Thus Musset pricks a critical bubble with the point of his satire; and
yet the bubble declines to vanish. There must really be some more
substantial difference than this between classic and romantic, for the
terms persist and are found useful. It may be true that the romantic
temper, being subjective and excited, tends to an excess in adjectives;
the adjective being that part of speech which attributes qualities, and
is therefore most freely used by emotional persons. Still it would be
possible to cut out all the adjectives, not strictly necessary, from one
of Tieck's _Märchen_ without in the slightest degree disturbing its
romantic character.

It remains to add that romanticism is a word which faces in two
directions. It is now opposed to realism, as it was once opposed to
classicism. As, in one way, its freedom and lawlessness, its love of
novelty, experiment, "strangeness added to beauty," contrast with the
classical respect for rules, models, formulae, precedents, conventions;
so, in another way, its discontent with things as they are, its idealism,
aspiration, mysticism contrast with the realist's conscientious adherence
to fact. "Ivanhoe" is one kind of romance; "The Marble Faun" is
another.[20]


[1] Les définitions ne se posent pas _a priori_, si ce n'est peutêtre en
mathématiques. En histoire, c'est de l'étude patiente de is la réalité
qu'elles se dégagent insensiblement. Si M. Deschanel ne nous a pas donné
du _romantisme_ la définition que nous réclamions tout à l'heure, c'est,
à vrai dire, que son enseignement a pour objet de préparer cette
définition même. Nous la trouverons où elle doit être, à la fin du cours
et non pas à début.--_F. Brunetière: "Classiques et Romantiques, Études
Critiques," _Tome III, p. 296.