They had no real confidence, for the simple reason that for them, as genuine and intelligent sons of the young nineteenth century, it was impossible to believe in the strength of a stem which their fathers had sawn through. Chateaubriand's faith in legitimacy was as faint-hearted as Constant's in religion in general. Men were uneasy in their minds. The old house was burned down. The new was not even begun. And, instead of boldly beginning to erect a new building, events led them to seek refuge among the ruins of the old, the half-burned materials of which they built up as best they could. During this performance they were perpetually tempted to try experiments not planned from the first. After some vain attempts to give solidity to the building by the addition of new material, they would in despair give a kick at the shaky, newly built walls, which brought them down again. No group of writers whose aim was to preserve society ever brought such passionate accusations against it as the authors of the Emigrant Literature. It is one of these accusations of society which forms the basis of Benjamin Constant's _Adolphe_. Adolphe is a love story which, in its presentment of the relations of the individual to society, takes a quite different point of view from _Werther_. In _Werther_ outward, and, by reason of these, also inward, obstacles prevent the union of a couple obviously made for each other. In _Adolphe_ outward, and because of them, also inward, reasons part two beings who are united. _Werther_ represents the power of society, and of once-accepted social responsibilities, to hinder a love match. _Adolphe_ describes the power of society and of public opinion to absolve from accepted personal responsibilities and to sever a long-united pair. The books, taken together, form a double picture of the pope-like power of society to bind and loose. But whereas _Werther_ depicts the feelings of the pre-revolutionary, enthusiastic, energetic generation to which its author belonged, the feelings described in _Adolphe_ are those of the first French generation of the new century.