1. Scotti, p. 80 2. p. 136 3. Scotti, p. 140 4. Scotti, p. 248 "Questo si ho voluto esprimere, 16 angosciose al- ternative di f Or za e di debolezza che si seguono in un'anima chiamata da Ghsu e comb at tut a dalle passioni." 5. Scotti, p. 249 6. p. 161 / 27 . give to Fogazzaro' s works a living reality not to be found in those of Bourget. Bourget does give us good clear pictures of his characters and their life, but re feel they are children of his brain helped out by a few general observations of life. But as to style Bourget is far superior to Fogazzaro. For, in order to give us this very reality which we so much admire, Fogaz- zaro has to stop his story and give innumerable details of the people round-about who do not help out the main plot but only serve to portray atmosphere. Fogazzaro has numberless minor characters. Bourget has few if any. Everything is concise and to the point in Bourget 's work s, but in fogazzaro 's everything rambles until it fin- ally gets to his objective point. This same is true of their hand- ling of their respective languages. Fogazzaro does not endeavor to be concise and clear in the wording of his thoughts. He also makes his books more difficult by the use of dialects. In endeav- oring to be realistic, he makes each Italian in his books talk the dialect peculiar to his own special city or district. And yet there is one thing in which Fogazzaro in his quali- ties as an author, surpasses Bourget. And that is in his humor. If Bourget has any humor at all, I have not been able to discover it. He takes himself and life very seriously. Fogazzaro, on the 1 other hand, as Mr. Raffaello Piccoli said, has a very vivid, but charitable sense of humor. He never laughs to make fun of a per- son but always in a compassionate way. Take the very first episode in The Sinner , the affair of the egg. The marchesa hunts all over the place for an egg, accuses all the servants of stealing it, and finally discovers that her husband is the guilty party. Many are 1. In a personal interview, April 1921. 2. Scotti, p. 281 — Also humorous in Malombra , see Scotti, p. 95 * . ( 28 the amusing episodes and characters in Piccolo T.-o nd o Ant i c o , al- most too many for the tragic idea of the book. Fogazzaro sees all the little weak spots of his home i^eople and points them out in a kindly sympathetic way. His minor characters are nearly always humorous hut his major ones are seldom so. They are too seriously concerned with the state of their soul to he funny, especially the men, for Fogazzaro' s Women are always . virile and realistic and not quite so much inclined to the ideal and to introspection. It seems that this is one of his and Bourget's striking dif- ferences. Bourget’s men characters are usually the strong, vi n_ ous, sane people of the hook, while Fogazzaro *s women characters are the virile, strong people of his hooks. Of course we will find exceptions to this in some works of both authors. You will object that Bertha Planet in Un .Div.rce . and Daniel in Daniels Cortis are .-•ter s in those hooks, and so tl : ; hut Elena, too, in Banieie Oortis and T '. Darras in Tin Divorce are equally strong or stronger. But after all there are points more in contrast and similari- ty (as we have seen) in our two authors than this. Let us sum them up in a few words. Fogazzaro is not a psychologist and traditiona- list as Bourget^ hut a painter of reality in all its details and a seeker after moderate reforms in churoh and state based not on an old man-made idea of society hut on the ideas and life of Christ. He, too, like Bourget , is a poet, hut a greater one, n t , a critic, hut a lesser, and a novelist hut not so prolific a one. too, writes with serious moral and religious ideas hut without a thesis and in a style more humorous hut less concise than that of Bourget. He, too, is a painter of love a less sensual love than that of Bourget, for he looks upon love as a purifying influ- . ence and believes that a love unsatisfied here on earth will find its complete reward in heaven. After all their main points of re- semblance lie in the fact that both are seeking to teach the world higher morals and a renewed interest in religion. Under this con- sideration we shall now compare them more specifically. IV. fhe Social Aspects of Morality and Religion. In this chapter we shall endeavor to point out first the moral ideas and then the religious ideas of our authors. We shall soon see that Bourget tends more towards the moral and Fogaszaro to the religious side of lire. Beth, however , think that religion should be the guiding principle of morality. ^ But, just what does this word morality mean? Prof. 3. P. Sher- man says: "Morality is a system of conduct." But let us look fur- ther for more complete definitions. "’Egoistic ethics, taking its premises from egoistic psychology, defines morality as the intelli- = n t pursuit of that which instinct compels us to pursue, as the rational pursuit of pleasure and avoidance of pain, although it tries to show that |uch morality is compatible with. . . unselfish- ness.’ ’ . Oudrard defines it thus: "Morality consists in induc- ing the individual to sacrifice his immediate satisfaction for the sake of distant advantages which may be deferred till after his denth and may not even accrue to himself personnally at all. In terms ox strict individualism, it does not always pay: nay, it 1. In an interview, April 1921 ~ --ror. Diet, of Pol. Scon, found in V/ebster's Hew Interna - lliwxl U'iotl' . Springfield, Mass. 1218 v • five T asters of French P.omiance . p. 200 - 30. be called an elaborate system of cheating mankind in detail for the 1 good of the whole.” later he says: "Moral discipline cannot be maintained except as the result of a slowly changing, overwhelming tradition--except as a beneficent predjudice, whose sole justifica- tion is that, on the whole and in the long run, it is beneficent." In his book. On Right and V.ronx . Lilly says" ... 'beauty and morali- ty spring from the same eternal fount: they are expressions of the same immutable truth: they are different sides or aspects of the 2 same thin?; of reason, order, harmony, right.'" Gavour tersely puts it thus, " 'Hicordatevi che il mondo morale e sottocosto a leg- 3 gi analoghe a quelle del mondo fisieo.'” "He, (BourgetJ himself, says, "A writer worthy to hold a pen has, as his first and last re- quirement to be a moralist. The moralist is the man who shows life as it is, with its profound lessons of secret expiation which are everywhere imprinted. To have shown the rancor of vice is to have 4 been a moralist.'” At another time we find him defining a mora- list and distinguishing him from a psychologist in this manner : ” ' Le moralists, dit-il, est tres voisin iu psychologue par l'objet de son e'tude, car l'un et 1 'autre est curieux d'atteindre les arriere-fonds de l'ame et veut connaitre les mobiles des actions des hommes. Mais au psychologue cette curiosite suffit. Cette connaissance a sa fin en elle-meme . . . II voit la naissanee des idees, leur developpement , leur combinaison, les impressions des sens a- boutir a des emotions et a des raisonnements , les etats de con- science toujours en voie de se faire et de se defaire, une com- pliqu^set changeante vegetation de l'escrit et du coeur. Vainement 1. p. 201 2 * Nineteenth Century . V. 27, p. 978; An Atheist's Pupil by W.S. Lil^ 3. Fogazzaro, Discorsi . p. 243 4. Bacourt, p. 2253 c. - ; . ■ ■ . 31 1 1® moralist e declare certains de ces 4~t at s de conscience criminels cerl ines de ces complications meprisables, cert;:.: I - rents , halssables , A peine si le psycholovue entend ce que siynifie on crime, on mepris, on indignation. . .Mgme il se complalt d la de-. scrip bi on des etats dangereux de l T a q i il se del s a comprendre les actions scelerates, si c revelent nne nature • et si le travail pi'ofond au f elles ent Ini ] arait singnlier. En nn -o , : lyse enlement pour analyser, et le moralist e analyse afin de jngeri* 1 After studying these men, hoth of whom are moralists under the above conception, we have come to the conclusion that the basis of 2 their moral ideas is the Mosaic lav; enlarged and made clearer by the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Bourget , however, has modified oh-.- poin t o„. vie 1 .; tnereo^. , so that he sees morality more in relation to sins against tradition and the family. Fogasza.ro, on the other hand, believes true moral regeneration to lie in a return of indivi— . 3 duals to the teachings and examples of Christ. Flam ini says this of Fogazzaro: "Conversai mo o. Its cose, ed a. .o' . d’arte, il politica e di religions. Quale nei libri, tale nella vita: armato d una — s e invitta nenla virtu elevatrice e purificatrice dell* idea- ls ; fermo nel proposito di munire le anime della piu valida e sal- volonta del bene, d T una forza interiore che agi . ore molla e come freno; acceso d’un grande ardore di benefizio, d’un desiderio fervoroso di mondare chi aneli all 1 alto da ogni scoria o squama d T is- tinti men degni , di plasr.arlo nell’interno se condo una superiore i- dea di bellezza spirituals . n For Bourget, Jean Monneron, the hero of 1 * ’ ‘ ^ ’ * " - - '■ - , V . 3 , 2 * Bible, Exodus . XX-XXIII. ^ucti c Critici . p. 70, . ■ 32 of L 1 IS tape t speaks thus, M, En morale, touts doctrine qui n'est pas aussi ancienne que la societe est une erreur. Gar la socie'W n'est pas une creation conventionnelle de 1 1 honrnie , c’est un ph6nomene de nature et qui exists d'apr^s des lois inte'rieures que nous devons constater, pour nous y' soureettre.’" This is a splendid definition of Bourget's attitude towards morals, which is traditionalistic. We shall first discuss his and Fogazzaro's works from that standpoint, passing from thence to the family and its evils (faults of tradition, education, marriage, love and its evils, divorce and free union), and lastly discussing the minor or individual vices, (as lying, hypocrisy, stealing gambling, pride, selfishness, egotism, ambition, self analysis, duty, responsibility, conscience, injustice , gossip and finally the lack of charity and mercy). We shall then take morality from the standpoint of religion and then pass to a more specific considera- tion of the attitude of Bourget and Fogazzaro to religion. Let us turn back now to Bourget’s ideas of tradition. For him we should not say "Philosophy is the guide of life," but rather tradition. He first applies it to class distinction and then to the family. We feel he would apply it specifically to the nation if he but dared, for he is a royalist and very anti-democratic, in so far. as his own country is concerned. For him all society is divided into three classes: the aristocrats, the bourgeois, and the peasants. Any intermingling of those classes and any overstep- ping of their accurately defined limits is wrong . Over and over he declares that bourgeoisie and aristocracy should not intermarry. 