It was almost midnight when they sat down to supper, and the fun grew fast and furious. Talk was less restrained in Lucien’s house than at Matifat’s, for no one suspected that the representatives of the brotherhood and the newspaper writers held divergent opinions. Young intellects, depraved by arguing for either side, now came into conflict with each other, and fearful axioms of the journalistic jurisprudence, then in its infancy, hurtled to and fro. Claude Vignon, upholding the dignity of criticism, inveighed against the tendency of the smaller newspapers, saying that the writers of personalities lowered themselves in the end. Lousteau, Merlin, and Finot took up the cudgels for the system known by the name of _blague_; puffery, gossip, and humbug, said they, was the test of talent, and set the hall-mark, as it were, upon it. “Any man who can stand that test has real power,” said Lousteau. “Besides,” cried Merlin, “when a great man receives ovations, there ought to be a chorus in insults to balance, as in a Roman triumph.” “Oho!” put in Lucien; “then every one held up to ridicule in print will fancy that he has made a success.” “Any one would think that the question interested you,” exclaimed Finot. “And how about our sonnets,” said Michel Chrestien; “is that the way they will win us the fame of a second Petrarch?” “Laura already counts for something in his fame,” said Dauriat, a pun [Laure (l’or)] received with acclamations. “_Faciamus experimentum in anima vili_,” retorted Lucien with a smile. “And woe unto him whom reviewers shall spare, flinging him crowns at his first appearance, for he shall be shelved like the saints in their shrines, and no man shall pay him the slightest attention,” said Vernou. “People will say, ‘Look elsewhere, simpleton; you have had your due already,’ as Champcenetz said to the Marquis de Genlis, who was looking too fondly at his wife,” added Blondet. “Success is the ruin of a man in France,” said Finot. “We are so jealous of one another that we try to forget, and to make others forget, the triumphs of yesterday.” “Contradiction is the life of literature, in fact,” said Claude Vignon. “In art as in nature, there are two principles everywhere at strife,” exclaimed Fulgence; “and victory for either means death.” “So it is with politics,” added Michel Chrestien. “We have a case in point,” said Lousteau. “Dauriat will sell a couple of thousand copies of Nathan’s book in the coming week. And why? Because the book that was cleverly attacked will be ably defended.” Merlin took up the proof of to-morrow’s paper. “How can such an article fail to sell an edition?” he asked. “Read the article,” said Dauriat. “I am a publisher wherever I am, even at supper.” Merlin read Lucien’s triumphant refutation aloud, and the whole party applauded. “How could that article have been written unless the attack had preceded it?” asked Lousteau.