INTRODUCTION

"Death to the ideal," such could be the motto of the 19th century.

Everywhere, what we have agreed to call the "positive spirit" A reference to Positivism, a philosophy emphasizing empirical data and scientific method over metaphysics. has taken root and has clearly flourished. In science, the marvelous works of the analysts have triumphed over the legends and sentimentalities instilled in our hearts by our mothers, the educators of our childhood; and materialism has conquered its right of citizenship within the University. In art, it is naturalism that reigns, still defended, moreover, by a man of genius Likely a reference to Émile Zola, the leading figure of the Naturalist movement in literature.. Even in love, the "positive spirit" has replaced almost everywhere the generous passion of yesteryear, and a generation of pessimists deigns to barter its physical incapacities for the crowns of a young lady whose parents invest her at five or ten percent, according to the marriage contract. Shall we speak of religion to those Pharisees who constitute our clergy, or to those idolaters who measure their bigotry by the gilding of the Church?

And yet, how useful to the emancipation of general intellectuality was this era entirely of calculation and rationalism! What immense progress this descent from the ideal...