2 In L 'Emigre' he makes Lime. Olier refuse to marry Landri because she 1. L’Ftape . p. 125 2. p. 21 ' . . . 33 1 is a bourgeoise and he an aristocrat. Landri's father, also, feels that the duties of a noble, what he owes his fiefs and his respon- sibility to his country to keep his family tree unsullied, are suf- ficent to keep him from marrying a bourgeoise. Always Landri had found trouble because of his name. France doesn’t ne6d the aristo- crats, today, so they are forced into idleness or the army. Landri had chosen the army, and found his name brought trouble there from his superior officer, a bourgeois. And yet his father constantly impresses him with the duties of his name. "Son nom? C'est un her- itage qu’un nom, o f ast une propriete', personnelle a la iois et col- lective. II appartient a celui qui le porte, et N a eeux qui l’ont 2 porte^ ou qui le porteront. Tous sont solidaires en lui." Bour- 3 get seems politely sorry that the aristocracy are in an era where they are so condemned, but he still persists that they should keep their name and family pure. Clavier’s dream, however, is Bourget’s dream: "'le Boi revenu, la Resolution refoule^, nos maisons re- staurees, I'Eglise triomphante, la France regeneree et reprenant , avec ses traditions, ses frontieres naturelles, sa place en Europe, ...que de songesi'" Poor, poor M. Bourget, v/here would he have been had this dream come true? He, a "petit bourgeois" who had mounted, oh so hurriedly, to wealth and position? Fogazzaro has no such ideas in his works. The marehesa in The Patriot does make obiec- tions to Franco’s marrying Luisa, but her real reason is not that Luisa is not an aristocrat but that Luisa is not an heiress, for she fears to lose some of her precious dollars. Once in The Sinner he shows how aristocrats through respect of their class refuse to T. pp. 79-8 w 2. L 1 2 3 Emigre *, p. 204 3. L 'Emigre', p. 397 . • 34 gossip about a member of it, to an outsider. "It must also be ad- mitted that although they were neither related to nor intimate with the Scremins they nevertheless felt bound by a common tie of caste to those nobles of an ancient race, therefore the Prefect’s some- what disrespectful tone had troubled them, and they had felt, as it were, the recoil of that blow aimed at the aristocratic estab- lishment, from whence, although they feigned indifference, they in 1 reality derived no small amount of secret and intense satisfaction'.’ Some two or three other brief references to the aristocracy would be all the space Fogazzaro thought this subject worthy of, while Bourget’s books ar6 fairly flooded with the necessity for class distinction and the evils that result from lack of it. Before we pass to a consideration of tradition in reference to the family, £ let us give Mr. Louis Bertrand’s idea of traditionalism in Bourget’s works : "Certains avaient nie la famille et meme la race. Lui , il ecrit Un Divorce . L’Etape . L 1 2 * Emigre* pour montrer le dedale de con- traditions, 1 ' enchainement de difficultes inextr icables et de trag- edies domestiques, les morts enfin, les dissolutions irremediables auxquelles est expose une socie'te par 1 'affaissement de ces re^ali- t / ' /, tes antiques et venerables. Dans Cosmopolis . . .il reprend la meme demonstration pour 1’idee de patrie. Dans Le Disciple , il avait d^ja restaure^ avec l'ide^e de liberte^ morale , celle de responsabil- • le ite". Dans Demon de Midi , il affirme la ne'e e s s i t e d'une discipline, de 1' esprit et des moeurs, et consequemment , d’une autorite 7 super- ieure a toute discussion, d'un magistlre infaillible qui regie cette discipline. Dans Le Sens de la mort . il institue une experience, lT ^he Sinner , p. 12 2. Kevue des deux monies . Dec. 15, 19£0 — L’ Oeuvre de M. Paul Bour - get by Louis Bertrand, p. 743 ■ ■ . . ' 35 . qui, en face des droits de la raison, legitime une fois de plus les droits de la foi.... Cette ide^e que la vie humaine n'est possible et le monde habitable qu'a la condition de le nier elle-meme par le sacrifice, que la re'alitef est absurde sans le mystbre qui para'ft f A l'absurdite meme et qui pourtant lui donne I'unique sens possible..., on peut dire que 1' oeuvre entiere de M. Paul Bourget ne fait que nous representer sous une forme dramatique la necessite^ social de l'ordre de 1 "autorite^ des aristocraties permanentes et tradition- A / nelles,...le role vital des elites." The family is Bourget's main point of stress. There are two reasons for the evils of a family; one is the overstepping of class bounds and the other is individualism (a word abhorred by Bourget). He lays all the evils that come to the Hornier on family at these two doors. The Monnerons had been peasants but had pushed out into the bourgeoisie and Mr. Monneron had become a professor. His eldest son, Antoine, steals and forges checks, his youngest son reads im- moral stories and is a regular little rascal; his daughter has been seduced by a young nobleman; but his other son Jean is saved from such evils by a realization that his family is hors de son milieu , has brhle'' une e'tape too hurriedly. How absurd! you say. Yes, but M. Bourget takes it all very seriously. Hear him discuss it: ""Cette famille Monneron a commis une premiere faute, dans le grand- pbre , qui etait un simple cultivateur. II avait un fils tres intel- ligent. II a voulu en f'aire un bourgeois. Pourquoi? Par orgueil. II a me / prise / sa caste ce jour-la, et il a trouve" un complice dans 1 , l'Etat, tel que la Revolution nous l’a fait."" "Le malheur demon- t~e 1 ide6 j.ausse , comme la maladie la mauvaise hygiene. Pauvre I.ionneronl Je le plaignais en vous, comme je plains la France en 1. Ferrand in L’Etape . p. 24 ■ * Tr *J . - . 36 lui. Tout le malaise que vous me d6erivez ne vient ni d.6 lui, ni de vous. II vient de ce que votre famille ne s’est pas developpee d'apres les regies naturelles. Yous etes des victimes, lui et vous, de la poussee democrat ique telle que le comprend et la subit notre pays ou I'on a pris pour unite'" sociale l'indivi&u. C'est detruire s / et / * , a la fois la societe' 1 ' individu. La grande culture a ete donnee A ° N \ v _ / trop vite a votre pere et a vous aussi. La duree vous manque, et cett6 maturation ant e'rie tire de la race, sans laquelle le transfert de classe est trop danger eux. Vous avez brule^ une e'tape et vous payez la ramjon de ce que j 'appelle I'Erreur irancaise et qui n'est au fond, taut au fond, que eela: une meconnaissance des lois essen- tielles de la famille." "Cette egoisme feroce [pLe Antoinej etait, comme l'irre^alisme de Joseph Konneron, comme 1 ' incertitude mala- dive de J6an, un re'sultat logiqu6. Le deracinement et l ? absence de maturation, vices d'origine de cette famille, l'avaient produit, ainsi que le reste. H'ayant pu s'attacher vraiment N a aucun lieu, se faponner a aucune coutume, dans les provinces disparates que 1* existence nomade du f onctionnaire avait traversees, le fils aux brutaux app^tits ne s*£tait pas senti davantage partie integrants d’un groupe compact, dans ses relations avec les siens." We 3 might go on indefinitely with similar quotations, for L'Etaoe is full of them, but after all, to sum it up plainly, M. Bourget be- lieved that the faults of society lay in the fact that ten as in- dividuals failed to profit by the trying experiences of their an- cestors whereas, if they had been bound firmly by family ties, they 1. Ferrand in L'Stape . p. 51 2. Author himself in L’Etare , p. 215. Remainder of quotations fc 06 S on to prove specifically how "deracinement" brought Antoine into evil. . ■ . ■ I 37 Would have "become mor6 perfect through a knowledge of their faults. Again we find that Foggazaro pays "but little attention to another 4 of Bourget's hobbies. In The Sinner Piero hears the voice of his 5 family calling him away from sin and back to God. Otherwise Fogaz- zaro pays little attention to perfection through family experiences. Let us now turn to Bourget's second conception, i. e. the fam- ily versus the individual. Here he displays his bitterest scorn of democracy and individualism. "...: f La cellule sociale, est la famille et non 1 ’ individu. 3 4 5 6 7 Si cette formule est vraie, 1 " observa- tion doit constater que les societe's bien portantes sont celles ou les lois comne les moeurs fortifient le lien familial, et les soci- eties malades, celles ou ce lien se relaehe pour laiseer plus de li- 6 berte / aux individus." In every epoch where the family was impor- tant, he finds the most moral, worth-while society. "A travers toutes les defaillances qui suivirent l'ancien Regime conservait pourtant intacte une legislation elaboree en vue de la famille; l , autorite / paternelle e'tait reconnue, 1 1 indissolubilite / du mariage affirmee, 7 le droit d'aTnesse respect^.” By the word family Bourget means not only the mother, father and the child but all the ancestors and all the descendants. To him an individual is only a link in 3. L'Etape , pp. £24, 254, 332, 382, 400, 458, etc. For criticisms giving same idea of him see Contemporary Review . V. 82, p. 356; Sageret, Les Grands Convertis pp. 46, 59 4. p. 308 5. Same idea in The Saint . p. 147 6. Le Tribun , Preface, p. 5. In L 1 Emigre' . p. 83 the same idea; L 1 Star e , p. 400; all of Ls Tribu n, Critic who shows the same idea is — Sa,geret-- Les Grands Converti s- - pp. 61-62 7. Le Tribun, Preface, p. 6. --For a complete and detailed idea of The fhfcily. S6 e all of the preface to Le Tribun. . ' . •> ■* ' ' ■ O' 38. this mighty chain; and, when the^f or gets it, immorality and deca- dence are sure to result. All of the evils in France are due to in- 1 dividual freedom, so he thinks. The whole of he Tribun is a strik- ing argument for the rights of the family, Bourget succeeds better with his thesis in this than in other of his works. The father, a strong individualist, finis that his son has gone wrong simply through following his theory of individualism. The family tie proves stronger than his theory of individualism and he refuses to denounce his son. Monneron in L’Etaps . too, finds that his child- ren have gone wrong from his teaching of individualism. How this brings up the real root of all th6 evil, i.e. th6 type of education given to the children, (which we shall discuss in the next para- graph. ) But let u3 first see what Fogazzaro thinks of the family. He is more of an individualist than Bourse t and his moralizing is all all directed towards individuals. And, after, is this not true of A Bourget’ s also? Pride, the cowardice of Monneron in not looking reality in the face, and not teaching his children about religion, and Mme. Monneron* s egotism and extravagance are the real causes of the downfall of their family, however hard Bourget may strive to lay it at the door of tradition. Fogazzaro finds the trouble 2 of the Mairorii family in the incompatibility of Luisa’s and Fran- co’s temper, which aris-s from Luisa’s lack of faith and Franco's over ardent faith. He thinks a belief in God and the church is necessary for every morally happy family. And as such he paint 3 Selva and his wife, and their perfect faith and understanding, even 1. L'Etape . p. 508 2. The Patriot, pp. 242-3, 287,294, 317, 321, 409. Also Catholic Y/orld , v. 84, p. 247; Humor . p. 71-72 ■ ' 3 ■ ■ . 