But he had another, over which a very faithful public has undertaken to watch. The people, who never forget what has profoundly touched them, have guarded the memory of Paul and Virginia. They love these two children, so beautiful, so unhappy; and we still, find in the homes of the peasants penny engravings of Épinde's picture in glaring colours, in which are represented their games, their young love and their tragical end. On a day of inspiration Bernardin de Saint-Pierre conquered the glory, enviable above all others, and which is given to few; he created imaginary but living characters, beings who never existed, and who nevertheless remain more real and more alive than thousands of creatures of flesh and blood; more alive, if I dare to say so, than the heroes and heroines of his most illustrious disciples. Jocelyn is already forgotten by the world, Atala is no more than an empty shadow, but the popular imagination will for a long time yet keep in mind the little Virginia sheltering her Paul under her petticoat, and those two laughing heads flying together in the shower.
FOOTNOTES:
[24] The Biography, by Aimé Martin.
[25] That is to say to the class of French language and literature at the Institute which the French Academy revived, except for the title, at the time of the reorganisation of the Institute by Bonaparte. (Decreed January 22, 1803.)
[26] We give the titles of them: De la Nature de la morale (1798), Voyage en Silésie (1807), La Mort de Socrate, drama (1808), Empsael and la Pierre d'Abraham, philosophical novels in the form of dialogues, le Café de Surate—fragments on Rousseau, some accounts of travels, some pamphlets and fragments of the Amazon.
[27] See the fragments of the Amazon.
THE END.