who inaugurated their work at the Château of Font-Ségugne, had no
thought of imitating the Pléiade either in the choice of the number
seven or in the reformation they were about to undertake.

They began their propaganda by founding an annual publication called the
_Armana Prouvençau_, which has appeared regularly since 1855, and many
of their writings were first printed in this official magazine. Of the
seven, Aubanel alone besides Mistral has attained celebrity as a poet,
and these two with Roumanille have been usually associated in the minds
of all who have followed the movement with interest as its three
leaders.

Mistral completed _Mirèio_ in 1859. The poem was presented by Adolphe
Dumas and Jean Reboul to Lamartine, who devoted to it one of the
"Entretiens" of his _Cours familier de littérature_. This article of
Lamartine, and his personal efforts on behalf of Mistral, contributed
greatly to the success of the poem. Lamartine wrote among other things:
"A great epic poet is born! A true Homeric poet in our own time; a poet,
born like the men of Deucalion, from a stone on the Crau, a primitive
poet in our decadent age; a Greek poet at Avignon; a poet who has
created a language out of a dialect, as Petrarch created Italian; one
who, out of a vulgar _patois_, has made a language full of imagery and
harmony delighting the imagination and the ear.... We might say that,
during the night, an island of the Archipelago, a floating Delos, has
parted from its group of Greek or Ionian islands and come silently to
join the mainland of sweet-scented Provence, bringing along one of the
divine singers of the family of the Melesigenes."

Mistral went to Paris, where for a time he was the lion of the literary
world. The French Academy crowned his poem, and Gounod composed the