39. 1 2 though he be old and she young. This is what Eenedet to^says of them: ,M I have already blessed you in your husband,' said he. 'I cannot distinguish you. You area part of his soul. You are his courage. Let this courage increase in the painful hours which a- wait him. And, together, may you be the poetry of Christian love, until the end. Stay here a little while both of you’". This for Fogazzaro is a morally happy home because based on Christian faith Another family beautiful in its morality is that of Antonio Ros- 3 mini^ which Fogazzaro so lovingly describes in his Discorsi . Eje- na and her husband are another example of marital unhappiness. He is brutal and unlovable and entirely unv/orthy even of the fi- delity which her coldly moral heart gives him. After all we can- not accuse Fogazzaro for being an individualist entirely. L T ote this: "La specie umana non si conserva bene, neanche fisicamente senza una buona costituzione della societa, e la societa non pub costituirsi bene senza uno sviluppo normals della sua unita or- ganica, la famiglia. II genio della specie, signori, consents e coopera, ora piu ora meno , talvolta di tutto impeto, con i sen- timent i piu nobili e puri dello spirito umano ; e, in certe con- dizioni, l'amore e talvolta ispirato dallabellezza morale con mag- giore violsnza che dalla bellezza fisica. E f talvolta ispirato dalle doti del cuore e della merits che piu giovano al proprio svi- luppo della famiglia, all'intimo accordo dei genitori , al buon al- levamento dei fisrli, alia migliore possibile conservazione della 5 specie." After all, for both of these men the real root of evil 1. The Saint . pp. 38-41, 181-182* Living Age . V. 249, p. 288 2. The Saint . p. 466 3. p. 158 4. The Politician , p. 37 . . ' ■ ■ . . 40 lay in the education given to children. Both believed a child should be brought up in the Catholic re- ligion or else it would succumb to the immorality of the world. Here for once we find an exact similarity in the writers. Take the l' 2 case of the little Jeanne in Un Divorce and Maria in The Patriot . In both cases the parents are at odds about their moral education; one wants them raised in the church and taught to depend on its sys- tem of morals; the other wants them taught morality that is based on justice and truth, and that evil is evil because it is evil, not because the lord or the Church says it is. Of course both authors are very much on the side of the religious parent, and think that a moral child will be developed only through religion. "II fan- ciullo che ignori la risposta religiosa data dai suoi padri alle questioni piu important! per l’uomo, le regole di vita ch'essi ac- cettarono come legge universale e suprema, il significato dei fen- omeni religiosi, durevoli o intermittent!, ch 1 2 3 e°:li incontra ad ogni passo, il nome, la storia, gl ’ insegnamenti di Cristo, non puo dir- ' 3 si element armente istruito." "lion credo che questo fine si possa raggiungere sensa animare l’istruzione primaria di idealita calde, atte a operare sulla fantasia e sul euore degli scolari. Per ques- to fine l'articolo non ci fornisce che la morale civile. ‘'Osservo che l’umanita, senza dubbio, si onora di nature tanto elevate, tanto rette da sapersi governare nobilmente colle sole idealita della morale civile; ma quests nature non sono molte, e sopratutto mai , o quasi mai , si manifestano sui banchi della scuola 1. pp. 239, 361, 388 2. pp. 240-242, 331, 349 3. iogazzaro, Biscorsi . p. ~,48 . . . 1 ' . . . 41 elementare . "Le idealita della morale civile appaiono belle e grandi al (i giovane che si appassiona per 1 1 2 3 * * indipendenza del suo pensiero, non possono essere sentit6 da ragazzi fra i disci 6 i dodici anni. Prancamente diro che non possono sostituire, quanto ad efficacia v 1 2 educativa, le idealita religiose." Jeanne in The Sinner through her lack of religious education and faith is on the verge of sin. But so is Piero, you say, and he had a religious education. Yes, but with his sensual nature and without the support of religion he would no doubt have been a libertine of the worst order. Bour- get stands right with Pogazzaro in his view of education. In L'Etane . the Monneron children suffer from lack of religious edu- cation, in Un Divorce Lucien and Bertha suffer, in Le Tribun Georges suffers from the same lack. "Potons seulement, pour 1' in- telligence immediate de la crisa traverses par son fils, que I'uni- versitair6 radical et libre -penseur avait eleVe ses enfants hors de touts espfece d6 religion." TT, Je ne me reconnais pas le droit,' disait-il, ' d* enseigner % a des etres, sans defense centre leurs premieres impressions, des hypotheses inverif iees . 8 Le logicien avait pousse^ ce parti pris jusqu'au bout: aucun de ses enfants n'- / / 4 avait ete 7 baptise. Julie f6ll, Antoine fell and Gaspard was a rogue all because of their education. • And yet this Monneron who had so tragically failed in the education of his children wanted to 1. Discorsi . pp. 245-246 2. p. 350 3. L'Etape . p. 10; also pp. 23, 188, 203 4. 1 'Etape . p. 234; also pp. 342-343; very good idea of the evils of a modern educ tion of girls. ■ „ •• . - * ' • c l ■■ u - 4 * 4 * ■ \ ' . , .1 *• ' ' . \ * . 42 1 take it out of the hands of the clergy entirely. ,M Je ne pcux pas • r- - m'associer a ton 6sperance," dit-il (_Jean Monneron) siinplement . * Je 4 / f vois hien 1* element d’energie que les educations laiques enlevent \ 1* enfant. Je ne vois pas celui qu'elles lui substituent * Car, enfin, il faut vivre, et, pour vivre, agir. Ou prendre le ;r in- cite d’ obligation dans ce que vous appelez la morale inde> eluant e , tails de tout dogme , mais cela signifie qu’elle depend de 1’examen individuel. : ’Ou le prendre, ce principe? Mais dans la Justice s implement , ' re'pondit Joseph Monneron, qui avait regards'' son fils avec une sur- prise attristee, ’et dans la Solidarity, dans cette dette que cha- cun se trouve avoir contractee vis-a-vis de 1 ’humanite^ par le seul fait qu’il exists. Nous naissons tous obliges.’ ’Je te dirai, corome Cremieu Dax, 1’ autre jour, citant Robes- pierre,’ repliqua le jeune homme : ’Au nom de quoi?. . .0 ’est un cir- cle vicieux. Outre qu’une dette, pour etre valable , suppose qu’- elle a accepted en connaissance de cause par le de^biteur^ ou est-il eSrit qu’il y a obligation de s’aequitter d’une d6tte? Dans le Decalogue et dans 1 ’Evangile . . . Puisque , vous n’en voulez pas? 2 The father had never felt th6 need of religious support but J6an shows him only too well how his children, weaker than he, had 3 4 sinned for the lack of it. in Un Divorce. Bertha Planet had been 5 led astray by revolutionary education just as had Lucien, educated 1. I ’Etape . pp. 237, 269 2. L ’Etape , p. 271 3. L ’Etape . pp. 459-461, pp. 474-476 4. Un Divorce , p. 157 5. Un Divorce , p. 65 43 by his step-father to a supreme belief in truth, justice, and in- 1 dividualism. And in he Tribun . Georges in pursuing the theory of individualism taught him by his father falls into sin ; and steals. In other books also, Bourget has shown the evils of the education of young men. ”L T Education au lieu de reparer les torts de la na- ture, les a aggraves. Bile a ete, cette education, trop douce: chef-d’oeuvre de la tendresse imprevoyante des parents d’aujourd’- hui qui s’appliquent a ©carter toutes les pierr.es du 3 in de I'en- P fant, en sorte que plus tard, I’homme se heurts.ia au premier ecueil’. 1 ”M. Bourget a ecrit ... 'Eleven des enfants sans Dieu, sans milieu de famills..., equivaut a preparer des prostitutes implacables, des v 3 adu.lteres desequilibrees , des se parses dangere V" ( Ph? siologj d ’ ar our . ) There is also another evil of the family which is equally dan- gerous and that is forcing children, (either physically or mental- 1 rry. I,- ~ T n Divorce .Ga' " lie 1 1 been pressed into marry- 4 i ng the sot from whom she wg later divorced. In Le Demon du 3 idi. 5 ~ the heroine marries for money to save her family. In A Pa risian 6 Household . a short story by Bourget, we find the evils of trying to force a daughter to marry for money, well portrayed. I 11 " 1. Le Tribun . pp, 156-157 2. Portraits d'Ecrivains . p. 27-28. In speaking of Herbert Liauran, ( Cruelle Enigne ) . Hen^ Vinci and Andre Cornells (Andrt Corne- lls). Also same idea in Nation V. 42, p. £95; and Rivasso, I’unite d'une pensee . p. 71. 5. Sageret, Les Grades Convert is , p. 4. p. 22 Cent nr;) , V. 76, p. ^ . .8- Ie Bo,. . .. i. , a re vie' V. . 3. Lilly. . Living Age, V. 227, p. 692, in English. 