AUTHOR'S INTRODUCTION



In giving the general title of "The Human Comedy" to a work begun
nearly thirteen years since, it is necessary to explain its motive, to
relate its origin, and briefly sketch its plan, while endeavoring to
speak of these matters as though I had no personal interest in them.
This is not so difficult as the public might imagine. Few works
conduce to much vanity; much labor conduces to great diffidence. This
observation accounts for the study of their own works made by
Corneille, Moliere, and other great writers; if it is impossible to
equal them in their fine conceptions, we may try to imitate them in
this feeling.

The idea of _The Human Comedy_ was at first as a dream to me, one of
those impossible projects which we caress and then let fly; a chimera
that gives us a glimpse of its smiling woman's face, and forthwith
spreads its wings and returns to a heavenly realm of phantasy. But
this chimera, like many another, has become a reality; has its
behests, its tyranny, which must be obeyed.

The idea originated in a comparison between Humanity and Animality.

It is a mistake to suppose that the great dispute which has lately
made a stir, between Cuvier and Geoffroi Saint-Hilaire, arose from a
scientific innovation. Unity of structure, under other names, had
occupied the greatest minds during the two previous centuries. As we
read the extraordinary writings of the mystics who studied the
sciences in their relation to infinity, such as Swedenborg,