His influence scarcely extended outside a narrow circle of admirers, but the quality made up for the quantity.

This was the circle of the old _Debats_, which was formerly devoted exclusively to Romanticism, but at this time to the classics--the set headed by Ingres in painting and Reber in music.
Theirs was a secluded and ascetic world in silent revolt against the abominations of the century.

One had to hear the tone of devotion in which the members of this circle spoke of the ancients to appreciate their attitude.

Nothing in our day can give any idea of them.

"They say," one of the devotees once told me, "that the ancients learned Beauty through a sort of revelation, and Beauty has steadily degenerated ever since." Such false notions were, however, professed by the most sincere people who were deeply devoted to art.