ferent as the love for warlike representations
and accounts of wars and the being actually a
soldier, the perpetual dwelling of the imagina-
tion upon matters of business, commerce and
speculation (like Honoré de Balzac for in-
stance), and being really a man of business.
Nor can his gift be described as merely that of
a didactic poet, although he often gives a dis-
sertation in verse, because he was not inspired
with the wish to teach, but rather to admire and
to present the power and the triumphs of the
free will for admiration. Those philologists
who have patiently set to work to reconstruct
Corneille's conception of the State into a Staats-
idee have not understood this. Corneille's
conception of the State, of absolute monarchy,
of the king, of legitimacy, of ministers, of sub-
jects, and so on, were not by any means in him
political doctrine, but just forms and symbols of
an attitude of mind, which he caressed and idol-
ised.

The enquiry as to the nature and degree and
tone of that passion differs altogether from the
fact of Corneille's powerful passionality, as to
which there can be no doubt. The problem,
that is to say, is, whether passion, which is cer-
tainly a necessary condition for poetry, was so

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