[438] F. Brunetière, op. cit., p. 153.
[439] F. Brunetière, op. cit., p. 156.
[440] ‘Everything is a mystery. Everything is a semblance. Nothing really exists.’ The saying of one of Arnaud’s patients afflicted with the mania of negation. See F. L. Arnaud, ‘Sur le Délire des Négations,’ Annales médico-psychologiques, 7e série, t. xvi., p. 387 et seq.
[441] I would lay humanity on a white page, all things, all beings, a work which would be a vast ark.’—E. Zola, preface to La Faute de l’Abbé Mouret, edition of 1875. ‘Throw yourself into the commonplace current of existence.’ ‘Choose for your hero a person in the simplicity of daily life.’ ‘No hollow apotheoses, no grand false sentiments, no ready-made formulæ.’—E. Zola, Le Roman expérimental, passim.
[442] The family of Kérangal has been the subject of many works, and is well known in technical literature. The last published work on them is due to Dr. Paul Aubry: ‘Une Famille de Criminels,’ Annales médico-psychologiques, 7e séries, t. xvi., p. 429 (reproduced in La Contagion du Meurtre, by the same author; Paris, 1894). See especially, pp. 432, 433, the curious genealogical tree of the family, in which Zola’s celebrated genealogical tree of the Rougon-Macquart and the Quenu-Gradelle can be immediately recognised.
[443] Brunetière, op. cit., p. iii.
[444] James Sully, Pessimism: A History and a Criticism. London, 1877, p. 411.
[445] Dr. Paul Sollier, Psychologie de l’Idiot et de l’Imbécile. Paris, 1891, p. 95.
[446] Catrou, Étude sur la Maladie des Tics convulsifs (Jumping, Latab, Myriachit). Paris, 1890.
[447] Lombroso, L’Uomo delinquente, etc., pp. 450-480.