first came into prominence through some verses read at his tomb.]

A small, trained tiger shut up in a tiny cage. He has all the tricks of
a cat; he mews like one, he lets you stroke his back, and there are
times when his fiercer instincts show in his eyes. Then you realize that
he is thinking: "How I should love to eat you up!"




THE NATURALISTS


_Flaubert_

Flaubert is a heavy-footed animal. It is plain that he is a Norman. All
his work has great specific gravity. He disgusts me. One of Flaubert's
master strokes was the conception of the character of Homais, the
apothecary, in _Madame Bovary_. I cannot see, however, that Homais
is any more stupid than Flaubert himself, and he may even be less so.

_The Giants_

The good Zola, vigorous, dull and perspiring, dubbed his contemporaries,
the French naturalistic novelists, "Giants." What an imagination was
possessed by Zola!

These "Giants" were none other than the Goncourts, whose insignificance
approached at times imbecility, and in addition, Alphonse Daudet, with
the air of a cheap comedian and an armful of mediocre books--a truly