keep no tavern
     His sleeplessness was not the insomnia of genius
     Importance in this world are as easily swept away as the sand
     Music—­so often dangerous to married happiness
     Natural longing, that we all have, to know the worst
     Notion of her husband’s having an opinion of his own
     Old women—­at least thirty years old! 
     Pride supplies some sufferers with necessary courage
     Seemed to enjoy themselves, or made believe they did
     Seldom troubled himself to please any one he did not care for
     Small women ought not to grow stout
     Sympathetic listening, never having herself anything to say
     The bandage love ties over the eyes of men
     The worst husband is always better than none
     This unending warfare we call love
     Unwilling to leave him to the repose he needed
     Waste all that upon a thing that nobody will ever look at
     Women who are thirty-five should never weep

THE INK STAIN BY RENE BAZIN

(Tache d’Encre)

By Rene Bazin

Preface by E. LAVISSE

RENE BAZIN

Rene-Nicholas-Marie Bazin was born at Angers, December 26, 1853.  He studied for the bar, became a lawyer and professor of jurisprudence at the Catholic University in his native city, and early contributed to ’Le Correspondant, L’Illustration, Journal des Debats, Revue du Deux Mondes,’ etc.  Although quietly writing fiction for the last fifteen years or so, he was not well known until the dawn of the twentieth century, when his moral studies of provincial life under the form of novels and romances became appreciated.  He is a profound psychologist, a force in literature, and his style is very pure and attractive.  He advocates resignation and the domestic virtues, yet his books are neither dull, nor tiresome, nor priggish; and as he has advanced in years and experience M. Bazin has shown an increasing ambition to deal with larger problems than are involved for instance, in the innocent love-affairs of ‘Ma Tante Giron’ (1886), a book which enraptured Ludovic Halevy.  His novel, ’Une Tache d’Encre’ (1888), a romance of scholarly life, was crowned by the French Academy, to which he was elected in 1903.

It is safe to say that Bazin will never develop into an author dangerous to morals.  His works may be put into the hands of cloistered virgins, and there are not, to my knowledge, many other contemporary French imaginative writers who could endure this stringent test.  Some critics, indeed, while praising him, scoff at his chaste and surprising optimism; but it is refreshing to recommend to English readers, in these days of Realism and Naturalism, the works of a recent French writer which do not require maturity of years in the reader.  ‘Une Tache d’Encre’, as I have said, was crowned by the French Academy; and Bazin received from the same exalted body the “Prix Vitet” for the ensemble of his writings in 1896, being finally admitted a member of the Academy in June, 1903.  He occupies the chair of Ernest Legouve.