and to enjoy. His famous book on the Latin Mystique (1892), almost a masterpiece, revealed his bent for criticism—understood in the broadest sense of the word and of the idea. From then on, while he continued to write stories and poems from time to time, his richest and most important books, the books that perfectly express him, were his books of criticism. One who desires to know and love him should read the two Livres des Masques (1896 and 1898), L’Esthétique de la Langue Française (1889), La Culture des Idées (1900), Le Chemin de Velours (1902), Le Problème du Style (1902), and the several volumes in which he collected his extensive contributions to the Mercure de France; the Promenades Littéraires, the Promenades Philosophiques, the Epilogues, the Dialogues des Amateurs.
Thousands and thousands of pages; hundreds and hundreds of subjects and of thoughts: one motive, one man, with kindly, mobile, piercing eyes.
III
The dominant principle of Gourmont’s great inquiry is to be sought in the essay on the Dissociation des idées, in the book called La Culture des idées.
I do not mean to imply that the whole of Gourmont is to be found in this passionless dis-
