He lighted his cigarette and went on, "I am as much revolted by materialism as you are, but that is no reason for denying the unforgettable services which naturalism has rendered.
"It has demolished the inhuman puppets of romanticism and rescued our literature from the clutches of booby idealists and sex-starved old maids.

It has created visible and tangible human beings--after Balzac--and put them in accord with their surroundings.

It has carried on the work, which romanticism began, of developing the language.

Some of the naturalists have had the veritable gift of laughter, a very few have had the gift of tears, and, in spite of what you say, they have not all been carried away by an obsession for baseness." "Yes, they have.

They are in love with the age, and that shows them up for what they are." "Do you mean to tell me Flaubert and the De Goncourts were in love with the age ?" "Of course not.