inevitableness and apparent [Greek: autarkeia] may seem, in some moods and to some persons, a little oppressive; it is always, perhaps, as has been admitted, productive rather of admiration than of pleasure. Faults of various kinds may be found with it. But it is almost always wonderful; it is often great, and it is sometimes of the greatest.[173] FOOTNOTES: [124] Of course there are exceptions, _Le Rouge et le Noir_ and _La Peau de Chagrin_ being perhaps the chief among long novels; while some of Balzac's short stories possess the quality in almost the highest degree. [125] He tried several pseudonyms, but settled on this. Unfortunately, he sometimes (not always) made it "_De_ Stendhal," without anything before the "De," and more unfortunately still, in the days of his Napoleonic employment he, if he had not called himself, had allowed himself to be called "M. _de_ Beyle"--an assumption which though dropped, was not forgotten in the days of his later anti-aristocratism. [126] Beyle himself recognized the necessity of the reader's collaboration. [127] This does not apply to poets as much as to prose writers: a fact for which reasons could perhaps be given. And it certainly does not apply to Balzac. [128] He was now forty-four, and had published not a few volumes, mostly small, of other kinds--travel description (which he did uncommonly well), and miscellaneous writing, and criticism, including the famous _Racine et Shakespeare_, an _avant-coureur_ of Romanticism which contained, besides matter on its title-subjects, some sound estimate of Scott as a writer and some very unsound abuse about him as a man. This last drew from Byron, who had met Beyle earlier at Milan, a letter of expostulation and vindication which did that noble poet infinite credit, but of which Beyle, by no means to _his_ credit, took notice. He was only too like Hazlitt in more ways than one: though few books with practically the same title can be more different than _De l'Amour_ and _Liber Amoris_. [129] As for instance, those from Dekker and Massiger; Camoens and Ercilla are allowed their native tongues "neat." [130] The actual "Chartreuse" of Parma only makes its appearance on the very last page of the book, when the hero, resigning his arch bishopric, retires to it. [131] He is the younger son of a rich and noble family, but his father disowns and his older brother denounces him quite early. It is characteristic of Beyle that we hear very little of the father and are practically never even introduced to the brother. [132] These four words somehow make me think of Samuel Newcome's comment on the unfortunate dinner where "Farintosh" did not appear: "Scarcely anything was drank." [133] See note above. [134] Both would have declined to meddle with her, I think, but for different reasons. [135] Beyle, who had himself no good looks, is particularly lavish of them to his heroes.