figure on the scene, and I did wrong." It is impossible to record the opinion of the critics upon the play, for it only ran one right. Lemaitre, as the disguised Spanish Ambassador, dressed the part, consciously or unconsciously, in the character of Louis Philippe. and of course, the play was prohibited. Through the kindness of Victor Hugo, the government offered to reimburse Balzac, but his sense of honor forbade this unless all those concerned were compensated as well. It reflects nothing upon the great writer to-day that this failure was a grievous disappointment.

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Perhaps it may be well to mention. that Balzac projected many plays which were never produced. There were considerable number of these, but reference to two will suffice. In his letters to the woman who afterwards became his wife, he makes continual reference to a play "Richard Coeur d'Eponge," a hint as to its subject-matter is given in another letter. "Frederick Lemaitre rejected my drama, saying that paternity was a selfish sentiment which had little chance of success with the masses." He afterwards revised this, but evidently Richard's anatomy lacked heart, for nothing ever came of it. A later attempt, and one in which he placed a great deal of faith, was baptized "Le Mariage de Mademoiselle Prudhomme." He writes to Madame Hanska that "the comedy has been in my head for ten years, recast, etc. Now it is about to

come to the surface, new and vulgar, grand and simple. I am delighted with it and foresee a great success.' This was to be a keen satire on manners and morals besides projecting the outlines of the bourgeois. Although the play was never produced nor published, the rough draft of the plot furnished by Balzac in his correspondence indicates its dramatic. topography. The situations are either strained in a high degree or prove to be clap-trap of the most pronounced invention. Still the characters betray the moulding hand of a master-builder. And the idea of Balzac's earnestness permeates the entire scenario. We will pardon him if people are tortured, and if the deus ex machina is the sudden and somewhat proverbially-acquired wealth.

Balzac was poor, hence his offspring inherited wealth.

From these we turn to Les Resources de Quinola, produced at le Royal Theatre, March 19, 1842. This was a deservedly crushing failure, for its plot is absurd and miserably constructed. It is useful to note that four well-known literary names, as Balzac writes to his mother, "Victor Hugo, Lamartine, Madam de Giradin and Leon Gozlan, were the only ones who defended it." This failure left him more depressed than ever, and soon after he wrote Albert Savarus, the story of a man's love through passionate effort and great defeat." Another collection of scenes was tested at le Theatre de la Gaite, Sept. 26, 1843, and found wanting. Balzac took little interest in Pamela Giraud, for on its initial production he was in Russia visiting Madame Hanska. Because of his absence there is little trace of any statements concerning it in his letters. The play is laid during the conspiracy to place L'Aiglon on the throne of France. One or two scenes are well constructed and really dramatic, but the rest of the play is deadly dull. It is strange that during these two years his work should have been of such little merit. Yet he wrote the immortal "avant-propos de la Comedie Humaine," and the interesting if somewhat inartistic Un Menage de Garcon at this time. But these two miserable plays show from what depths he soared when he wrote the powerful Cousin Bette or the heart-rending Eugenie Grandet.

Fifty years ago the influence of Scribe and his followers was all powerful. The art of constructing a drama was reduced. to a science; one has only to look at La Bataille de Dames to realize the state of perfection this was brought to. But the plays lacked heart, and Scribe himself has left no immortal character. He was, as Brander Matthews says, "a playmaker of consummate skill, not the maker of character." maker of character." Nor had he any philosophy of life as his contemporary, Emile Augier-the poet of the home. Dumas, fils, was serving to the public at this time the now perennial Dame aux Camelias, and in all probability Balzac knew of its projected dramatization. In

1848, Augier produced his magnificently poetic L'Aventuriere. But form was the great thing to these men, and this was just what Balzac lacked. He, however, anticipated his age somewhat by producing in 1848-at the Theatre Historique -La Maratre. The social drama of this genre was later perfected in Le Fils Natural and Le Demi Monde of Dumas, as well as by Augier in Le Gendre de M. Poirier and Gabrielle. This play, to revert, merits attention, because Balzac not only presents a social problem but he also utilizes the pitiless logic so characteristic of that "dramatist's dramatist" -Henrik Ibsen.

