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"Honore de Balzac"

In the Studies of
Manners I shall already have painted for you the play of the emotions
and the movement of life. In the Philosophic Studies I shall expound
the why of the emotions and the wherefore of life; what is the range
and what are the conditions outside of which neither society nor man
can exist; and, after having surveyed society in order to describe it,
I shall survey it again in order to judge it. Accordingly the Studies
of Manners contain typical individuals, while the Philosophic Studies
contain individualised types. Thus on all sides I shall have created
life: for the type by individualising it, and for the individual by
converting him into a type. I shall endow the fragment with thought,
and I shall have endowed thought with individual life.
"Then, after the effects and causes, will come the Analytic Studies, of
which the Physiology of Marriage will form part: for after the effects
and causes, the next thing to be sought is the principles. The manners
are the performance, the causes are the stage setting and properties,
and the principles are the author; but in proportion as my work circles
higher and higher into the realms of thought, it narrows and condenses.


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