on Balzac:

"The fault in the artist which amounts most completely to a failure of
dignity is the absence of _saturation with his idea_. When
saturation fails, no other real presence avails, as when, on the other
hand, it operates, no failure of method fatally interferes."

I now offer two illustrations of the effect of this saturation, one
to show that the failure of method does not prevent successful effect,
the other to show that when it is combined with the necessary secondary
qualities the perfection of the art is reached.

In illustration of the first point, I recall an experience in the
north of England when the head mistress of an elementary school asked
me to hear a young inexperienced girl tell a story to a group of very
small children.

When she began, I felt somewhat hopeless, because of the complete
failure of method. She seemed to have all the faults most damaging to
the success of a speaker. Her voice was harsh, her gestures awkward,
her manner was restless and melodramatic; but, as she went on I soon
began to discount all these faults and, in truth, I soon forgot about
them, for so absorbed was she in her story, so saturated with her
subject, that she quickly communicated her own interest to her
audience, and the children were absolutely spellbound.

The other illustration is connected with a memorable peep behind the
stage, when the late M. Coquelin had invited me to see him in the
greenroom between the first and second acts of "L'abbe Constantin," one
of the plays given during his last season in London, the year before his