knowledge of what, to them, are "hidden mysteries"; a work always devolving upon the few who in their own day are misunderstood and unappreciated by the many.

Some hold upon these fixed principles as necessary for the reader if he would find and follow to its logical consequence Balzac's philosophy. They are most definitely stated in "Louis Lambert," and in the concise, clear-cut form which appeals to the student who can see and understand, though appearing probably arbitrary, involved, and elusive to the superficial reader, who may well believe them to be what the story itself makes them -- only utterances of insanity.

Balzac saw the Animality, Humanity, and Divinity were enfolded in the genus, Man; and that they unfolded or evolved as soul or self-consciousness. He saw the present of human race, but he also saw the past and present potentialities which are to make the higher future. From the heights of seer-ship he viewed its slow and steady progress out of and away from captivity to its own animal propensities, traced its somewhat circling but always forward march toward its highest attainment -- Divinity. He saw the struggles of an infant humanity to resist the attraction of the lower nature and yield to that of the higher; the distortions of the human soul resulting from non-success; the death of the power to enjoy through unlimited opportunity for enjoyment, when