Zola listened, continued to write, and in the last volume he gave
a genealogical tree of the family of Rougon-Macquart, with such a
serenity as if no one ever doubted his theory.
At any rate, this tree has one advantage. It is so pretentious, so
ridiculous that it takes away from the theory the seriousness which it
would have given to less individual minds. We learn from it that from
a nervously sick great-grandmother grows a sick family. But the one
who would think that her nervousness is seen in descendants as it is
in the physical field, in a certain similar way, in some inclination
or passion for something, will be greatly mistaken. On the contrary,
the marvellous tree produces different kinds of fruit. You can find
on it red apples, pears, plums, cherries, and everything you might
desire. And all that on account of great-grandmother's nervousness. Is
it the same way in nature? We do not know. Zola himself does not have
any other proofs than clippings from newspapers, describing different
crimes; he preserved these clippings carefully as "human documents,"
and which he uses according to his fancy.
It can be granted to him, but he must not sell us such fancy for
the eternal and immutable laws of nature. Grandmother did have
nervousness, her nearest friends were in the habit of searching for
remedies against ills not in a drug-store, therefore her male and
female descendants are such as they must be--namely, criminals,
thieves, fast women, honest people, saints, politicians, good mothers,
bankers, farmers, murderers, priests, soldiers, ministers--in a word,
everything which in the sphere of the mind, in the sphere of health,
in the sphere of wealth and position, in the sphere of profession, can
be and are men as well as women in the whole world.
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