44 . i Fantoms we find a strong condemnation of young girls forcing them- selves to marry brutal men simply to save their families from fin- ancial ruin. Fogazzaro, too, disproves of this. In The Politician we see how Elena, though not forced physically was forced mentally, by her mother, to marry the first man who proposed, namely the evil Santa Giu ia. Piero in The Sinner feels that he was intrigued into 3 marrying Elisa, who so soon became insane. In The Patriot the mar- chesa tri6d to force Franco to marry a rich girl and when he re- fused and married a poor one, she persecuted hir unmercifully. Despite their condemnation of this evil } both authors felt that after people were once married, they should remember and fulfill 4 their duties as husband or wife. Elena’s fidelity to her husband, despite his evil way^., crowns her for Fogazzaro as a most moral wo- man, He does rather condemn the coldness of her fidelity, which is due to h6r lack of faith, but after all she does her duty and keeps herself free from sin. "What sort of a wife had she been to him? Upright? yes, except on one or two occasions; hard and cold as cry- stal; faithful to herself, not to him! That is if she were still fai thful l • • • and it pleased him to fancy that high and mighty vir- 5 tue sullied." "'I promised,’ she went on at last, ’to be faithful 6 to you; and whatever you think, faithful I will be to the end.’" To see Piero's remorse at forgetting his wife and his duties to her !• Fortnightly Review . V. 76, p. 142, Heview of Bourget’s Le Fan - t$me, by W.S. Lilly 2. pp. 20-21 3. pp. 58, 63 4. The Politician, p. 20, 182, 263, 336-337; See also Catholic World . V. 84, p. 244 5* The Politician , p. 342 6. Idem, p. 350 Same idea, p. 352, 395 45 is sufficient to show that Fogazzaro condemns infidelity. But be- sides fidelity, Fogazzaro thinks children are a good thing for the 1 moral elevation of a home. They bind the parents to-gether. Siena 2 is childless and suffers from it. Elisa, too, feels that had she had a child she might have saved Piero from falling. Bourget does not S6em to consider the immorality of childlessness, for his books are usually heavily populated with children. He likes to use the children to show the effect of family life. As to th6 duties of a 3 married couple, he feels them strongly. In Un Divorce Mme. Darras says: 171 Le devoir d’uns femme 6st de maintenir tou jours la paix d6 son foyer. 1 ' 7 ,7 ’Je ne vous ai pas ordonne^ d'abondonner votre foyer,” 4 rectifia M. Euvrard, ”du moins en ce moment” 77 M. Darras defines his own duty thus,"*Le mari doit protection a sa femme , --protection 5 6 physique, protection morale.’ 77 In Le Tribun we find Mme. Portal making this statement "Ah! je benis le sort de m ’avoir fait grandir dans ce milieu universitaire , cLe vie si simple, les snobs disent si mediocre! Les filles y apprennent \ devenir C6 que je suis fiere d’avoir eti pour mon mari, une compagne d’ide^s qui sait en ireme temps £tre une femme de menage. 7 ’ And in the meantime she forgot her duties as a mother so eager was she to be a good wife. It is Mme. Claudel, the lover of Georges, who feels real mother love and 7 duty when she gives up her passion for her child. Another thing 1. The Politician . 2. The Sinner . 3. The play, p. 9 4. Un Divorce , p. 35; pp. 394-395, same idea. 5. Un Divorce . p. ?4 6. p. 15 7. Le Tribun , pp. 195, 205, 223 . . - * ‘ that B our get feels is wrong in regard to marriage is to enter it without having oast out other sexual ties, and even the memories of them. "'Your future wife has no past to hide from you. Of your past, I know nothing; but I feel sure that the moment you decided upon marriage you freed yourself from all other sexual ties, in thought . as in fact; that your past, if culpable, is utterly don6 away with. If it were not so, you would profane a great sacrament ...you would commit a real sacrilege, sure to be visited with pun- 1 ishment. Deus non irridetur : God is not mocked with impunity,*” said abb/ Front eau to Malclerc on the eve of his marriage. But Mal- clerc did profane it, for he married this girl, the daughter of his old mistress. His punishment was mental torture from the phantom of his dead mistress, and he himself suffered fully for that greatest of all sin, adultery. At least the world considers it so, for moral and immoral to- day have almost narrowed down to mean purity or lack of purity in sexual relations. Consequently both Bourget and Fogazzaro give love and its evils chief place in their novels. Dimnet says of Bourget: "Their (his early novels} pessimism makes it clear that the kind of love to which they endlessly revert is a scourge and not a human 2 development..." later he condemns him thus, "The less that is said about what is called love in modern fiction, its omnipresence , its intoxicating fascination and even its evils, the better. ITow Bour- get's novels treat of nothing else than this universal disease and describe its symptoms with enough charm to make them more attrac- 3 4 ive, than their consequences are dreadful." The Academy doesn't 1. Fortnightly Review, p. 148 . 2. Paul Bourget ., .p, 3$ 3. Paul Bourget . p. 80 4. Review, V. 59, p. 486 47 . seem to agree with this for it says ’’But he does not attempt to make vic6 attractive and had he written his stories ( Qruelle Knigme Grime d* amour, and Asir D iscorsi he says: "Le passioni d'amore hanno gran parte nella letteratura moderna. Mol- ti scrittori hanno rappresentata la p&ssione sensuale senz'altro intendimento ch6 di riprodurre il vero, o di dilettare, o di far 1* Yale Review . N.S., V. 1, p. 128 2. p. 39 ■ * . . . ■ ' . 48. rumore e guadagni ; senz'altro freno che le leggi f penal! . II sucees- so e state doloroso per la morale e per I'arte." "'Is sono di quel- li, che dicono che non si deve scrivere d'amore in n odo da far con- 1 sentire I'animo di chi legge a questa passions'", is a sentiment of Fogazzaro (as well as Manzoni ) . Both he and Bourget condemn sensu- ality and adultery so many times that it would he impossible in the limited scope of this paper to point them all out. We shall quote one or two of the most -striking condemnations of each. If more are desired, a very cursory reading of any of the novels of either man will offer them in abundance. Bourget says: "’h/gitime, 1' amour est ✓ ✓ 1 element premier de la famille, par t ant , des vertus q; e la f ami lie exige , part ant , de la societe entiere, dans ce que cette societe a de r£el et de solide. Illegitime, il occasionne les ulus dangereuses 2 " 3 anomalies de la conduite 6t de la destinee.'" In L'Etape Bourget condemns adultery thus: "Une indelicatesse d* argent se repare. Un manque de probit/ s' expie. Ce sont des faut6S abstraites, si 1 1 2 3 4 on -/ peut dire, et dont on souffre dans sa pensee , dans son etre social, presque par raisonnement . Les d/cheances de la femme sont melees d'une souillure physique. C'est la tache la plus intime, la plus d/sespe recent inefxa^able, quand elle tombs sur une mere, sur une fills. Elle atteint l'homrne dans sa chair meme , dans ce que la per- sonne a de plus secret et de plus saignant." Let us now quote some 4 critics in regard to Bourget' s attitude towards love. Mr. Bertrand 1. Discorsi . p. 40 2. Rivas so , L 1 Unite d'une Pense6 , p. 37. Also see all of second part for ideas of Bourget in respect to love. 3. p. 281 4. Revue des deux Monde s , Dec. 15, 1920^p.731 . . - . ' . 49 writes thus: "’l** amour moderns,' comme il l’appelle, amour souille^ et pourtant epris de purete^ affreusement £goiste et brutal, at pour t ant assoiffe d* ideal et de sacrifice, amour-spleen, amour mor- bide, qui courbe 1 ' intellectual sous la loi de 1* instinct et qui, en meme temps, 1' exalte par des mirages de f elicit^ impossible, en lui rappel ant sa vraie nature qui est d'aimer le Lien unique — tout cela s'exprime dans les premieres oeuvres du romanci6r et de l'es- sayiste." Mr. Lionnet says Physiologic de 1 ’amour is "...violent ir.eme , quand des indignations de Chretien centre l'internat contre 12 l'egoisme du faux amour, emportent 1' auteur." Lilly says of Crime d 1 2 3 amour ’ r I hardly know where to turn for a more passionate and persuasive exhibition of the moral agonies which, by the nature of things are bound up inseparably with the crime whereof he has been writing--th6 crime of high treason against the most sacrosanct of human affections." Lemaitre in speaking of Cruelle Enigme . "...un morceau sur le role de 1* amour dans le developpement de notre etre morale: ’Tout au long de nos annees, il s'est done enrichi ou appauvri, au hasard de cette passion souverainement bien faisante ou destructive, le tresor de moralite acquise dont nous sommes les d^positaires : infideles d^positaires si souvent et qui pr^parons le banqueroute de nos successeurs parrni les caresses et les sourires.™ Let us turn to Fogazzaro. He too condemns adultery but believes that a great love tends to become merged with the Divine and to uur- 1* ^'Evolution des id^es, V. 1, p. 192 2. nineteenth Century , V. £7, p. 978 3. Les Contemporains . V. 3, p. 383. For other views see Doumic Portraits d'^crivains , V. 2, chapter IV, pp. 21-26; Lionnet, X '2 v o lut in p ug i f\ /n q [ v. 1, p. 201; Sage ret, Les Grands Con - vertis , p. 42 • • fl ■ . * 50, ify mankind. At least this latter idea is prevalent in his early works ; but in The Sinner we get such a strong condemnation of spir- itual love that we believe he must have had a change of faith. Don Giuseppe speaks to Piero t "You say the temptations of the senses have diminished and that you cannot understand ?/hy the danger of binding yourself to this woman through your soul should be more ter- rifying to you than the danger of a purely sensual fall. Your ter- ror is justified, for the very vil6ness of the purely sensual sin ’is at first a restraint, and afterwards generates that impulse of remorse and loathing which soon helps the sinner to rise again. On the other hand, the tie which is believed to be of the Soul alone leads, little by little, when occasion presents itself, to certain familiarities, which grow more and more sensual and produce an un- due excitement of the body, which mingles with the undue excitement of the spirit. Then in this natural mingling of body and spirit the sin appears less vile, a less hideous distortion of human na- ture, and generates no hatred of the accomplice, as in the first in- stance, but generates rather a closer union in evil doing, a proud, blind, self-satisfied union, which lasts until the hour of atonement arrives, and the body and soul grow cold. Thank your God that He has warned you of a danger you could not see, by means of a horror 1 you could not understand! ” Perhaps this idea of condemning spir- 2 itual love cameto him after the critics called The Politician 9 a book of spiritual adultery. Let us hear what Fogazzaro himself, \ has to say of his idea of love, ,f, Ma a me premeva dire qual’e il mio concetto sulle relazioni d’amore fra due persons non libere ; mi nremeva far comnrendere che se ho m ppresentata la relazione di 1. The Sinner , p. 83 2. Scotti, La Vita 'di Antonio Fogazzaro , p. 136 # tells of this, but denies the justice of the criticism. • • . , * ' ■ ■ .1 . 