reputation for eccentricity and bizarre conduct. This expression, however, was not a lasting one. In the Paris of 1840, after reaching the age of thirty and having accepted certain personal responsibilities, Gautier found that this particular means of selfindulgence was on the whole of adverse effect; he had, for his own well-being, to earn a living, and in order that he might do this as a feuilletoniste of the day, certain eccentricities had necessarily to be abandoned. Originality in combination with production was of more importance to him, but even here the quality, as such, was of little value when compared to other requirements of artistic work. One of the author's biographers writes that "dans la vie privée comme en littérature, Théophile Gautier était moins friand d'originalité qu'ennemi-né du vulgaire et du commun (43), and he himself, in his earliest critical work as in his latest, felt that originality's contribution to art was of secondary importance:

"... L'originalité n'est que la note personnelle ajoutée au fonds commun préparé par les contemporains ou les prédécesseurs immédiats.

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Lans l'art comme dans la réalité, on est toujours fils de quelqu'un, même quand le père est renié par l'enfant . ."(44).

It is difficult, given Gautier's strong self-feeling, to understand why original creation was not among the most profound of his desires. He did wish to create his choice of profession alone is sufficient indication of this-but what he called his creation was frequently a work of construction in which he voluntarily neglected originality. The explanation of this attitude can become quite clear only with the knowledge of Gautier as a whole, of the exigencies of his æsthetic sentiment, his technical gifts, and his means for economy of effort. In a certain measure, however, it was based on his emotions. Gautier desired to do creative work; by it his self-esteem would be heightened; his tendency toward construction inclined him to it. He mourns Jules de Goncourt, "mort de son métier, comme nous mourrons tous de la perpétuelle tension de l'esprit, de l'effort sans repos, de la lutte avec la difficulté créée à plaisir, de la fatigue de rouler ce bloc de la phrase, plus pesant que celui de Sisyphe" (45). This profession he had chosen, and at least some of its difficulties

were admittedly a pleasure to him. When, however, this inclination to creation came into conflict with Gautier's need for earning a living, its strength was not sufficient to ensure its victory over his desire for protection; journalistic work, instead of creative writing, prose instead of poetry, were frequently the result (46). The force of anger was absent in Gautier; he was not impelled to fight against adverse conditions. On the contrary, fear was strong in him,-a fear which worked through the tender emotions as consideration for others and was organized as a part of his self-regarding sentiment by the connection of these others with himself. His curiosity, of moderate strength, but not organized into a sentiment for research, rather favoured non-original production; omnivorous reading, a number of details rediscovered and assembled anew, will make for entertaining journalism and will not necessarily facilitate creative writing. The impulse to creation, with its specific and intimate addition to self-esteem, is not enough always to combat successfully other methods of personal enhancement. Thus, taken on its emotional basis alone, creation for its own sake cannot be expected to appear as the strongest incentive or determinant in the work of Théophile Gautier.

A much more vital form of the author's self-regarding sentiment existed in his desire for permanence. The perpetuation of an individual is indeed one of his best means for acquiring value; the desire for longevity and for immortality are constant manifestations of his interest in himself. Gautier expressed his agreement in this general desire on many occasions. He pitied the actor whose fame was only of a day, whose reputation did not survive popular applause; he envied the great of former centuries, who still lived through their works in his own age. He was moved by anything of the past which survived its time. So he looked with awe on the knights of the Kremlin:

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Ces chevaliers ont fort grande mine; ils jouent la vie à s'y méprendre; on pourrait croire qu'un cœur bat sous leurs cottes de mailles. Ces armures du moyen âge ainsi dressées nous causent toujours une espèce de frisson involontaire. Elles conservent si fidèlement la forme extérieure de l'homme à jamais disparu!" (47)

It startled him to think that the most ephemeral objects might, after all, be the most lasting, and when he came upon perfectlypreserved flowers pressed against the body of a mummy, the discovery made him pensive.

"Qui avait mis là ces pauvres fleurs comme un adieu suprême au moment où le corps regretté allait disparaître sous le premier enroulement de bandelettes. Des fleurs de quatre mille ans, cette fragilité et cette éternitécela fait une impression singulière" (48).

The man who received popular glory was destined to disappear; the work of original creation, however, may last. If the individual can achieve something characteristic of himself and yet something lasting, he will not perish utterly. Gautier received thus from his desire for permanence a stimulus to production quite extraneous to the pleasure inherent in the activity.

"Sourd comme saint Antoine à la tentation,

J'ai poursuivi mon œuvre avec religion,

L'œuvre de mon amour, qui, mort, me fera vivre,

Et ma journée ajoute un feuillet à mon livre "(49).

There is a great incentive to creation in this phase of Gautier's sentiment of self-regard, and the form of creation which is most nearly permanent will be found to be of greatest interest to him.

