The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-08-17

speare. They admit that BalZac was
a lesser artist than Shakespeare and a
far lesser poet. But they assert that
they see in BalZac's creations re-
ality, both psychic and material,
scarcely less great than ShakeSpeare's
with on the whole almost as great
range of production, and within that
range a far greater variety.
If the world in general has not as yet
altogether arrived at this opinion con-
corning Balzac, it is gradually approXi-
mating thereto. AS in the case of many
other men Of genius, it began by mis-
understanding Balzac. Then for years
it failed to value him. Even today pl
England scarcely higher praise is heard
Of Balzac than that for so short Il life
his achievement was prOdigious Mr..
Saintsbury says Of him that his
scheme of human character is alto
gether low and mean" Professor Dow
den says of him that his philosophy
is often pretentiOuS and vulgar. An
drew Lang says of him that he is fond
of dwelling on the morbid pathology of
human nature" OF course, these emf
nent critics understand the real Bal
zac and on the whole praise him duly.
But it is their qualifications rather
than their praise that the English gem
eral public he , got hold of. and few
Englishmen, not CT the class of critics,
would ever dream it possible to do as
NJ. Taine and NJ. Brunetiere have done.
and as some eminent American critics
are doing. namely, compare Balzac Sc
riously with Shakespeare.
1t is not probable, however. that Bal
Fac will ever be read with the delight
that Shakespeare is read. Whether
Shakespeare had a conscious theory, a
purpOseful intention in his art. we
scarcely know. If he had it would be
a very different one from that which
Balzac had. And this brings US to the
point we have principally in view in the
construction of this paper.
Balzacs theory was that fiction
should be the history of social life. AS
Cor himself he wished to be the secre-
tary of his epoch" to get together such
d series of human documents" as
would accurately represent to future
ages the sociologic character of the age
in which he lived. The old civiliza-
tons" he said, have passed away, and
left the history of their manners and
morals untold. l hope to do for France
and for the nineteenth century what
one could wish had been done for Rome
and Athens and Memphis and India in
the ages of their glory"
This purpose Balzac set about accom-
plishing in d way that was in harmony
with the spirit of his age. for his genius
was akin with it. 1t was an age of
cist. in freshness and fervidness Of i'm
agination equal to any .romanticist Of
his time and he is never happier nor
more powerful than when dealing with
the grotesque, the extraordinary. the
improbable, the apparently unreal. But
it was also an age of scientific inquiry
and investigation and the demonstra-
ton of hypothesis: the age of Cuvier
and Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire and of an
incoming Darwin, an age when all nat
ural phenomena were examiner for
classification under general types: an
age when the relation of individuals to
general types and the causes of the
of types into individuals
were profoundly considered. BalZac
looked upon human society as an as
semblage CT an infinite number of in
dividuals, but he saw also that these in
dividualS could be classified under an
ascertainable number of general types.
He said: Il will examine these indi-
vidual units of society and see how
they are related to and differ from one
another. In this way | shall be able to
classify them and arrange them under
general types Then | will describe
these general types and describe them
so exactly and accurately that their !
descriptiC ms shall be to all times 'docu
ments' that none can gainsdy. And l
will show these types acting and re-
acting uDOH Ollt J0St 90 iHNAi-
viduals do in real life. In this way |
shall examine. classify. describe and
portray the whole human life of my
time. Society as it has existed during
the period of my observations will be
represented by my types.
and one knowing these types will know
the whole social phenomena OF the
age"
The presentation of these types in a
real way so that they should appear in
the action of the novel as living hui
man beings was of course where Bal.
FAC showed his art. The types, it is
true. were sometimes only types. mere /
distractions in paper and ink. But in |
hosts of instances they were as living
and human as any to be found in lit |
erature In the presentation of them |
Ealzac used not only. his imagination. ]
but what perhaps was of more account /
his immense power of observation and |
of study. The whole social life of /
France of his day was parceled out.
There was country life and city life; !