And nobody need be afraid, from a social point of view, for
Sienkiewicz's objectivity. It is a manly lyricism as well as epic,
made deep by the knowledge of the life, sustained by thinking, until
now perhaps unconscious of itself, the poetry of a writer who walked
many roads, studied many things, knew much bitterness, ridiculed many
triflings, and then he perceived that a man like himself has only one
aim: above human affairs "to spin the love, as the silkworm spins its
web."

S.C. DE SOISSONS.

"THE UNIVERSITY," CAMBRIDGE, MASS.




PART SECOND


SO RUNS THE WORLD


ZOLA.


I have a great respect for every accomplished work. Every time I put
on the end of any of my works _finis_, I feel satisfied; not because
the work is done, not on account of future success, but on account of
an accomplished deed.