The term philosophical sentiment may be used to designate Gautier's general attitude toward the non-self, his evaluation of existence. It is built up largely from his emotional tendencies to fear, self-feeling and tenderness, as responses to the situations which he constantly meets. It is influenced also by a lack of organization of his curiosity. The sentiment is characterized by a certain respect for various objects on the one hand, and by a certain contempt of all things on the other. Gautier is at the same time reverent and nihilistic; he grants to all things outside himself a certain worth, and gives them some admiration; he denies them in general any great worth, and cultivates an impassive attitude toward them. The combination of these contradictory attitudes is important for the understanding of certain phases of Gautier's creative imagination; and its existence can be comprehended in a man with his emotional tendencies.

Reverence, a product of his fear and admiration, is felt by

Gautier in regard to various objects, for everything, indeed, which has extraordinary or superhuman qualities of activity and power. "C'est une si douce chose d'admirer" (50), and fear is so frequent a reaction, that the combination of these two emotions becomes a constant response to many situations in which the author finds himself. He feels reverence for all things which have, in fact or in thought, affected the lives of men by their unusual influence; he feels it likewise for any mysterious and unexplained force which may come to bear upon him and his surroundings. Great men and great ideas command his awe; anything possibly supernatural awakes in him a superstitious dread. Gautier loves animals, but his interest in them is more than an affectionate one and is tinged by the curiosity and fear which he feels in their presence just because they are incomprehensible :

"Les animaux ont des instincts d'une mystérieuse profondeur; ils voient ce qui souvent échappe à l'œil distrait de l'homme, et on dirait que plusieurs d'entre eux possèdent le sentiment du surnaturel "(51).

The author is preoccupied with animals from a philosophical point of view, for they are characterized by "un mystère incompréhensible que leur silence permet d'interpréter de mille façons." He does not agree with the hypotheses of Descartes and of the Père Bougeant in regard to their nature: "toujours est-il que cette création muette, vivant autour de nous et soumise à des lois fatales, a quelque chose qui préoccupe l'imagination" (52). A cause for this interest may be the relative place of animals in the scale of creation:

"Ils voudraient entrer en communication avec nous et nous demander de compléter leur instinct. L'idée d'une existence supérieure les agite vaguement, et ils ont le désir d'y atteindre. Nous leur produisons le même effet que des dieux nous produiraient, s'il en descendait sur la terre " (53).

Animals, indeed, are part of a whole universe which commands awe, and Gautier lived in a time when, according to his own analysis, a vague pantheism was becoming more and more prevalent among artists. "Tout prend de l'importance, rien n'est à dédaigner; la plante a son âme comme la bête, et Dieu se joue partout à travers la nature" (54). The author felt this rever

ence for all forms of life, just as he felt respect for every conception of God, of a superhuman force in the world, which had had influence on the lives of men:

Ces symboles d'un sens si profond (les dieux grecs), revêtus par la plastique grecque de ces admirables formes qu'aucun art n'a pu encore surpasser, n'ont, d'ailleurs, jamais pu être complètement abolis; ils tiennent leur place dans nos mœurs, dans notre poésie, dans notre peinture et dans notre statuaire; toutes les galanteries adressées aux femmes sont tirées de ce fonds inépuisable, et le romantisme, qui a produit de si beaux et de si glorieux résultats, n'a pu trouver une nouvelle formule de madrigale; il nous semble donc assez hasardeux de parler légèrement de Jupiter, qui doit vivre encore dans quelque recoin d'Olympe oublié; car des millions d'hommes qui se croyaient fort sensés, et qui l'étaient assurément sous tous les autres rapports, ont cru fermement à son immortalité et à celle des autres dieux.

"Toutes les formes de religion, soit vivantes, soit tombées en désuétude, sont respectables, car elles ont pour principe la conscience de la faiblesse humaine, le désir d'un appui céleste et le besoin d'expliquer par une ou plusieurs des puissances suprêmes le merveilleux phénomène de la création; sentiments sublimes qui distinguent avant toute chose l'homme de la brute, et nous trouvons que les religions en vigueur ne sont pas assez respectueuses envers les religions devenues simplement des mythologies "(55).

When he is present at a spectacle which ridicules the ancient gods, Gautier is made unhappy by it:

"Pendant tout ce prologue, où les anciennes divinités sont raillées fort lestement, et, moins l'indécence, un peu à la manière de la Guerre des Dieux de Parny, nous éprouvions une espèce de malaise; car, en général, nous n'aimons pas à voir traiter irrévérencieusement quelque mythologie que ce soit "(56).

Philosophically as well as artistically he approves Chenavard's project for the decoration of the Panthéon:

"Jéhovah, Brahman, Jupiter, Allah, qu'importe le nom, c'est toujours l'infini, l'éternel, l'incompréhensible, le jour sans ombre, la sagesse sans erreur, le torrent de la vie, le fluide imparticulaire qui traverse les univers compactes, qui se meut dans nous et dans lequel nous nous mouvons, le suprême amour, la suprême intelligence et la suprême justice" (57).

Gautier's reverence for the powerful and the supernatural is extended even to the manifestations of chance. His father could recognize his writing by a phrase which expressed such an attitude :

"Nous avons quatre lettres de la Croix de Berny qu'Ernesta nous a envoyée. La 3e signée Edgard de Meilhan nous a paru la tienne, 'le hasard c'est peut-être le pseudonyme de Dieu quand il ne veut pas signer,' quel autre que toi a ces idées-là?" (58)