department of belles lettres which he did not attempt. He travelled in
Algeria, in Russia, in Turkey, in Spain, in Italy, in England, and wrote
accounts of his travels, which are among the most brilliant ever
printed. He was an assiduous critic of art, of the drama and of
literature, and the only charge which has ever been brought against his
work in this kind is that it is usually too lenient--that his fine
appreciation of even the smallest beauties has made him overlook gross
defects. His work in prose fiction was incessant, in poetry more
intermittent, and all the more perfect. When the Empire established
itself, Gautier, who had no political sympathies, but was, in an
undecided sort of way, a conservative from the aesthetic point of view,
accepted it. But he gave it no active support, beyond continuing to
contribute to the _Moniteur_, and received from it no patronage of any
kind. Nor did he sacrifice the least iota of principle, insisting, in
the very face of _Les Chatiments_, on having his praise of Victor Hugo
inserted in the official journal on pain of his instant resignation. He
led a pleasant but laborious life in one of the suburbs of Paris, with
a household of sisters, daughters, and cats, to all of whom he was
deeply attached. Here he lived through the Prussian siege. On the
restoration of order he manfully grappled with his journalist work
again, all hopes of lucrative appointments having gone with the Empire.
But his health had been broken for some time, and he died in 1872. The
works by which Gautier will be remembered are, in miscellaneous prose, a
remarkable series of studies on curious figures, chiefly of the
seventeenth century, called _Les Grotesques_, and a companion series on
the partakers in the movement of 1830, besides his descriptive books. In
novel writing there must be mentioned an unsurpassed collection of short
tales (the best of which is _La Morte Amoureuse_); _Le Roman de la
Momie_, a clever _tour de force_ reviving ancient Egyptian life; and,
lastly, _Le Capitaine Fracasse_, a novel in the manner of Dumas, but
fashioned in his own inimitable style. In verse, he wrote, besides work
already mentioned, the _Comedie de la Mort_, some miscellaneous poems of
later date, and, finally, the _Emaux et Camees_. In prose he is, as has
been said, the greatest recent master of the ornate style of French, as
Merimee is the greatest master of the simple style. His mastery over
mere language is accompani