51. Cortis e di Elena in modo che desta la pieta, la sirnpatia e anche 1 1 ammirazion6 quella relazione non risponde per d al mio i deale mo- rale. 11 mio ideale morale, rispetto a simili eentimenti, si con- tiene in quei versi di Eva che cominciano, L'immortale amor tuo ter- rihil dono Un amore che vada contro l'ordine prescritto da Dio, temporaneamente, alia uni one dell'uomo e della donna sulla ter- ra, non pu6 manifestarsi per quanto sublime sia, che in un ordine futuro, quando il presente sia cessato. Questa e a mio avviso la perfezione; con che non voglio dire che chi ama come Eva (prima di Gristo non s’e mai amato cosl), non poasa moltissimo sperare che \ 1 il suo errors sia guidicato degno di pieta e di perdono”’. Then for Fogazzaro moral love is Divine love. If he has a thesis of morality in love, this is it, for all his novels show the struggle of the higher and lower instincts, with final victory to the higher ones. The Sinner is the best example of this. All its plot is built on Piero’s struggle with his sensuality. He is saved from sin and led back to religion by his dying wife. Guided by religion and purified by a renunciation of all earthly love he appears as Benedetto , the saint, in The Saint . Does Bourget agree with Fogaz- zaro in this attitude? Ho. For him any love which cannot or does not lead to respectable marriage is evil. He never even considers love in the light of a purifier. How absurd, you can almost hear him say. Illicit love is evil and leads to the most evil conse- quences, so he thinks. The adultery of a wife is perhaps the worst because it makes so many innocent people suffer. Her husband and her child, if she has one born of tier sin, are the ones to pay. 1. Scotti, La Vita di Antonio Fogazzaro . p. 144. Same idea in Dis - corsi , Jn opinions di Alessandro Lanzoni . pp. 38-60; Gennari , Antonio Fogazzaro . pp. 55, 71, 82, 83. • 52 Take the case of Landri's mother in L , Enirre / . Seduced by Jaubourg, keeping her secret from all, even her husband, and pawning off this child as her legitimate son, she lives and dies a seemingly virtu- •ous wife . It is only long years after, that Jaubourg on his death- bed betrays the secret and throws Landri and Clavier s-Grandchamp 1 into the most intense sdi moral suffering. In Eogazzaro ' s woiks consider the case of lime. Cortis. Seduced^ and driven from hoi i by her husband, this wicked woman lives a life of evil until penniless and old she drags herself back into her son’s life (for he had thought her d6ad) and tortures him morally by her very degeneracy 2 and deceit. Though Eogaszaro leaves us with the impression that 3 Daniel is not illegitimate as his mother would have us believe, we are never quite sure of it. It is enough, however, to see the men- tal and moral suffering of Daniel ..hen in the presence of this de- generate mother. Bourget takes the evils of love a step lower, if 4 they can go lower, by having Rumesnil propose an illegal operation to Julie, the girl he had seduced. The girl's moral struggle be- 5 fore the thought of this horrible crime is fearful. After all it is the suffering of the child born of sin which is the worst evil of love, for the child is absolutely innocent .Consider this from Terre Promise : "'Si un p^reil titre n'eut pas paru trop ambitieux, dit LI. Bourget dans sa preface, ce livre se serai t apjiele^ le Droit 1. pp. 18, , 193, 210 etc. Also in he Pantome the daughter suffers for the mother's sin. See Lionnet, V. 1, p. 190 for other ideas on this. Also see Rivasso, chapt. VIII, pp. 115-122 2. See chapter ? of The Politician . 3. p. 291 4. h’Etape , pp. 328-329 5. pp. 330, 334-33? . . ■ * ' 55 de 1 1 2 * enfant . Le problem© particulier qui s’y trouve pose se rat- tache, en effet, a cet autre plus g^n^ral : jusqu'a quel point le fait d' avoir donne volontairement la vie a un autre etre nous en- gage-t-il envers cet autr6 etre? Dans quelle rnesure notre person- nalite, est-elle obligee d'abdiquer 1 ' independance de son devel- oppement devant cette existence nouvelle? Suivant la r^ponse que vous ferez a cette question, vous serez pour ou contre le divorce, pour ou contre le second mar i age des veufs et des veuves, pour ou contre 1* education par l'internat, pour ou contre la recherche de la paternite', pour ou contre 1' absolution des vengeances conju- gales, qualif'iees si complaisamment de crimes passionnels . Ces examples suffisent a montrer la complexlte singuliere de ce pro- bleme, 1‘ enfant, qui ne resume rien moins que la moralite de l’a- 1 mour . 1 ,T Bourget shows quite clearly that he is on the contre side of this in his strong condemnation of divorce in Un Divorce, . His most striking thrust comes in calling it adultery and free union, and in comparing it to them. Lucien denounces his mother's divorce, and marriage^ as nothing more than Berthe’s free-union. lime. Darras carried away by remorse comes to believe the same thing. "A un moment donn^, elle avait pu, emportee par le delire du remords , as- similer son e^tat de femme divorcee et remari^e civilement a celui rr , V , , ° d une irreguliere, comme etait la malheureuse fiancee de son fils." In fact, Bourget treats free union much better than divorce. Hear Lucien' s cry in answer to Berthe’s ideas, M, Je me suis demand e en quoi il consistait essentiellsment , et je n'ai trouve 7 qu'une re / - 1. Rivasso, p. 116 2. Un Divorce , p. 221 Un Divorce , p. 525 . . ' . * * . 54 . ponse , la votre: le mariage , c’est un engagement entre une con- science d'homme et une conscience de femme. Qu'ajoute la loi a cet engagement ? Rien, sinon des conditions de garantie. Ces condi- tions n 1 2 augment ent plus la validite du contrat qu'une signature n' augments la validite d'une dette. J'en ai conclu qu'en contrac- tant 1 1 engagement que vous avez contracts', il y a cinq ans , sans cette garantie, mais avec une alosolue "bonne foi, vous vous etes conformee aux regies de 1‘Ethique eternelle. Votre action etait imprudente, dangereuse pour vous. Le fait l'a prouve. Moralement elle etait de nature a servir de r^gle absolue, qouisque I'Union libre, ainsi congue, est vrainment le mariage ideal, celui qui ne \ releve que de la conscience individuelle , dans ce qu'elle a de ulus 1 intime et de plus profond.'" Had it not been for some few such virile remarks as the following of M. Darras, Bourget would have filled all society with a craze for free union. "Quand deux #tres sont vraiment decides a s’unir pour fonder un foyer, ils doivent a la societe' de le lui declarer; ils se le doivent a eux-memes, qcour n'etre pas confondus avec ceux qui ne cherchent dans la vie sexuelle, que la satisfaction d'une fantaisie ou 1 1 assouvissenent d'une brutalite . Cette societe leur off re le moyen de faire cette i 2 declaration facilement, librement . ' " Then hear Pere Euvrard reply to time. Parras, denouncing divorce in behalf of the church; and note the difference in virility of the two men. "I’Evangile par- donne a la femme adultkre et qe n'en suis pas une. Je suis une honnete femme . " "Lisez tout l ! Evangile, madame,et vous y verrez...la meme de- fense imperative pour l'homme et pour la femre de contracter un 1. Un Divorce , p. 185. 2. Un Divorce . play, p. 19 ' .. ■ " * . 55 iin second mariage du vivant de son conjoint. Ce n'est p-as l'Eg- lise qui condamme le divorce, c'est No ire -3 eigne nr , c'est Dieu lui- meme, et vous ne pouvez pas a la fois le recevoir \ l’autel et res- 1 ter en revolte contre lui. ,TT This family had been so happy before Gabriell6's return to the faith; her husband had been such a brute; Mr. Darras had been so loving and kind to her; and they had found- ed such a happy foyer , that we almost agree with Mr. Darras when 2 he accuses the priest and the church of breaking up his home. Bourget gains most for his thesis when he points out the evils of 3 divorce. After having Pere Euvrard show that divorce is not mono- gamy which had proved so efficacious throne: out the centuries, and 4 : that wherever divorce had been prevalent crime had increased, has him point out its more specific evils, u ’ll n’y a pas vingt ans / / / j que cette detestable loi du divorce a ete votee, et si vous saviez combien de tragedies je l'ai de ja vue produire, moi qui confesse / si peu; dans quelles catastrophes j ' ai vu sombrer des menages canme le votr6 , qui n'ont pas compris cette evidence, partout empreinte ce pendant : toute liberte contraire aux lois de la nature engendre une servitude, tout devoir abandonne 7 un malheurl J’ai vu des haines fratricides entre les enfants du premier et du second lit, des peres et des meres juges et condamn^s par leurs fils et leurs filles, ici des heurts meurtriers entre le beau -pere et son beau- fils, la entre la seconds femme et la fille du mari, ailleurs la jalousie du passe, d'un passe rendu si vivant par 1* existence du premier mari, suppliciant le second mari, ailleurs des luttes hor- 1. Un Divorce , play, p. 10 2. Un Divorce , p. 231 Un Divorce , pp. 43, 95, 98, 245, 299, 307-308, 336, 349, 398 Un Divorce . pp. 27-29 . ■ . 56 . ribles entre ce premier mari et son ancienne femme ant our des mal- adies de leur. enfant, ou, une 1'ois grandi, de ses passions, de ses folios de jeune homme , de son mariage, si c’est une fille. Et je ne vous parle pas de eette rancoeur, quotidiennement renouvelee, contra la malveillance , avouee ou cached, hypocrite ou sincere, qu import©, d’un monde ou, malgre’tout, le respect de l'union chr^tien- 1 ne demeure intact. 