“Finally, in 1891, after the death of Roumanille, the highest office in the Felibrige was taken by a man who could rally about him the two elements that we have seen manifested, sufficiently Republican to satisfy the most ardent in the extreme Left, sufficiently steady not to alarm the Royalists, a great enough poet to deserve without any dispute the first place in an assembly of poets.”

He, like Mistral, wrote epics in twelve cantos.  His first work, Li Carbounie, has on its title-page three remarkable lines:—­

    “I love my village more than thy village,
    I love my Provence more than thy province,
    I love France more than all.”

Possibly no other three lines could express as well the whole spirit of the Felibrige.

Our subject being Mistral and not Felix Gras, a passing mention must suffice.  One of his remarkable works is called Toloza, and recounts the crusade of the Albigenses, and his novel, The Reds of the Midi, first published in New York in the English translation of Mrs. Thomas A. Janvier, is probably the most remarkable prose work that has been written in Provencal.[4] Only the future can tell whether the Provencal will pass through a prose cycle after its poetic cycle, in the manner of all literatures.  To many serious thinkers the attempt to create a complete literature seems of very doubtful success.

The problems, then, which confront the Felibres are numerous.  Can they, with any assurance of permanence, maintain two literary languages in the same region?  It is scarcely necessary to state, of course, that no one dreams of supplanting the French language anywhere on French soil.  What attitude shall they assume toward the “patoisants,” that is, those who insist on using the local dialect, and refuse to conform to the usage of the Felibres?  Is it not useless, after all, to hope for a more perfect unification of the dialects of the langue d’oc, and, if unification is the aim, does not logical reasoning lead to the conclusion that the French language already exists, perfectly unified, and absolutely necessary?  In the matter of politics, the most serious questions may arise if the desires of some find more general favor.  Shall the Felibres aim at local self-government, at a confederation something like that of the Swiss cantons?  Shall they advocate the idea of independent universities?

As a matter of fact, none of these problems are solved, and they will only be solved by the natural march of events.  The attitude of the leaders toward all these differing views has become one of easy toleration.  If the language of the Felibres tends already to dominate the other dialects, if its influence is already plainly felt far beyond Provence itself, this is due to the sheer superiority of their literary work.  If their literature had the conventional character of that of the Troubadours, if it were addressed exclusively to a certain elite, then their language might have been adopted by the poets of other regions, just as in the days of the Troubadours the masters of the art of “trobar” preferred to use the Limousin dialect.  But the popular character of the movement has prevented this.  It has preached the love of the village, and each locality, as fast as the Felibrean idea gained ground, has shown greater affection for its own dialect.