He has circumnavigated, merely in the character
of amateur, every doctrine of the century; but though he has never
adopted one of them for his creed, when he abandoned them he seemed to
have betrayed them. Accused unjustly of treachery and apostasy, he has
done his best to confirm his reputation, and has ended by becoming the
enemy of those from whom at first he had only deserted. His error has
been in adulterating that which he might have put, with singular grace,
talents, and natural superiority, pure into currency,--in acting as if
literature were a war of treachery, where one was constantly obliged to
keep a sword in the hand and a poniard in the pocket. They say he is at
great pains to provide himself with an immense arsenal of defensive and
offensive weapons, that he may be able to crush those he loves to-day
and may detest to-morrow, and those he hates to-day and wishes to wreak
vengeance on hereafter. Monsieur Sainte-Beuve might have been the most
indisputable of authorities: he is only the most delightful of literary
curiosities."
Such was the language of Monsieur Jules Sandeau.
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