dislike to the new models. His _Norma_ has the merit of
having at least suggested the libretto of one of the most popular of
modern operas, and his _Une Fete sous Neron_ is not devoid of merit.
Soumet was in the early days of the movement a kind of outsider in it,
and it cannot be said that at any time he became an enemy, or that his
work is conspicuous for any fatal defects according to the new method of
criticism. A deficiency of initiative, rather than, as in Delavigne's
case, a preference of inferior models, seems to have been the reason why
he did not advance further.

[Sidenote: The Romantic Propaganda in Periodicals.]

It was, however, reserved for a younger generation actually to cross the
Rubicon, and to achieve the reform which was needed. The assistance
which the vast spread of periodical literature lent to such an attempt
has been already noted, and it was in four periodical publications that
the first definite note of the literary revolution was sounded. In these
the movement was carried on for many years before the famous
representation of _Hernani_, which announced the triumph of the
innovators. These four publications were: first, _Le Conservateur
Litteraire_ (a journal published as early as 1819, before the _Odes_ of
Victor Hugo, who was one of its main-stays, or even the _Meditations_ of
Lamartine had appeared); secondly, the _Annales Romantiques_, which
began in 1823, with perhaps the most brilliant list of contributors that
any periodical--with the possible exception of the nearly contemporary
_London Magazine_--ever had; a list including Chateaubriand, Lamennais,
Lamartine, Joseph de Maistre (posthumously), Alfred de Vigny, Henri de
Latouche, Hugo, Nodier, Beranger, Casimir Delavigne, Madame
Desbordes-Valmore, and Delphine Gay, afterwards Madame de Girardin.
Although not formally, this was practically a kind of annual of the
_Muse Francaise_, which had pretty nearly the same contributors, and
conducted the warfare in more definitely polemical manner by criticism
and precept, as well as by example. Lastly, there was the important
newspaper--a real newspaper this--called _Le Globe_, which appeared in
1822. The other Romantic organs had been either colourless as regards
politics, or else more or less definitely conservative and monarchical,
the middle age influence being still strong. The _Globe_ was avowedly
liberal in politics. Men of the greatest eminence in various ways,
Jouffroy, Damiron, Pierre