Finally, what is this science which analyzes every spring and every part brought to play in the manifestation of life?  A compass to guide us to the desired goal; a measure of proportion to fix each variety in the immensity of types; a touchstone by which to judge of each man’s vocation.

But do not let us forget that if this science holds back, restrains and preserves us from parasites, * * * if it prepares proper soil, and assists feebly dowered natures to acquire real value, it cannot supply the place of those marvelous talents, that personality, which showed us, in Delsarte himself, the heights to which a dramatic singer may attain.  What surprises and subjugates us in these privileged persons is the secret of nature; it is not to be written down, not to be demonstrated; this unknown quantity, this mystery, reveals itself at its own time by flashes, and with different degrees of intensity during the career of the same artist.  Some have thought to explain the prodigy by that superior instinct known as intuition; but the discovery of the word does not open the arcanum.

I have said enough, I hope, in regard to the science created by Delsarte, to put upon the track such minds as are apt for the subject, and endowed with sufficient penetration to assimilate it; but it must not be disguised that even should the whole work be collected together, the science must still await its examination, its verification and its complements; for a science at its birth is like a program given out for the study of present and future generations.  Delsarte was still working on his to the last years of his life.  Every day he gained fresh insight; he added branches and accessories.  Yet the criticisms of details which will come later—­even when they are justified,—­will not rob the inventor of the glory of his scientific discovery.  Let genius invent, scholars pursue its discoveries! * * * If genius works alone, scientists work hand in hand,

Chapter II.

The Method.

I have shown Delsarte as a composer, as pre-eminently an artist, who, as a certain critic says, “was never surpassed;” I have insisted upon the two titles which form his special glory:  that of revealer of the laws of aesthetics, and that of creator of a science to support his discoveries; a science whose application relates particularly to the dramatic and lyric arts, although at its base, and especially when considered as law, it embraces all the liberal arts.

It remains for me to speak of his method, properly so called; of his precepts, his maxims, his opinions and his judgments; of that, in a word, which constitutes the personal manner of each master, and his mode of instruction; for if the law is single in its essential and constitutive ideas, it radiates into diversity in its individual manifestations; it has infinite possibilities.

Delsarte considered art as the surest, purest and most constant good in life.  He required much time to complete the education of a pupil, because he knew how long it had taken him to master the methods of translating, through that noble interpreter, art, the best and most sublime possibilities of the human soul; and because he knew as well all that is inherent in our nature of vice and imperfection.  He held that the truth, be it good or bad, is always instructive.