eral figures in the middle-distance, who, though
less conspicuous than these, nevertheless, offer the reader an example
of domestic virtue: Joseph Lebas, Genestas, Benassis, Bonnet the cure,
Minoret the doctor, Pillerault, David Sechard, the two Birotteaus,
Chaperon the priest, Judge Popinot, Bourgeat, the Sauviats, the
Tascherons, and many more. Do not all these solve the difficult literary
problem which consists in making a virtuous person interesting?

It was no small task to depict the two or three thousand conspicuous
types of a period; for this is, in fact, the number presented to us by
each generation, and which the Human Comedy will require. This crowd of
actors, of characters, this multitude of lives, needed a setting--if
I may be pardoned the expression, a gallery. Hence the very natural
division, as already known, into the Scenes of Private Life, of
Provincial Life, of Parisian, Political, Military, and Country Life.
Under these six heads are classified all the studies of manners which
form the history of society at large, of all its _faits et gestes_, as
our ancestors would have said. These six classes correspond, indeed, to
familiar conceptions. Each has its own sense and meaning, and answers to
an epoch in the life of man. I may repeat here, but very briefly, what
was written by Felix Davin--a young genius snatched from literature by
an early death. After being informed of my plan, he said that the Scenes
of Private Life represented childhood and youth and their errors, as
the Scenes of Provincial Life represented the age of passion, scheming,
self-interest, and ambition. Then the Scenes of Parisian Life give a
picture of the tastes and vice and unbridled powers which conduce to
the habits peculiar to great cities, where the extremes of good and
evil meet. Each of these divisions has its local color--Paris and
the Provinces--a great social antithesis which held for me immense
resources.

And not man alone, but the principal events of life, fall into classes
by types. There are situations which occur in every life, typical
phases, and this is one of the details I most sought after. I have tried
to give an idea of the different districts of our fine country. My work
has its geography, as it has its genealogy and its families, its places
and things, its persons and their deeds; as it has its heraldry, its
nobles and commonalty, its artisans and peasants, its politicians and
dandies, its army--in short, a who