IN THE INTRODUCTION TO Romans et Contes Philosophiques
( 1834), Balzac makes clear the association in his mind of the
first part of L'Enfant Maudit, Les Proscrits, Louis Lambert,
Jésus-Christ en Flandre, and Séraphîta. He confessed having
had the intention of "running through his work a radiant ray of
faith, a melodious Christian metempsychosis, which would begin
in earthly sorrows and end in heaven." He already imagined that
work as a sort of cathedral, "his cathedral," and he already de-
sired to light it with "divine gleams" so that in it "might shine
the pure beauties of the altar." Some of these tales, first pub-
lished between 1831 to 1835, were already completed; others,
especially Louis Lambert, were revised. Considerably enlarged,
this story was joined by Les Proscrits and Séraphîta, and the
three were republished in 1835 as a single work under the title
Le Livre Mystique. This joint publication, then, was the ful-
fillment of Balzac's project: to present them in a way that would
allow the general idea and the theories of the Balzacian mysti-
cism to become clear. Previously, all these works had formed
part of Romans et Contes Philosophiques; henceforward they
were to be definitively reunited in Etudes Philosophiques; the
term mystique disappeared, but the content remained. Although
these two genres have their roots in the same documentary ter-
rain, the Oeuvres Mystiques (Mystical Works) keep their own
distinctive character. Not only do they manifest a constructive
effort of the spirit, but, still more do they demonstrate a deep-

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