Page:Tolstoy - Essays and Letters.djvu/110

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NON-ACriG

1. Thk editor of a l*aris review, thinking that the opinions of two celehrated writers on the state of mind that is common to-day wouhl interest me, has sent me two extracts from French newspajters — one coiitainintf Zola's speecli <Udivered at the l)anquet of the (JemMal Association of Students, the other containing a letter from Dumas to the editor of the (idiilois.

These documents interested me profoundly, hoth on account of their timeliness and the fame of their authors, and also because it would be difficult in present-day literature to find in such concise, vip;orous, and brilliant form, an expression of the two funda- mental forces the sum of which moves humanity. The one is the force of routine, tending to keep humanity in its accustomed path ; the other is the force of reason and love, drawing humanity towards the li^ht.

The following is Zola's speech in extenso :

Gentlemen,

You have paid me a great honour, and conferred on me a great pleasure, by choosing me to preside at this Annual Banquet. There is no better or more charming society than that of the young. There is no audience more sympathetic, or before whom one's heart opens more freely with the wish to be loved and listened to.

I, alas ! have reached an age at which we begin to regret our departed youth, and to pay attention to the efforts of L 94 J