"MAUPASSANT."

M. Hugues Le Roux gave his fourth lecture yesterday afternoon on "Maupassant comme peintre de Pinstinct de la race."

Maupassant was a very different writer from Daudet. although he died at the age of 45, the most exacting critics have recognized in him qualities of sobriety, strength and clearness which form the genuine French splrit, and which are the characteristics of classical works. But in addition to this, one finds in Maupassant a particular disposition to conceive life which is not only French, but also Gallic. For this reason Maupassant is is not generally appreciated as much out of France, as where the Gallic race is predominant.

To the Anglo-Saxon Maupassant sometime seems shocking, but this is because it is only the Gaul who can appreciate his delicate touch. The disposition of the Gauls is to adore the forces of nature, and in their anxiety they leaned towards what La Fontaine called "la bonne loi naturelle." So Maupassant loves nature with a religious tenderness and sincerity which no poet has equalled.

For years his favorite personages have been peasants; he loves them because they are simple as the domestic animals which live with them. In a word he loves those who are at the bottom, who ignore or know nothing of the moral laws. He ridicules the men who bear on their shoulders the weight of society, who confound police regulations with the moral law, those who think it a sin to break a petty ordinance, but who will commit murder if the law will absolve them.

In order to excel in the French language it is necessary to have a thorough knowledge of its "finesses." These "finesses" are so subtle that a well bred and educated man can speak on any subject before a well bred and educated Frenchwoman without offending her. He illustrated this by telling a story about a Danish officer who translated into Danish some of the short stories of Maupassant and was later prosecuted because in the Danish language the humor of Maupassant had turned into indecency.

In conclusion M. Le Roux said that the Anglo-Saxons, when judging manifestations of Latin genius, must as much hesitate to pronounce the word cynicism as the Latin peoples to pronounce the word hypocrisy, when they judge the scruples of their neighbors. It is the privilege of culture to replace these prejudices which establish a barrier between races, by an intellectual superiority enabling them to appreciate the variety of the manifestations of thought and feeling throughout the world.