The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-08-18
XXI. BALZAC.
(Concluded.)

(Concluded)
BalZac's analytic studies are lmiiia-
ture and call for little notice. We may
pass also in silence his dramas and the
somewhat vulgar humor of the "Droll
Stories" which are no part of the Hu-
man Comedy The 'Philosponic STUD
les" on the other hand, contain Bal
kzacs most thoughtful work. mystic
sometimes but often strangely fascl-
mating. Of these The Wild ASS Skin
is best known, but some choice spirits
will always prefer Jesus Christ In
Flanders" and yet others find the tran
scendent expressions of BalZac's genius
in ''Seraphita." But, indeed, TINS genius
is so manifold that no one book can
give it adequate scope, nor can any
critic devise for it comprehensive lor-
mula.
The dominant trait in BalZac,
whether we consider his style, his mag
nation or his thought, is eXuberant VIZ
ility In this ne reflects the struggle
of the human mind in his generation,
as in ours, with an ever-widenlng sea
of things to be known. of forces 10 De
CONQUERED. of complex interests to De
reconciled. He was wholly of the world,
vet he dominated it. Nothing human
was foreign to him-neither Srossness,
l:or sensuality. nor luxury, nor the pas
sion of the artist and the dilettante-
and vet. perhaps because of this very
intensity of physical and material he,
he was haunted with questions OF social
and political economy, or morals, OF re-
ligfon and of mysticism. To say, Win
Henry James, that the handspring Oh
the Human Comedy is the 5-franc piece
is to see only one side, and that the
lowest side of its character. "BalZac,
says Taine. put into his novels poll,
tics, psychology, metaphysics and All
the legitimate and spurious children OF
philosophy. Many are fatigued by IT,
and reject 'Seraphita' and Louis Lam
bert but they should observe that
these works terminate the wnole. Just
as the flower terminates the plant; the
genius of the artist finds here its COM
plete expression and final evolution;
that all the rest prepares for them, eN-
plains them, presuppoSeS them, Justi-
fies them"
Balzac's style was sometimes heavy,
but this was due rather to over-eIap-
Grafton than to carelessness. Here, as
so often, the style is the man. 1t seeks
less to convey thoughts in logical Sc
quence than to suggest images in PIC
turesdue succession. 1t is suggestive
stimulating. thrilled throughout with
creative imagination, and in its nlSheSt
flights, as in the description OF the oou-
quet in THE Lily In the Valley. al
most intoxicating. On the other hanu'
it is often commonplace and OCCASION
ally dull. There is little sparkle in the
conversations, little repartee or fenclhs
of wit, and what there Is Is not al" ayS
of the best.
In construction, the novels as stories
will seem l-proportioned, but not so
If we look at them as studies or char
acter. They are slow in gaining head
way. but once started, they seldom lose
momentum The descriptions of scene
and person. of street, house, room, tGr-
niture, clothes, seem wearisomely M
mute. We can almost count the steps
of Grandet's stairway and the fiyspecks
on the walls of GCriots boarding house;
and yet if we have patience at the out
set. the ultimate effect of this is 10
make Balzac's figure real to deGree
that no other novelist attains. unless
it be his pupil, Flaubert, in .Mad3ne
Bovary" and in Sentimental Educa-
ticn." lola has sought to rival nim'
but, as we shall see, his strength lies
elsewhere.
Balzac is greater in character tnan
in plot. We remember the actors long
; fter we have forgotten the story. MOST
of his persons are realistic studies from
life. hut perhaps the most interesting
are the few who stand out as symbolic
of social tendencies and OF the forces
that move the modern World. Such
are Vautrin. Philippe Bridau, Maudn.e
Marneffe, Old Grandet, LOUIS LdiilpeI''
Seraphita and many others tnat nurse
and widen the scope of imagination as
II is given only to the greatest creauVe
artists to do 1t is these that put bai,
FAC in the category of Shakespeare anu
Goethe in his genius, though he is lar
below them as an artist
RaIzac combines in his philosophy Oh
life the materialist and the mystic- ne
sought the answers TO the rlddleS vi
existence in his intultions anu saNe
surh gilnpses of them as he perceived
He tried to see life steadily and whole,
to correlate all the material, social ana
moral factors that compose IL, ana 10
hiring all into relation to supersensual
munitions. a task in which none has yet
succeeded. and perhaps none ever VIII.
Yet that a novelist made the attempt
was to add to the dignity OF notion
and that he prosecuted the quest Win
unremitting energy for more IMAM
twenty wears makes him worthy OF ad-
riring recognition. But to lofty am
bition and unremitting toll BalZae add
ed the touch of genius that. as the
greatest of French poets, Victor hugo,
said at his grave, disclosed in sudden
revelations the most somber and tragic
ideals of life, that dug into and sound
ed the depths of the abyss that is IN
every heart. and then could rise from
those terrible analyses of human cnar-
acter that had made Moliere melan-
choIv and Rousseau G misanthrope, still
smiling in serene calm. He is unique
in the annals of fiction the world over.
No novelist has seen into life so deeply
or embraced so much of it in the scope
of his vision as Honore de Balzac.