literary merit; and, secondly, the discovery of Frédéric Mistral.

Among these new ideas, one that dominates henceforth in the story of the
Félibrige, is the idea of race. Mistral is well aware that there is no
Latin race, in the sense of blood relationship, of physical descent; he
knows that the so-called Latin race has, for the base of its unity, a
common history, a common tradition, a common religion, a common
language.

But he believes that there is a _race méridionale_ that has been
developed into a kind of unity out of the various elements that compose
it, through their being mingled together, and accumulating during many
centuries common memories, ideas, customs, and interests. So Mistral has
devoted himself to promoting knowledge of its history, traditions,
language, and religion. As the Félibrige grew, and as Mistral felt his
power as a poet grow, he sought a larger public; he turned naturally to
the peoples most closely related to his own, and Italy and Spain were
embraced in his sympathies. The Félibrige spread beyond the limits of
France first into Spain. Victor Balaguer, exiled from his native
country, was received with open arms by the Provençals. William
Bonaparte-Wyse, an Irishman and a grand-nephew of the first Napoleon,
while on a journey through Provence, had become converted to the
Felibrean doctrines, and became an active spirit among these poets and
orators. He organized a festival in honor of Balaguer, and when, later,
the Catalan poet was permitted to return home, the Catalans sent the
famous cup to their friends in Provence. For the Félibres this cup is an
emblem of the idea of a Latin federation, and as it passes from hand to
hand and from lip to lip at the Felibrean banquets, the scene is not
unlike that wherein the Holy Graal passes about among the Knights of the
Round Table.[3]