The situation by no means seems novel to us who are accustomed to all degrees of physical and mental contortions in our modern gymnastic playwrights, but it is none the less worked out with con

siderable skill. A young woman who can not be united with her lover because of certain difficulties, resolves to marry an old Napoleonic General for his money. In order to have the lover near, she succeeds in having him appointed head of her husband's factory. Of course, he becomes the usual friend of the family. But the General does not leave this life and its goods; instead he lives on, while the young lover proceeds to fall in love with his charming daughter. Hence "the step-mother" discovers herself to be in love with a man who has proved false to her. It will be seen that the dramatic situation is very well drawn, and, it must be confessed, for three acts Balzac not only regards stage technique, but succeeds in presenting this problem in an absorbing manner. Gertrude, the wife, is not portrayed with the same skill that breathed immortality into The Second Mrs. Tanquery; but she is a live person. In spite of her cruelty and her unfaithfulness, we are moved to pity when she tries to break down the forbidding barriers with her feeble hand. Yet she has violated the social law-and this desecration for Balzac always signifies destrucion. This is why Balzac This is why Balzac is never immoral or un-moral. But the means of bringing about this denouement are trivial and absurdly childish. Indeed, the play becomes very insipid in the end, and resembles the concoction of

poisons and firebrands found in Pamela Giraud and Les Ressources de Quinola. Besides this very bad ending, the play lacks humor-Balzac only had a grim kind anyway-and has the fault of containing too many episodes. But the drama is worth reading for its first three acts. In the hands of a competent actress the role of Gertrude would be an interesting study. At any rate, one feels the heart-beat and blood in this play.

This was the last play Balzac himself produced. A little later his marriage took place, and he with Madam Hanska returned to Paris. He had lifted himself in the face of spectral shadows, by intense suffering and by incessant work, into the glittering light of fortune and fame. But the fates decreed him only a little while to live-a few brief hours at the end of a great day's work. He died on August 18, 1850, "having dug his grave with his pen." He was buried in Pere-la-Chaise. His name is his epitaph-"the single name that tells all and makes the passer dream." His reputation resounded over the whole of Europe, for outside of France he was no mere exotic luxury. He desired to be loved and to be famous; after years of toil, he obtained both of his life-long wishes from the fairy as he was about to cross the threshold of another life. After his death, numerous unpublished essays were dusted and submitted to the public. But to this day his critical work is neglected. Then came his comedy, Mercadet, upon which he had labored spasmodically for many years. Les Petits Bourgeois and Le Depute d' Arcis were some posthumous chapters in La Comedie Humaine. It is upon this one comedy that Balzac can lay any claims as a dramatic artist. This was the first presented at the Theatre de Gymnase Dramatique, on August 24, 1851. In 1869, in a three-act version, it was added to the repertoire of the Comedie Francaise-"the proud and severe guardian of Gallic stage traditions." The play was revived a few years ago with M. de Ferandy in the title role originally created by Geoffroy.

Mercadet, a speculator and company promoter, who is supposed to be very rich, has been ruined by the flight of his partner, Godeau, in whom he had the

greatest confidence. He makes a strong effort to maintain his credit,and almost succeeds-thanks to his ingenious inventions. Indeed, the first act and the scenes representing his meetings with his creditors are very clever. He is at equal

ease with a philosophical Gobseck or an ordinary money-lender. He tries to get out of his difficulties by marrying his daughter to a noble, who is also ruined, but manages to hide the fact in the belief that Mercadet is rich. When they discover that their poverty is a mutual friend, they do not lose their wits; on the contrary, they use them in a new scheme. The gentleman is to pass himself off as Godeau, come back from America wealthy, and Mercadet, thus recovering his credit, will be able to find his feet again. But Godeau, on the wings of a deus ex machina, actually returns home and brings a fortune. Mercadet, of course, is considered a very honorable member of the human race. On the surface this may appear as a successive number of comical situations, but the play is far more than this. It is a cynical protest against modern business methods. Mercadet and the firm of Nucinger, so conspicuous in La Comedie Humaine, are the best examples of Balzac's insight into the business principles of Paris. Perhaps they are not very different from those of the day. The character of Mercadet deserves to take place with Balzac's egotistical Eugene de Rastignac, the ambitious little-souled Cesar Birrotteau or the pathetic figure of Cousin Pons. Mercadet is the only character in his plays worthy of a place beside these immortal characters. It is a compliment to the play that so admirable a connoisseur as George Henry Lewes should have made an English version of it.

