The studies gathered here first appeared in Scribner's Magazine, the Atlantic Monthly, the North American Review, the New York Times, and the New York Sun.

CONTENTS
I.[A SENTIMENTAL EDUCATION: HENRY BEYLE-STENDHAL]
II.[THE BAUDELAIRE LEGEND]
III.[THE REAL FLAUBERT]
IV.[ANATOLE FRANCE]
V.[THE PESSIMISTS' PROGRESS: J.-K. HUYSMANS]
VI.[THE EVOLUTION OF AN EGOIST: MAURICE BARRÈS]
VII.[PHASES OF NIETZSCHE]
I.[THE WILL TO SUFFER]
II.[NIETZSCHE'S APOSTASY]
III.[ANTICHRIST?]
VIII.[MYSTICS]
I.[ERNEST HELLO]
II.["MAD NAKED BLAKE"]
III.[FRANCIS POICTEVIN]
IV.[THE ROAD TO DAMASCUS]
V.[FROM AN IVORY TOWER]
IX.[IBSEN]
X.[MAX STIRNER]

I

A SENTIMENTAL EDUCATION

HENRY BEYLE-STENDHAL

I

The fanciful notion that psychical delicacy is accompanied by a corresponding physical exterior should have received a death-blow in the presence of Henry Beyle, better known as Stendhal. Chopin, Shelley, Byron and Cardinal Newman did not in personal appearance contradict their verse, prose and music; but Stendhal, possessing an exquisite sensibility, was, as Hector Berlioz cruelly wrote in his Memoirs: "A little pot-bellied man with a spiteful smile, who tried to look grave." Sainte-Beuve is more explicit. "Physically his figure, though not short, soon grew thick-set and heavy, his neck short and full-blooded. His fleshy face was framed in dark curly hair and whiskers, which before his death were assisted by art. His forehead was fine: the nose turned up, and somewhat Calmuck in shape. His lower lip, which projected a little, betrayed his tendency to scoff. His eyes were rather small but very bright, deeply set in their cavities, and pleasing when he smiled. His hands, of which he was proud, were small and daintily shaped. In the last years of his life he grew heavy and apoplectic. But he always took great pains to conceal the symptoms of physical decay even from his own friends."