1 2 3 4 " Then Mr. Bourget proceeds to make most of these evils, happen to the Darras family. Did he succeed in this thesis? I believe not, except with the people who already condem- ned divorce, let us hear Mr. Unmet' s opinion of this hook: "...di- vorce is productive of woes to the children of the divorced and ul- timately to themselves- -but it is urged in a harsh cruel manner-- so harsh and cruel that it turns the reader against the lesson en- 2 forced--and as in L *5 tape it is not verified by the story." And what does Fogazzaro think of this burning question, you ask? Hot much, for the divorce ler was not an evil of his country. Lao makes these remarks about it after learning of Siena’s love for Daniele, "’You know that I have no faith in either angels or saints. If we had divorce in this country! If we had divorce, I should have taken a wife myself! And I would never have changed her! I should have been happy! But we have no divorce, and you 3 would marry the baron. That was horrible i 1 " We rather doubt that Fogazzaro was in absolute harmony with these views and we rather ' 4 prefer to accept this statement in the Catholic World, "To render 1. Un Divorce , p. 30 2. Dimnet , p. 106 3. The Politician , p. 445 4. V. 93, p. 522 57 . his demonstration of the unalterable character of th6 marriage tie yet more striking, Fogazzaro has here introduced all the circumstan- ces usually used to extenuate the sin of unfaithfulness." These are the few facts we have been able to glean about the attitude of Fogazzaro in regard to divorce, but W6 feel that his general attitude in regard to marriage and its permanence was the same as Bourget 's. Let us novr pass from this very incomplete study of the family and its morals to the more specific individual morals, which, after all, are the underlying causes of the evils mentioned above. They are legion. Lying is one of the evils thoroughly condemned by both Bourget i Fogazzaro. Lucien says to Berthe, " 'Pas pour moi,'...,*et je ne saurais avoir d'estime pour un medicin qui me mentirait . Sans verite^, il n'y a pas de conscience, et quand on se donne des rai- sons pour manquer a la ve < rite / sur un point, on y manque bientot sur tons...'" Now hear Bourget speak of Mr. Parras, "II avait du, malgre" son aversion pour les mensonges d 1 2 opportunity , justifier 1' absence de son beau-fils par le pretexts d'un voyage. Pe recom- \ / mencer a mentir lui fut si renible qu'il rrononca cette phrase avec 2 une impatiente brusquerie." Mr.L.la Rivassojs remarks on Le Fan - t one show this hatred of lying, and its evils, quite clearly. "Ce bonheur, il ne peut y gouter.' II ne le peut pas, parce que l'on ne cree pas du bonheur sur le mensonge, et qu'il lui t tc urs v / mentir a sa femme, mentir en each nt : cults passe, mentir e ha que fois que le nor. de la mere est prononc/, mentir devant chaque sou- venir d 'Antoinette , mentir dans toutes le.s manifestations de ses 1. Un Pivorce , p. 114 2. Un Pivorce . p. 237 ■ ' 58 1 sentiments pour Eveline." Fogazzaro denounces this evil as much or more than Bourget. In The Patriot Uncle Piero says, ,T, I have never had any patience with all this secrecy, all this feigning and 2 hiding. The honest man openly confesses his actions.’" Maria in toe ^aint also shows her idea in this matter; "Maria exclaimed with some heat: ’OhI IToemi does not tell lies]’ and then, crimsoning’ and smiling, she embraced her husband as if fearful of having offended him. For, once, she had offended him by some thoughtless words con- cerning the lack of truthfulness in Italians, " Bote, too, Jeanne’s thought; "She told herself that she might possibly regain his affection by feigning a conversion; she com Id die for him but 3 4 she could not lie to him. T Mr. L .” . lapham makes this remark in re- gard to Luisa and Franco, "To her (Luisa) action is the only evi- dence of truth; to him, it is emotional insight." It is Mr. Senna- 5 ri who best sums up for us Fogazzaro’ s attitude. "En ses romans il ne voulut que representer la verite' et n'accepta comme guide que la aincerite 1 2 3 4 5 * 7 . " From the above selected quotations one can easily 1. L 'Unite' d’une pensee . p. 130. For further references to the hatred of lying see L ’Emigre . pp. 259, 280, 364, 397; Un Divorce pp. 194, 237; L'Etape . pp. 34, 379 , 450, 470, 484; Le Tribun , pp. 114, 115, 179, 195, 2. p. 61 3. The Saint , p. 401 4. Catholic V; orld . V. 84, p. 247 5. Antonio Fogazzaro . p. 110. For further ideas on Fogazzaro's at- titude towards lying, see The Sinner , pp. 175, 307; The Politician pp. 22-23, 284; The Saint, p. 316; The Patriot , pp. 39, 190, 355 59 . see that these men thought that a liar would meet nothing hut moral suffering. T° his bed-fellow, the hypocrite and deceiver, our novelists are also strongly opposed, though they don't say so much about it. h) Tv* Fogazzaro pictures i4 best in the cunning malicious Pasotti who with the marchesa represents ail the evil of the Austrian government. Pasotti deceives, or thinks he deceives, everyone that the marchesa 1 tells him to spy on. He is a hypocrite of the first water. . Fogaz- zaro describes him thus: "The cunning fartuf o (Pasotti), by nature as curious as a hound, that goes about following every scent, pok- ing his nose 'into every hole, and rubbing it against every pair of browsers, (sic) promised to furnish the marchesa with such informa- tion in the course of a day or two and then took himself off, his eyes sparkling, rubbing his hands in anticipation of a pleasant 2 ; chase.” Pi Santa Giulia condemns his wife for hypocrisy in this manner, "He added that she had been the first to play the hypocrite, for she deceived him at the altar with her false ! I will’, which she did not mean. Elena’s heart ached at this. It was true; she recognized her own fault, the selfishness of the resolution she had 3 made to quit the paternal roof," Fogazzaro *s main condemnation of hypocrisy lies, however, in the character of Pasotti, which we have just mentioned, and the deceitfulness of Panicle's mother which he so clearly describes in chapters six and seven of The Politician . 1. See The Patriot , pp. 28, 57, 106, 511. 2. The Saint . p. 100 3. The Politician, p. 100. For further references to hypocrisy see The Politician , pp. 219, 264, 365, 459; The Saint . pp. 365-366{ The 2 inner, pp. 65, 261, 291, 307; The Patriot , p. 20. 60 . In regard to Daniels himself Mrs. Linda Villari says that he has 1 "a genuine abhorrence of all falsity and meaness." Mr. Bourget's position in this matter is the same as that of Fogazzaro. Ke con- demns quite strongly the new type of medical specialists. ”11 se rencontre encore a Paris, a cc?t^ des professeurs justement illus- tres auxquels le temps manque, et des charlatans sans conscience que l'on doit supplier pour en ohtenir des consultations de cents n % francs... . Me j an , th6 seducer of Berthe through his hypocrisy in pretending to believe her ideas, comes in for a strong condem- 3 4 nation. Mr. W.S. Lilly points out the same evil in his quotation from Lazar ine , where the General writes to Graffeteau, "Is it pos- sible that you can he so lost to honour as to introduce yourself into a Catholic family, concealing the fact that you are a divorced man and there to pay attention to a young girl, and to trouble her peace of mind knowing well that she could not marry you?" Hr. 5 Edmund Gosse points out another type of hypocrisy in Contempla - tions sentimentales : "All three [short stories] analyse symptoms of that disease which M. Bourget believes to be so widely dissemi- nated in the feminine society of the day, *la trahison de la femme,' deception under the guise ox a bland and maiden candour." From these meager selections one can perhaps conclude that both mem thought hypocrisy very immoral and a vice to oe refrained from. They also see one of its fundamental causes, the cowardice 1. Ac adeny , 7. 29, p. 41. An Italian Novel . Daniel Cor t is 2. L'Etape . p. 421 3. It'Ztapo T pp. 152, 153. Other references for the idea of hypo- crisy are L'Etape . p. 194 and Un Divorce pp. 362-363 4. Fortnightly Ecvie . V. If 7, !!. Borr-ct's Lew Book ( Lazarine ) . p. 1028 5. French Profiles, p. 250 61 which keeps a nan from the pain of being truthful or of looking Uf e in the face. Jean I.lonneron is helping deceive his parents when through his cowardice and fear of hurting them he fails to tell then of the growing evils of his brothers and sister. If we look beyond • 2 that, however , we see the cowardice of Hr. Monneron in refusing to 3 look on the realities of life. He had made his children feel so strongly this attitude of his, that they felt they simply could not tell him how false his views of life were. Jean describes his fa- ther very fittingly, thus: "’Son pays, ce sont ses idees. Son mi- lieu, ses idees encore. Sa rsalite^ ses ide^es tonjours. Que j’ai, senti cela vivement , tout jeune, qu ’ il ne voyait pas mes frkres et soeurs, (sic) qu'il ne voyait que ses penseesJ Mais, ce que ye ne sentais pas alors et ce que je sens aujour&’hui, c’est qu’il y a, dans cet aveuglement, du parti pris et de la volonte'". Ion seulement il ne voit pas la vie, mais il ne veut pas la voir, parce que la , , 4 5 realite lui serait trop cruelle . . . ’ " . Mf, Il ferme les yeux intellect- uellement, conrnie on les ferme physiquement , devant un spectacle in- supportable . .Tout le secret de mes silences a l’egard de mon pere est la, dans cette sensation que j T ai eue, pres que enfant, qu’il ne voulait pas voir certaines choses, carce qu’il en souffrait, d’une souff ranee qui vous etonnera, me me vous, car vous n’avez jamais ren- contre" que son optimisms, si voulu, lui aussi.”’ Ferrand, however, comes back at Jean with this: "’Vous avez cede a votre sensibilite" 1. -L ’Btape 2. L 'Etape . pp. 76, 469-470 3. h ’Etape . p. 226 4. L ’Etape . pp. 45 5. p.46 - « . * • 62. coimn6 v on s avez ceW avec votre pere. Gar il faut avoir le cour- age de vous 1'avouer plus corapletement : ce n’est pas 'a cause de lui aue vous lui avez cache' votre vie inter ieure de ces dernieres ann4e, c’est surtout, c’est heaucoup a cause de vous -me me , pour ne uas 1 * 2 souffrir, pour ne pas lutter.!" Bourget also condemns Jaubourg for lacking the courage to die alone and carry to his grave the aw- ful secret of Landii’s illegitimacy. W© rather doubt Bourget, how- ever, when he goes so against the ideas of suicide instilled in us, and has M. de Claviers say this: "’Les laches vivent. Ge sont les gens de eoeur qui pensent au suicide devant la honte. ...Nous avons 3 trop peur de souffrir et de faire souffrir. 1 2 3 4 5 6 " Fogazzaro is evident- ly ir opposition to this idea of suicide, for he places it as the 4 last recourse of Luisa in her moral degeneration, caused by the death of her child. "’It would be better for me to end it all in the lake ,’ she said bitterly. Her husband passed his arm round her waist, pulled her away from the parapet, and then letting her go, threw up his arm with a gesture of protest. *YouI ’ said he indig- nantly. ’You talk thus? You who used to prate of looking upon life 5 as a battle? And is this the way you fight?’" As to cowardice we 6 see the marchesa cringing before her fear of the ne::t world; Piero 1. L 'Etape . p. 52. For the same idea, see L’Htape . pp. 102, 123, 179, 273, 288. 2. L ’Emigre . 3. L ’Emigre . p. 370. We must, however give Bourget credit for con- • demning murder. See Rivasso, pp. 137-145. 