t from
a nervously sick great-grandmother grows a sick family. But the one
who would think that her nervousness is seen in descendants as it is
in the physical field, in a certain similar way, in some inclination
or passion for something, will be greatly mistaken. On the contrary,
the marvellous tree produces different kinds of fruit. You can find
on it red apples, pears, plums, cherries, and everything you might
desire. And all that on account of great-grandmother's nervousness. Is
it the same way in nature? We do not know. Zola himself does not have
any other proofs than clippings from newspapers, describing different
crimes; he preserved these clippings carefully as "human documents,"
and which he uses according to his fancy.

It can be granted to him, but he must not sell us such fancy for
the eternal and immutable laws of nature. Grandmother did have
nervousness, her nearest friends were in the habit of searching for
remedies against ills not in a drug-store, therefore her male and
female descendants are such as they must be--namely, criminals,
thieves, fast women, honest people, saints, politicians, good mothers,
bankers, farmers, murderers, priests, soldiers, ministers--in a word,
everything which in the sphere of the mind, in the sphere of health,
in the sphere of wealth and position, in the sphere of profession, can
be and are men as well as women in the whole world. One is stupefied
voluntarily. What then? And all that on account of grandmother's
nervousness? "Yes!" answers the author. But if Adelaide Fouque had not
had it, her descendants would be good or bad just the same and have
the same occupations men and women usually have in this world.
"Certainly!" Zola answers; "but Adelaide Fouque had nervousness." And
further discussion is impossible, because one has to do with a man who
his own voluntary fancy takes for a law of nature and his brain cannot
be opened with a key furnished by logic. He built a genealogical tree;
this tree could have been different--but if it was different, he would
sustain that it can be only such as it is--and he would prefer to be
killed rather than be convinced that his theory was worthless.

At any rate, it is such a theory that it is not worth while to
quarrel about it. A long time ago it was said that Zola had one good
thing--his talent; and one bad--his doctrine. If as a consequence of
an inherited nervousness one can become a rascal as well as a good
man, a Sister of Charit