So Roumanille loved and cherished the melodious speech of the Rhone
valley. He hoped to see the _langue d'oc_ saved from destruction, he
strove against the invasion of the northern speech that threatened to
overwhelm it. He wrote sweet verses and preached the gospel of the
home-speech. One day he discovered a boy whom he calls "l'enfant
sublime," and the pupil soon carried his dreams to a realization far
beyond his fondest hopes. Not Roumanille, but Frédéric Mistral has made
the new Provençal literature what it is. In him were combined all the
qualities, all the powers requisite for the task, and the task grew with
time. It became more than a question of language. Mistral soon came to
seek not only the creation of an independent literature, he aimed at
nothing less than a complete revolution, or rather a complete rebirth,
of the mental life of southern France. Provence was to save her
individuality entire. Geographically at the central point of the lands
inhabited by the so-called Latin races, she was to regain her ancient
prominence, and cause the eyes of her sisters to turn her way once more
with admiration and affection. The patois of Saint-Rémy has been
developed and expanded into a beautiful literary language. The inertia
of the Provençals themselves has been overcome. There is undoubtedly a
new intellectual life in the Rhone valley, and the fame of the Félibres
and their great work has gone abroad into distant lands.

The purpose, then, of the present dissertation, will be to give an
account of the language of the Félibres, and to examine critically the
literary work of their acknowledged chief and guiding spirit, Frédéric
Mistral.

The story of his life he himself has told most admirably in the preface
to the first edition of _Lis Isclo d'Or_, published at Avignon in 1874.