A man is always judged by his best work: the brilliancy of his genius often dims his other talents. Balzac was no exception to the rule; he was the greatest novelist of his age and incidentally about the poorest dramatist. For only in Mercadet and in individual scenes did his

plays rise to dramatic power. Yet he possessed a dramatic sense in the highest degree. One has only to read the opening scene in La Duchesse de Langeais or the ending of La Grande Breteche to see

this. Still he had to learn to write novels, and perhaps had life been granted him his indomitable will would have conquered on the stage. His last plays show that he conforms more to stage conventions. He had created a new specimen of realistic writing in his document of humanity; perhaps he might have led the drama along some new path. This is a speculation. A man can never do better than everybody till he has done as well as everybody. Balzac, by comparison with his brilliant contemporaries, was a failure as a dramatist-in its strict meaning. Yet his plays are not uninteresting, because of their brilliant dialogue and the cynical epigrams on every page. The earlier dramas are superficial in feeling, for they contain a thunder-storm of loud rolling mock-heroics and linguistic pyrotechnics. His plots are exaggerated in scenes and impossible both on the score of theatric and of human probability, Balzac, is in his novels, indulges in episodes.

often interesting but not dramatic; indeed, these at times partake of a didactic and preachy tendency-the best narcotic that can be offered to a theatre-goer or reader. While he continually condemns the thirst for gold, yet his plays have no fundamental philosophy as the pyramidal Comedie Humaine. It is upon this gigantic literary monument, then, that one must read Balzac's place in literature, for his plays dwindle into insignificance when in the presence of "the greatest achievement of literature."

This Napoleon of literature, as Bourget would say, had a greater canvass than the stage; he had France; upon its seared battle-fields, in and about the Provincial towns, upon the smooth or cobbled pavements of the variegated Paris. he was re-creating a society. The name of Balzac does not recall a dramatist; for, you see, he was the author of La Comedie Humaine.

The endowment of the general education board recently with a sum sufficient to bring its resources up to $43,000,000 raises some interesting questions. The income of this immense amount is largely to be applied to the promotion of higher education in this country. It is probable that the added facilities provided for this branch will result in a constantly increasing percentage of highly trained

men.

What will the effect be upon the life of the nation? Will college training still be looked upon by most of those who come from the so-called lower walks of life and from the farm as a steppingstone to some professional employment? If so, will the professional ranks become even more crowded than some of them are now? Or will those who have toiled and saved in order to obtain the coveted education take up agricultural pursuits and utilize their culture in cultivating the soil and improving the life of the small community of which they are a part? What effect will a growing percentage of college-trained men have upon the political life of the nation?

Will it mean more independent votes or a more highly organized machine and shrewder bosses to lead the naturalized citizen in paths which are dark? Will higher education be considered in the future more than it has been in the past in America a means to culture rather than an investment? There is a growing tendency at the present time on the part of the business man to enter business and the business world is looking for him.

College-bred women, too, are becoming a factor in American life. They evidently are to be a force for culture, for five-sixths of them are taking the classical courses.

With the growing wealth of the country interest in higher education is finding wider concrete expression. The colleges and other institutions are growing wealthier and the number of students seeking admission to the courts of wisdom and good fellowship is increasing

year by year. In 1901 there were 647 universities, colleges and professional and technical schools in the United States. Of these 437 bore the title, if not always the substance, of university or college. Men to the number of 75,472 and women in numbers 27,879 were then burning the midnight oil in search of learning.

