Hence the
eternal, as humanity, need of exterior regulator.
But the French writers always had more originality and independence
than others, and that regulator, which elsewhere was religion, long
since ceased to exist for them. There were some exceptions, however.
Balzac used to affirm that his aim was to serve religion and monarchy.
But even the works of those who confessed such principles were not in
harmony with themselves. One can say that it pleased the authors to
understand their activity in that way, but the reading masses could
understand it and often understood it as a negation of religious and
ethical principles.
In the last epoch, however, such misunderstanding became impossible,
because the authors began to write, either in the name of their
personal convictions, directly opposite to social principles and ties,
or with objective analysis, which, in its action of life, marks the
good and the evil as manifestations equally necessary and equally
justified. France--and through France the rest of Europe--was
overflowed with a deluge of books, written with such lightheartedness,
so absolute and with such daring, not counting on any responsibility
toward people, that even those who received them without any scruples
began to be overcome with astonishment. It seemed that every author
forced himself to go further than they expected him to. In that way
they succeeded in being called daring thinkers and original artists.
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