4. The Patriot , pp. 482-483 5. Franco and Luisa and The Patriot , p. 506. 6. The Patriot , pp. 428-429. condemning himself for cowardice when he comes to his wife's death . 1 bed; and Santa Giulia thinking this, "Curse those proud people I What did they think he was? He might have every vice under the sun 2 hut he was not a coward," And surely he did have almost "every vice under the sun " of 3 which the worst were his gambling and stealing. "He was deeply in- volved in many other debts, of a no less serious nature than the one to the bank. Merely ' 68 . presente in un i£ superiore. Eon potro essere liberato che col fuo- 1 2 co. Kiss MacMahon says that in The Patriot , there is ’’espionage and self-seeking, much that is trivial, interwoven with the pleasan- ter theme of courage, loyalty, chivalry and patriotism.” This is quite true. It is usually the minor characters who are most selfish and egotistical, and if the major characters are possessed of these 3 faults, they usually fight them and win. Bourget, however, to make his thesis the stronger paints, his characters as unselfish ones. 4 5 M. Homier on and Jean Monneron, how unselfish they are.’ They give up everything, cabs, the theater and so on, simply to make ends meet. 6 Hme. Claudel, too, is pictured as very unselfish and ready to sacri- fice herself for George’s good. Of course line. Monneron is selfish 7 and egotistical but to my mind, (in the books studied ) she is the only character whom Bourget intentionally endows with these quali- 8 ties. At the bottom, we feel that Mme. Darras is selfish in deman - ing the right to live her faith and have a church marriage , which would make her daughter seem illegitimate; but there is little doubt 1. From Fogazzaro ' s diary, 10 May 1890, in ha Vita di Antonio Fogaz - zaro , by Gallarati -Scotti , p. 235; See also pp. 236, 239, 242. 2. Catholic 'World , V. 93, p. 524 3. Collison- lor ely , p. 344; for the same idea, see also Linda Vil- lari, An Italian hovel in The Academy . V. 29 , p. 41. 4. L’Etape . pp. 45, 452, 487. 5. Idem, p. 254 6. he Tribu n, p. 106 7. Except for Mme. le Prieux in A Parisian Household . Living A^-e (V. 227-228; V. 228, pp. 171 1 V. 227, pp. 567, 572, 692) who is the incarnation of egotism, vanity and selfish ambition. 8. Un Divorce , p. 357 * . 70 . evil of which Bourget 7/ishes to warn the world. In Le Disciple , he causes the revolutionary ideas of a pure man to bring about the fall of a young boy who follows them implicitly. The writer 7 /ho never before had felt any responsibility for his ideas, has it brought 1 home to him with telling force. Winifred Stephens finds only two problems in Le Disciple . of which the major problem is that of a CJ teacher's responsibility for the doctrines he teaches. Doumic ex- presses this same idea when he says: "Tout un livre , Le Disciple , est consacre’ a l 1 2 3 etude de cette question de la resuonsabilite morale du penseur." From the Critic we take this very fitting quotation of Bourget himself: "'For many years I, like most young men in mo- dern cities, was content to drift along in agnosticism, but I was brought to my senses at last by the growing realization that there is in this life such a thing as responsibility for the influence 7/e have upon others. I sa7/ that the life of a man who simply said, ,T I don’t know and not knowing I do the thing that pleases we," was not only empty in itself and full of disappointment and suffering, but was a positive influence for evil upon the lives of others--up- on 7/omen, for instance, and one's friends. Since than my belief has gr ov/n firmer each ye r in the necessity of the Christian system for practical happiness in this world. 1 ” Fogazzaro seems to be little concerned with these tv/-o evils, self-analysis and responsibility of one's influence . He like Bourget, 1. French novelists of To-day , p. 153 2. Portraits d'Hcrivains . p. 155. Same idea in the Revue Hondes . Dec. 15, 1920, p. 735; nineteenth Century, V. 27 , pp. 985- 986; Fortnightly Revie?/, V. 76, p, 149, same idea in reference to lialclerc , hero of' tie "^an tome . 3. V. 23, p. 130. Same idea in Bloy, Les Dernieres Ctitoies de l’Ealiseu iS 71* however, stresses strongly the need of fulfilling one's duties to other people, which after all is only a phase of responsibility. The Politician in its totality is a striking example of this as- 1 sionate love of duty. Prof. Kenneth McKenzie calls it "the struggle 2 between love and duty." Gennari describes this duty in The Politi - cian thus: "Ce devoir pas plus que pour Helene, n'est pas une vol- upte'ideale de la vertu, c'est le souci de l'ordre necessaire, le desir de la beaut e et l 1 2 3 4 5 6 amour de Dieu. Le rrepris du devoir serait v / 1' abject ion ou est tombee Mme. Gortis et to: s deux en eprouvent une horreur sans nom." Elena has an amazing love of duty, even more than Panicle. Scotti says of her: "Ma la sua coscienza ha una gran- dezza austera, ch6 la fa sembrare superior© a quella di Paniele, per che non chiede premio per il sacrificio e non attend© compenso, tem- poral© od eterno, per il dovere compiuto." In considering Bourget in this respect, we find that he too insists upon duty. Jean Mon- 4 neron protects his father from the realities of life and consoles him because he feels it his duty. His father, too, when once he is awakened to the evils of his family, feels it his duty to tell Mr. 5 Perrand of them before he will let him take Jean as a son-in-law. I nL 1 Emigre . we find this love of duty strongest with M. de Claviers- 1. Yale Review , n.s., V.l,p. 212. Same idea in the Catholic World . V. 93, p. 522; Living Age , V. 251, p. 143; Gennari, Antonio Fo - gazzaro . pp. 13 , 136, 158, 163 j Humor, Antonio Fogazzaro . p. 64. 2. Antonio Fogazzaro , p. 139 3. La Vita di Antonio Fogazzaro , p. 133 4. L'Etape . p. 274, 281, 448 5. Idem, p. 504 6. p. 374-375 ' 72 . Grand champ who sacrifices everything through his feeling of duty for . 1 his name and for his family honor. Mr. R. de Rivasso says of this principle of duty: M Le mal de notre epoque est d’avoir oublie' le principe, a la fois conform© a la logique et a la morale, que droit de chacun est limits par le droit d’autrui . en d’ autre s t ernes, que chacun a des devoirs envers autrui . . ..Ce danger, M. Paul Bour- get l ! a denoncd” m&intes ois, dans ses oeuvres." Later, he writes thus : A ces affranchis des vieilles lois morales, 'a ces amoureux qui veulent , contre tout et contre tous, vivre leur vie, il faut , et tel a ete re but d6 It. Bourget dans le Pantone . opposer inlassable- ment le principe eternei'de touts socie'te': ’L’l lomne a des devoirs sacr^s envers les autres hommes. II n'a pas le droit d'elever son honheur sur les ruines du bonheur d’ autrui.’" One form of duty is to keep one’s promises and follow one’s con- science. hot only Bourget but Fogazzaro believes this strongly. M. 2 Darras in Un Divorce says: '”Je me suis donne ma parole que je re- parerais ce que :'e pouvais reparer de ta vie passes et tu connais -mon grand principe: se tenir N a tout prix toutes les paroles que 1'on se donne. G’est notre religion, a nous qui passons pour n’en pas avoir; c’est la plus belle, c'est la seule vraie, cells de la con- science.’" Phis doctrine is held by many of Bourget 1 s characters, and they all express it so virilly that we rather believe M. Bourget half-way agrees with them, even though he tries to prove the fallacy of their arguments by the Christian religion. In describing the 3 youth of today M. Bourget says: "une des caracteristiques de cette 4 jeunesse est le constant appel \ la conscience;,.." Darras finds the T. L’ Unite d'une pens^6 , pp. 125-126 2. T Jn Divorce , p, 65 3. T Jn Divorce , p, 103. Sam6 idea pp. 128, 194, 213 4. Idem, p. 374-375 73 . first hitch in his religion of conscience when his wife demands the right to follow her conscience and go hack into the Church which can he done only hy remarriage. This is one wa y of Mr. B our get ' s for showing how this theory won't work. He does the same .in he Trihun when he has M. Portal, after teaching his son the religion of the individual conscience as the guide of life, condemn him for follow- ing his own conscience in his love affair with lime. Claudel and his selling valuable papers. Eor him the doctrine of the individual i/i 1 conscience means war on the family (on inheritance, indissolubility of marriage, responsibility of parents for their children's actions, 2 3 and religious education.) it is his son, his wife and his heart, who show the falsity of his beliefs. Listen to Georges 'reply to Bourdelot ; it is perhaps the most striking condemnation of individu- alism that Bourget has written: "Mon p&re et toi, vous etes de la generation des pro ss. Moi, je suis de la generation du reel. Et je ts dis: 'Vous n'avex rien fait, rien, pour ce qui 108 deep trouble or doubt his religious char cters always find solace in prayer and their prayers are usually answered. Bourget's per- sonages do not pray so often; they are usually too busy with other things. He does condemn Kme. Darras for expecting her prayers to be answered at once when she, through her own fault, had gone so deep- ly into sin. Jean Ivlonneron T s first prayer seems worthy of note 2 to him, perhaps because it serves. to show so plainly to Julie her brother’s conversion to Catholicism. As to the future world Bour- 3 net’s remarks are just as brief, but we see quite clearly that he believed therein. Fogazzaro goes into the matter more fully and really seems to enjoy describing it and yearning for it. Here are two of his most striking definitions of it: "’that probably human souls found themselves in a state and in surroundings regulated, as in this life, by natural laws; where, as also in this life, the fu- 4 ture can be divined only by indications, and without certainty.”’ and this ™I believe,' he replied, 'that until the death of our planet, our future life will be one of labour upon it, and that all those minds which aspire to truth, to unity, will meet there, and 5 6 7 labour together.”’ Franco and Panicle (of Fogazzaro' s lay char- acters) sire the strongest believers in the future life. With this 8 striking category of souls made by Gilardoni, let us close this 1 . T Jn Pi v or c e . p p . 205-209 2. L'Etape . pp. 442-443 3. Un Divorce . pp. 315-316; I 'Ft ape . p. 413 4. -he Saint , p. 22 . 