Page:The Writings of Prosper Merimee-Volume 7.djvu/18

vi PROSPER MERIMEE with him!" Intolerable to him was the idea of being a dupe, and he resolved thereupon to overcome a sensitive- ness which had caused him such humiliation. He kept his word. " Remember to mistrust," such was his motto.

To guard against every manifestation of pleasure, never to abandon himself unreservedly to the expression of emotion, to be tricked neither by others nor by himself, in his conduct and his writings to have in view the con- stant presence of an unsympathetic, mocking spectator; to be himself that spectator — ^these are the most distinguish- ing characteristics of his nature, of which every phase of his hfe, of his work, and of his talent bears the imprint.'

His attitude was always that of an amateur; it can hardly be otherwise with one who is endowed with the critical temperament. From turning the tapestry around and around, one ends by seeing nothing but the wrong side; and thus, instead of lovely figures, gracefully posed, one sees only the rough bits of embroideiy silk. To such a one, it is irksome with forbearance to engage in any public work; to cast in his lot even with the party of his choice, with the school of his preference, the science which he pur-

One would suppose that in Saint Clair, a character in The Etruscan Vase, he has drawn himself : " He was naturally tender-hearted and affectionate, but at an age when lasting impressions are too easily formed, his over-transparent sensitiveness subjected him to the derision of his companions. . . . Prom that time he made it his business to conceal all appearances of what he regarded as a contemptible weakness. . . . In society he gained the unfortunate reputation of being un- feeling and indifferent. ... He had travelled vridely, and read much, yet he spoke of his travels and reading only when it was abso- lutely necessary." Darcy, in The Double Mistake, is another character resembling his own.