imagined than the one to be drawn of him from the
history of his intercourse with his brother and from Alfred's own letters
and verses to him. This, however, was not the person to give us such an
account and analysis of the life and character of Alfred de Musset as the
subject called for: he has neither the necessary impartiality nor ability.
He is now seventy years old, and although, like his brother, he has the
gift of appearing a decade less than his age, he is forced to remember that
the time must come when he will no longer be here to defend his brother's
memory, which has suffered more than one cruel attack. Having once had to
silence calumny under cover of fiction, he naturally wished to put his name
beyond the reach of being further traduced. Whatever the shortcomings of
the performance, it could not fail to be interesting. It is written in an
easy, well-bred style, like the author's way of talking--not without a
sense of humor, with touching pride in his brother's endowments, and
tenderness toward faults which he does not deny. In place of comprehensive
views and sound judgment of Alfred de Musset's genius and career, we have
the knowledge of absolute intimacy and sympathy, candor, a hoard of
reminiscences and details which could be gained from no other source, and,
more than all, that certainty as to events and motives which can exist only
where there has been a lifelong daily association without disguise or
distrust.

The family of Musset is old and gentle, and was adorned in early centuries
by soldiers of mark and statesmen of good counsel--the sort of lineage
which should bequeath high and honorable ideas, an inheritance of which
neither Paul nor Alfred de Musset nor their immediate forbears were
unworthy. A disposition to letters and poetry appears among their ancestry
on both sides, beginning in the twelfth century with Colin de Musset, a
sort of troubadour, a friend of Thibaut, count of Champagne, while the
poet's paternal grandmother bore the name of Du Bellay, so illustrious in
the annals of French literature. Alfred de Musset's parents were remarkable
for goodness of heart and high principle: both possessed an ideality which
showed itself with them in elevation of moral sentiments, and which passed
into the imaginative qualities of their sons. From remoter relatives on
both sides came a legacy of wit, promptness and point in retort, gayety
and good spirits. Alfred de Musset was born on the 11th of Decem