The first collection of his poems, _Stances et poèmes_, appeared when he was twenty-six years old. It was received with encomiums from critics and sold so well that he determined to relinquish the hope of ever becoming either a scientist or a lawyer and decided that he would devote his time to poetry. In this collection is found “Le vase brisé,” one of the most familiar of his poems, with the extended analogy between the broken vase, the verbena, and the heart; here is the echoing refrain, Il est brisé, n’y touchez pas. The next year _Les Epreuves_, translated as _The Test_, was published, followed by _Les Solitudes_ three years later, and _Les vrais tendresses_, in 1875. In these poetic meditations he showed the conflict, ever present in his own nature, between the reason and the emotions, le combat sans vainqueur Entre la foi sans preuve et la raison sans charme. Even more pronounced was this motif of disharmony in the two later poems, _La Justice_ and _Le Bonheur_. By his countrymen he was hailed as successor to Victor Hugo and was elected to membership in the French Academy in 1881. In the long and best known poem by Sully-Prudhomme, _La Justice_, there are strong traces of the influence of Lucretius, the classic poet whom he admired and translated with felicitous skill. A Prologue and an Epilogue and eleven “Vigils” comprise the structure of this poetic search for the element of _Justice_. There are two divisions; Part I is entitled “Silence au cœur,” rendered into English as “Heart, Be Silent!” and Part II, “Appel au cœur.” The chosen medium of expression is dialogue between two symbolic characters, “The Seeker,” who analyzes all things with metaphysical exactness, and “A Voice” which proclaims the “divine aspect in all things.” Justice cannot be located in the Universe; it may be found in the heart of man, “which is its inviolable and sacred temple.” As _La Justice_ exemplified the search for Justice in Universal Nature, so _Le Bonheur_, the second long poem published in 1888, was a symbolic epic, a progress towards supreme Happiness by three routes--curiosity, sensuousness and science, virtue and sacrifice. The three Parts have been called, in one translation, “Intoxication,” “Thought,” “The Supreme Flight” (“Le suprème essor”). There are lines that are strained in effect, far less convincing and harmonious than the arguments in _La Justice_; by contrast there are passages of poetic beauty. Faustus and Stella are the two seekers after Happiness. In a climax--which might be more dramatic--they “take flight” spiritually from the temptations and disillusionments of earth to seek, in sacrifice, their fruition of possible happiness.