THE PRESENT TRANSLATION INTRODUCES A WORK OF
Gide which dates from the first years of the century.
The first of the two essays was written in 1901; the
second, in 1905. They were published together in
1910 by Mercure de France.

The essays require no introductory comment.
However, the following two quotations from the
Journal supplement the text and provide interesting
perspectives. The first is dated January 1st, 1892,
when Gide was twenty-two years old; the second,
June 29th, 1913:

" Wilde has done me, I think, nothing but
harm. With him, I had forgotten how to think.
I had more varied emotions, but I could no
longer order them; I was particularly unable to
follow the deductions of others. A few thoughts,
occasionally; but my clumsiness in handling
them made me abandon them. I am now re-
suming, with difficulty, though with great de-
light, my history of philosophy, where I am
studying the problem of language (which I
shall resume with Muller and Renan)."

-v-