[257] Th. Gautier, quoted by M. Guyau, loc. cit., p. 270.

[258] Printed in L’Écho de Paris, No. 2,972, July 8, 1892.

[259] Théodore de Banville, Petit Traité de Poésie française. 2e édition revue. Paris, 1880, pp. 54, 64.

[260] M. Guyau, loc. cit., pp. 264, 265.

[261] Compare with the above Tolstoi’s opinion on the same subject: ‘He is violently hostile to all rhymed verse. Rhythm and rhyme chain down thought, and all that is opposed to the most complete formation possible of the idea is an evil.... Tolstoi ... regards the decline in our esteem for poetry in verse as a progress.’—Raphael Löwenfeld, Gespräche über und mit Tolstoi. Berlin, 1891, p. 77.

[262]

‘Prince, je mens. Sous les Gémeaux

Ou l’Amphore, faire en son livre

Rimer entre eux de noble mots,

C’est la seule douceur de vivre.’