5. Idem, p. 268 6. The Patriot , pp. 185, 411 7. Iho Politician , pp. 383,452 8. fhe Patriot , pp. 168-169 ■ ' • : * 109 1 discussion of religion in its details; "'There are souls,’ said he, 'that openly deny a future life, and live according. to their opinions, solely for the present life. Such are few in number. Then there are souls that pretend to believe in a future life and live entirely for the present. These are far more numerous. There are souls that do not think about the future life, but live so that they may not run too great a risk of losing it, if, after all, it should be found to exist. These are more numerous still. therG are souls that really do believe in the future life, and di- vide their thoughts and actions into two categories, which are gen- erally at war with each other; one is for heaven, the other for earth. There are very many such. And then there are souls that live entirely for the future life, in which they believe. These are very few, and Signora Teresa (Luisd's mother) was one of them." 1 Conclusion. In concluding this study let us try to summarize Bourget and Fogazzaro, in their general attitude towards morality nd religion. Bourget believed that morality depended on following the traditions and laws worked out by the generations before us, and, placing re- ligion as one of the most perfect examples of this tradition, he believed that it should serve as a moral as well as a spiritual guide in life. Fogazzaro believed that a reformed religion, based on the life of Christ, with its chief aim to purify and ennoble every day life, should be used as a guide for right action and that 1. For critics opinions see Donadoni , p. 28; Gennari , pp. 197,207; Scotti, pp. 135,264; also see Discorsi . pp. 142-144 - . . 110 . the Bible should serve as the moral code of the world. Both men stand together in their fight for purer moral ideas and for reli- gion as the basis of those ideas. Bourget , however, in his love of the aristocracy and of tradition looks towards the past and, though he feels the modern progressive movements, is reactionary and out of harmony with them; while Fogazzaro looks forward and tries to adapt the Homan Catholic religion to present day ideas and needs by recalling it to its early simplicity, and to make it progress in harmony with the development of philosophical and social progress. Also in his sympathy with mankind and his democracy wherein no love of class distinction enters. he stands apart from Bourget, who be- lieved in the aristocracy as a social necessity and saw little of value in the bourgeois and -peasants. * ' Bibliography . I 111 A. Works. 1. La Barricade . Preface, Paris, Plon-ITourrit , 1910 2. Un Divorce . (the novel), Paris, Plon-ITourrit , 1904 3. Un Divorce , (the play), in IP Illustration , 4 April, 1903, Paris 4. IPhn.l -ru , Paris, Plon-ITourrit, 1907 5. L 'Etape , Paris, Plon-Uourrit, 1902 6. i- 6 » Wipel ’ c Brother , in Outlook . Y. 89, pp. 215-221, Tr. hy Katharine P. 7/ormley. With an introduction by Hamilton Wright Mabie. 7. A Parisian Household , in Living Age . Yds. 227 and 228. Tr. by Mary L. Frost. 8. The Saint . in Chautv.u-uan . V, 42, pp. 350-360. An abridge- ment of the English translation. Little, Brown & Go., Bos- ton, publishers. 9. Le Tribun , Paris, Plon-ITourrit, 1912. B. Criticisms. a . Anonymous . 1. Abuse of the Right to Strike , Living Age . Y. 306, pp. 68-70. 2. knot he r C onv e r t e d Be c adent , in The Academy . Y. 59, pp. 485-486, 3. II. Bour'-et in America , The Critic , Y. 23, p. 130 4. II. Bourget f s Hew Book. Yoyageuses . atur ' ; he view . Y. 84, p. 169. 112 . 5. Eleanor, and Other Fiction . ( Done Stic Pranas by Paul Bourget ) , Hat ion . Y. 71, pp. 514-515. 6. Essais de psychologic contemporaine . a review, Athen - aeum . 1895, pt. 1, p. 523. 7. L'Etape by P. Bourget . a review, Athenaeum. 1902, ptj., p. 718 * 8. French Classics and Translations . Athenaeum . 1901, pt • 1, p. 172. 9. Paul Bourget* s hew Problem Hovel . Cur r e nt hi t e r a t ur e . Y, 39, p. 390. 10. Pwo Hovels of M. Bourget ’s . Athenaeum . 1893, pt. 1, I p. 78. b. Signed. 1. Bacourt, Pierre de Paul 3 our get . Y/arner 1 3 Library . Y. 4, p. 2253, hew York Knickerbocker Press, 1917. 2. Bertrand , Louis I 1 Oeuvre de II. Bourget . Revue des deux mondes . Pec. 15, 1920, pp. 723-746 3. Blaze de Bury, Y. Paul Bourget . The Academy . V. 52, p. 167. 4. Bloy, L6on Les Pernieres Colonnes de l'Eglise . Paris, Societe Pu Mercure de France, 1903. 5. Clemens, S. L. Paul Bourget on the U.S . , h o r t h American . V. 160, p. 43 6. Corbin, J. Impressions of Oxford , a review, lamp . Y. 26, pp. 123- 127 . 113 7. Delille, Edward Paul Bourget , Fortuity Review . V. 57, pp. 655-667 8. S. DCeweyF Paris plays and Politics , ^ T at 1 or V. 92, p. 511. 9. Dimnet , Ernest Paul Bourpet . Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1913 10. Doumic, Rene Portraits cVEc:' drains . Deuxieme Serie, Paris, ’errin, 1909, V.2. 11. Goss e, Edmund French Profiles , pp, 239-265, lew York, Dodd Mead, 1905. 12. Gray, J. Paul Hour get as a novelist . The Academy , V. 42, p. 188. 13. Guerard, Albert Leon Five Masters o French Romance . pp. 175-211, Hew York, G. Scribner's Sons, 1916. 14. Hubner, Friedrich Paul Bour get als Psycholog. Dresden, Holze und Pahl , 1910 15. Jacobus, Russel P. Bour ret' s "An ire Cornells": a Survey of the Province of Fiction , Fortnightly Review , V. 64, pp. 179-196. 16. Laugel, A. n . .. c ~ , 1 ' b^ .. - . b, ' ion. V . 42, pp. 295- 296. 17. Idem Paul Bour get in Italy , Hation , V. 53, pp, 312-313. • . , . . ' . 114 18. Lehnartz, Otto Edouard Hod. Paul Bour ■•■•et und ihre literarischc Hich- tung . Ore if swald , Julius Abel, 1912. 19. Lemaltre, Jules Les Contemporains . Lecene, Oudin et Ciei, Y. 5 (1894) and Y. 4 (1895) 20. Lilly, 117 .S. Bourget's T, Le Fant'ome " . Fortnightly Hevi ev r , Y. 76, pp. 159-151. 21. Idem An Atheist's Pup i 1 , A i ne tee nth Century , Y. 27, pp. 977-986. 22. Idem It. Bour get 1 s ITev: Book , F o r t n 1 gh t ly Revie v; . Y. 107, pp. 1027-1057. 25. Idem The lie an' Death , nineteenth C e n t u r y , Y. 78, pp. 1561-1577. 24. Idem M he Demon -de Aidi ,’’ nineteenth Century . V. 76, 1047- 1059. 25. Lionnet, Jean I 1 Evolution des idees chez ciuel ~iuesuns de nos con - temporains , 2¥.. Paris, Perrin, 1905. 26. Loisy, Alfred Fir min hors et Yita , Paris, E. Nourry , 1917, 2 ed. 27. Lynch, Hannah Paul Bourget, Preacher , Cont er.reorary Rev i ev; , Y. 82, pp. 555-561. 115 28. MacDonald, John F. French Life and the French Stage. M. Dour, get , Fort - nightly Review , Y. 94, pp. 912-924. 29. O’ Hell, M. .Mrk Twain and Paul Bor.: rt , o t] ' meric V. 16C , p. 302. 30. Menard, Georges les Princes de la Jenna Critique . Paris, Lihrairie de la native lie Revue, 1890. 31. Rivas so, R. de 1’ Unite d T une pensee . Paris, PI on- Hour it, 1914 32. Schinz . A. Brunet i ere and Bourget before the ecclesiast Lc -1 qr.es • tion in France , iookr .i , V. 20, pp. 514-518. 33. Sergeant, Elisabeth Shepley French 0 suist , Th e IT e w R e pu~b lie , Y. 2 (March 6, 1915), pp. 133-134. 34. Stephens, Winifred French novelists of To-day . London. J. Lane, 1908, pp. 126-175. 35. To dhunt e r , Maur ice - Paul Bourget: Novelist, Poet and Critic, Westminster Review, V. 144, pp. 597-604. 36. Van West rum, A. S. Disciple . Book Buyer , V. 22, p. 245 . 116 II. Antonio Fogazzaro. A. Works. 1. A s c e n s 1 o n 1 IJman e , Milano, Baldini e Castoldi, 1918, 8, ed. 2. Discorsi , Sesto S. Giovanni, Casa Editrioe Madella, 1914, 3. The Patriot , tr. b y M, Prichard-Agnetti , lew York, Putnam’s Sons, 1906. 4. The Politician , tr. by G. Mantellini, Boston, Luce & Co., 1908. 5. The Saint , tr. ,b; M. Pri hard-Agnetti , with an introduction by Wm. Roscoe Thayer, lew York, Putnam's Sons, 1906. 6. The Sinner , tr. by M. Prichard-Agnetti, Hew York, Putnam’s Sons, 1907. A. Anonymous. 1. Another . - el fro ; • a . Ration . V. 73, pp. 210- 211 . 2. Ant o ni o F o gaz z ar o , Rial , Y.SQ t p. , 222 3. Antonio Fogazzaro ',. Outlook , V. 97, p. 572. 4. Fogazzaro and Modernism . Edinburgh Rev i e w , V. 214, pp. 269-292. D: F oreword ■: His Majesty’s Visit by Fogazzaro , Current Literature , V. 43, pp. 228 6. Italian Poets of Today , Living Are . Y. 235, pp.. 393-395 7. Leila . a review. Current Literature . V. .'51, pp. 223-224 b. Signed. 1. Aranjo, Fernando ntonio Fogazzaro . Living Age . V. 221, pp. 645-648. f 117 2. Collison-Morley, lacy. Hodern Italia- Literature , London, Pit: & Sons, 1911 3. Crawford, Virginia M. A Saint in Piet ion . Living Age . V. 249, pp, 286-291. 4. Donadoni , Eugenio Antonio Poraczaro . Napoli, Francesco Perrella, 1915. 5. Eger ton, Ruth ""A a^oro's Last Romance--Leila lt , North Anarl-nm Re - view , V. 193, pp. 508-514. 6. Findlater, Jane H. Qhe Novels c ~ F _ ar o . Living Age . V. 260, pp. 398-r 406. 7. Fiske , J.S. Antonio Fc - ~n , Nation . A 72, p. 8. 8. Flarnini, Francesco Poeti e Critici della nuova Italia , Napoli, Societa Anonima Editrice Francesco Perrella, 1920. 9. Fornaro, Sofia de Italian Writers A ; ‘'A- A. . Critic . V. 41, p. 102. 10. Gallarati-Scotti , Tomraso La Vita di Antonio Fogassaro , Milano, Baldini e Cas- toldi, 1920. 11. Gennari, Lucien Fogazzaro . Paris, Gabriel Beauchesne, 1918, 2 ed. 12. Grillo, Ernesto Selections from the Italian Poets. T/ith Critical A. troduct ions . London, Blackie and Son, 1917. 13. Hauvette, Henri Literature italienne . Paris, A. Colin, 1910, 2 ed. 118 14. Jones, Dorn T T . - i ~4 , w ^ y Review , Y. 99, ... . 562-570 . 15. Kuhns Oscar The Great Poets or Tt.i , Bos on o jhton, Mifflin & Company, 1904. 16. lapham, L.H. Pogazzaro and His Trilogy . Catholic Korld . V. 84, pp. 24 -250, 581-387. 17. I. Y. 4. ,zaro f ^ ~h • ~ . E Ion. Y. 9 , 18. I.IacLlahon, Anita Anj io g o azzaro . Th. ^ nd Hi- Yorj , t ~ di e Tor Id , V. 93, pp. 516-527 19. McKenzie, Kenneth A ni Topaz saro . Yale Review . n.s., Y. 1, pp. 119- 128. 20. Reid, Harriet - - ~4 l, living Age . .4 51, pp. 1 2 1 . Rumor , S eh as t i ano Antonio Topaz zaro . Milano, Galli di Chiesa-Ornodei- Giundani , 1896 22. Scotti-- See Gallarati-Scotti 23. Simholi, Raffaele Togazzaro .and ,T The Saint V tr. by Elsie Lathrop, Put - nam T s Monthly . v . 2, pp. 28-34. 24 . 3 . K. Topaz cure , Ration . Y. 72, pp. 8-9 119 25. I den Foyaszaro's I* . -air.t , ‘ ;n , V. £ , pj . ' -71 26. Thayer, Wm. Hoseoe Antonio Pogazzaro . ITation . V. 92, pp.. 261-262 27. Idem Antonio azza cc .1 His Hast r , os , I n t r o due 1 to The Saint ; see references to The Saint . 28. Trail, Florence 1A . . c Italian Literature . Boston, 1914. 29. Villari, Linda in Itali ~ ~~ovel. Daniel Cortis . Academy , Y . " ~ . pp. 40-42.