inquire from them how far their aspirations were sincere, how long they
preserved their vitality and truth? Who has not exerted an ingenious
discernment to ascertain how much of the generous feeling depicted
was only for mental amusement, a mere speculation; how much had really
become incorporated with the habitual acts of life? Detraction is never
idle in such cases; it seizes eagerly upon the foibles, the neglect, the
faults of those who have been degraded by any weakness: alas, it omits
nothing! It chases its prey, it accumulates facts only to distort them,
it arrogates to itself the right of despising the inspiration to which
it will grant no authority or aim but to furnish amusement, denying
it any claim to guide our actions, our resolutions, our refusal, our
consent! Detraction knows well how to winnow history! Casting aside all
the good grain, it carefully gathers all the tares, to scatter the black
seed over the brilliant pages in which the purest desires of the heart,
the noblest dreams of the imagination are found; and with the irony of
assumed victory, demands what the grain is worth which only germinates
dearth and famine? Of what value the vain words, which only nourish
sterile feelings? Of what use are excursions into realms in which
no real fruit can ever be gathered? of what possible importance are
emotions and enthusiasm, which always end in calculations of interest,
covering only with brilliant veil the covert struggles of egotism and
venal self-interest?

With how much arrogant derision men given to such detraction, contrast
the noble thoughts of the poet, with his unworthy acts! The high
compositions of the artist, with his guilty frivolity! What a haughty
superiority they assume over the laborious merit of the men of guileless
honesty, whom they look upon as crustacea, sheltered from temptation
by the immobility of weak organizations, as well as over the pride of
those, who, believing themselves superior to such temptations, do not,
they assert, succeed even as well as themselves in repudiating the
pursuit of material well being, the gratification of vanity, or the
pleasure of immediate enjoyment! What an easy triumph they win over the
hesitation, the doubt, the repugnance of those who would fain cling to
a belief in the possibility of the union of vivid feelings, passionate
impressions, intellectual gifts, imaginative temperaments, with high
integrity, pure lives, and courses of conduct in perfect