This represented an increase of 68 per cent for men and 159 per cent for women in the course of a decade. At that time the property possessed by the 473 institutions was valued at $391,230,784, of which $177,000,000 was in permanent endowment. The total income was $33,359,612, with benefactions of $18,060,413.

In 1904 the property owned by the institutions for higher education was valued at $465,216,545, a gain of almost $33,000,000 over the amount for the preceding year. The permanent endowments amounted to $206,565,108, or enough to pay nearly two-fifths of the operating expenses of the United States government for one year. Excluding benefactions, the sum of $40,329,193 was spent on the higher education of the maturing youth of the land. This sum, however, was hardly more than one-third of the amount spent by Uncle Sam on his navy last year and only about one-half of the cost of his army. It was about $15,000,000 more than New York City spent on its public school system.

The United States commissioner of education indicated in his last report, which is for the year 1903-04, that in that school year an army of 128,761 students was encamped in and about the institutions of higher education, arming and drilling themselves for the battle of life. This army is more than twice the size of that which by force of arms quenches the savage spirit of the perfidious Pulajanes, mollifies the Moros, returns the redskin to his ranch and helps the Cuban to control his country.

Almost a third of this army of students were women. In the 313 universities and colleges open to women as well

as men there were 22,839 women fitting themselves to be the equals in knowledge of the brothers at their side. In the colleges whose doors were open for the reception of the "better half" of the human race alone there were 16,638 students.

Today one in every 122 young men and women between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five in this country who might be engaged in studying the higher branches is so engaged.

One in every 139 men between these ages is in a college, professional school or a technical institution, such as a school of mining engineering. As for womankind, one in every 585 of her sex of that age is struggling with the perversities of college courses or preparing to enter a profession. The total number in the collegiate, graduate and professional departments is 137,173, a gain of 8,412 since. 1904.

One effect of the liberty of opportunity, which Governor Hughes of New York declared on Washington's birthday at Ann Arbor, Mich., to be the leading American idea, is illustrated by a comparison of the proportion of Americans with other nationalities in schools of higher education. While it is difficult to secure exact figures of this character regarding other countries, yet, based on those available, it is evident that no country in the world equals the United States in the ambition of its people to secure a college degree.

By a conservative estimate there are 450,000 living alumni of American universities and colleges. Out of every 177 persons-men, women and children--one may meet upon the street, one of them has taken a college degree. Based on the divisions of the population according to age made by the ubiquitous census taker in 1900, one in every eighty-one persons over twenty-five years of age in the land of opportunity has passed through the portals of a degree-giving in.stitution.

A fact which will be surprising to some easterners is that the people of the middle west are ahead of them in the matter of

average education. The rate of illiteracy in cities of 25,000 or over in northern Atlantic states, which include New England, New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, was at the date of the last national census 5.8 per cent and outside the cities 7.3 per cent. In the north central states, which include Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, North and South Dagota, Nebraska and Kansas, the percentages were 3.3 and 4.6 respectively.

In the former division there are eightyseven universities and colleges, with 29,995 undergraduates and 3,003 graduate student, while in the latter there are 187 institutions of this character, with 40,537 undergraduates and 2,827 graduate students. An interesting side-light on higher education in the middle west is shown in the fact that of the 32,998 students in the eastern institutions only 3,792 are women, while of the 43,354 in those of the middle west 15,470 are women.

There are more women in the colleges of this group of states than in all the other groups of the country combined. The average standard of the eastern college is probably higher than that of the western. It will not be long before the colleges of the middle western states take the lead in numbers of matriculants, if one may be guided by some recent fig

ures.

The universities having over 4,000 are as follows: Harvard, 5,343; University of Chicago, 5,079: University of Michigan, 4,800; Columbia University, 4,643, and University of Minnesota, 4,025. Columbia was second two years ago, following Harvard. At the rate of gain which the middle western colleges are making it is expected that soon they will lead even Harvard, as they have taken precedence over the other older eastern colleges.

Not a state or a territory in the union is without a collegiate institution, and Oklahoma, which is one of the last sections of the United States to be opened for settlement, has two universities, four sectarian colleges and other institutions for higher education.