in the present work. Briefly, the genesis of "Fruitfulness" lies in the
article I have quoted.

* See _Nouvelle Campagne_ (1896), par Emile Zola.
Paris, 1897, pp. 217-228.

"Fruitfulness" is a book to be judged from several standpoints. It would
be unjust and absurd to judge it from one alone, such, for instance, as
that of the new social religion to which I have referred. It must be
looked at notably as a tract for the times in relation to certain
grievous evils from which France and other countries--though more
particularly France--are undoubtedly suffering. And it may be said that
some such denunciation of those evils was undoubtedly necessary, and that
nobody was better placed to pen that denunciation than M. Zola, who,
alone of all French writers nowadays, commands universal attention.
Whatever opinion may be held of his writings, they have to be reckoned
with. Thus, in preparing "Fruitfulness," he was before all else
discharging a patriotic duty, and that duty he took in hand in an hour of
cruel adversity, when to assist a great cause he withdrew from France and
sought for a time a residence in England, where for eleven months I was
privileged to help him in maintaining his incognito. "Fruitfulness" was
entirely written in England, begun in a Surrey country house, and
finished at the Queen's Hotel, Norwood.

It would be superfluous for me to enter here into all the questions which
M. Zola raises in his pages. The evils from which France suffers in
relation to the stagnancy of its population, are well known, and that
their continuance--if continuance there be--will mean the downfall of the
country from its position as one of the world's great powers before the
close of the twentieth century, is a mathematical certainty. That M.