actors, whose existence becomes more prolonged and more authentic than
that of the generations which saw their birth, almost always live
solely on condition of their being a vast reflection of the present.
Conceived in the womb of their own period, the whole heart of humanity
stirs within their frame, which often covers a complete system of
philosophy. Thus Walter Scott raised to the dignity of the philosophy
of History the literature which, from age to age, sets perennial gems
in the poetic crown of every nation where letters are cultivated. He
vivified it with the spirit of the past; he combined drama, dialogue,
portrait, scenery, and description; he fused the marvelous with truth
--the two elements of the times; and he brought poetry into close
contact with the familiarity of the humblest speech. But as he had not
so much devised a system as hit upon a manner in the ardor of his
work, or as its logical outcome, he never thought of connecting his
compositions in such a way as to form a complete history of which each
chapter was a novel, and each novel the picture of a period.

It was by discerning this lack of unity, which in no way detracts from
the Scottish writer's greatness, that I perceived at once the scheme
which would favor the execution of my purpose, and the possibility of
executing it. Though dazzled, so to speak, by Walter Scott's amazing
fertility, always himself and always original, I did not despair, for
I found the source of his genius in the infinite variety of human
nature. Chance is the greatest romancer in the world; we have only to
study it. French society would be the real author; I should only be
the secretary. By drawing up an inventory of vices and virtues, by
collecting the chief facts of the passions, by depicting characters,
by choosing the principal incidents of social life, by composing types
out of a combination of homogeneous characteristics, I might perhaps
succeed in writing the history which so many historians have