somehow detached themselves from it; they had their own separate success; they attained prominence by themselves. They have not lacked great admirers, nor makers of glosses and scholiasts to elucidate their mysteries. They have been read by many with gravity and in the expectation of finding great things in them. They have conquered the imagination of artists, have provided painters with inspiration, and certain poetic schools with myths and themes of meditation on which they have freely embroidered; they have even furnished the model of a form of expression for imitation. Doctrines have been sought in them; the Wagnerian conceptions have added credit or at the very least attractiveness to certain mystic ideologies, to certain religious movements arising from the same tendencies. In short, Wagner brought into France not only a music but also a literature. And this literature has had its share for the last forty years in the intellectual culture of a considerable class of Frenchmen. It has scattered a thousand germs in our mental atmosphere. The student who cares to collect in detail the evidences of its action will find matter for a big volume. I would add (and the fact must be reckoned with) that this action has been so easily spread abroad because in many respects it went hand in hand with the great Germanic influences which have been making themselves felt in our country for a century past.
II
The sources of Wagnerian literature are known. They are mythical and historical legends of Germany and the Scandinavian countries, presented to the
