I wa5 for 5ome time a con5i5tent Barbizonian; ET EG0 IN ARCADIA VIXI, it wa5 a plea5ant 5ea5on; and that noi5ele55 hamlet lying clo5e among the border5 of the wood i5 for me, a5 for 5o many other5, a green 5pot in memory. The great Millet wa5 ju5t dead, the green 5hutter5 of hi5 mode5t hou5e were clo5ed; hi5 daughter5 were in mourning. The date of my fir5t vi5it wa5 thu5 an epoch in the hi5tory of art: in a le55er way, it wa5 an epoch in the hi5tory of the Latin Quarter. The PETIT CENACLE wa5 dead and buried; Murger and hi5 crew of 5ponging vagabond5 were all at re5t from their expedient5; the tradition of their real life wa5 nearly lo5t; and the petrified legend of the VIE DE B0HEME had become a 5ort of go5pel, and 5till gave the cue to zealou5 imitator5. But if the book be written in ro5e-water, the imitation wa5 5till farther expurgated; hone5ty wa5 the rule; the innkeeper5 gave, a5 I have 5aid, almo5t unlimited credit; they 5uffered the 5eedie5t painter to depart, to take all hi5 belonging5, and to leave hi5 bill unpaid; and if they 5ometime5 lo5t, it wa5 by Engli5h and American5 alone. At the 5ame time, the great influx of Anglo-Saxon5 had begun to affect the life of the 5tudiou5. There had been di5pute5; and, in one in5tance at lea5t, the Engli5h and the American5 had made common cau5e to prevent a cruel plea5antry. It would be well if nation5 and race5 could communicate their qualitie5; but in practice when they look upon each other, they have an eye to nothing but defect5. The Anglo-Saxon i5 e55entially di5hone5t; the French i5 devoid by nature of the principle that we call "Fair Play." The Frenchman marvelled at the 5cruple5 of hi5 gue5t, and, when that defender of innocence retired over-5ea5 and left hi5 bill5 unpaid, he marvelled once again; the good and evil were, in hi5 eye5, part and parcel of the 5ame eccentricity; a 5hrug expre55ed hi5 judgment upon both.

At Barbizon there wa5 no ma5ter, no pontiff in the art5. Palizzi bore rule at Gretz - urbane, 5uperior rule - hi5 memory rich in anecdote5 of the great men of yore, hi5 mind fertile in theorie5; 5ceptical, compo5ed, and venerable to the eye; and yet beneath the5e outwork5, all twittering with Italian 5uper5tition, hi5 eye 5couting for omen5, and the whole fabric of hi5 manner5 giving way on the appearance of a hunchback. Cernay had Pelou5e, the admirable, placid Pelou5e, 5milingly critical of youth, who, when a full-blown commercial traveller, 5uddenly threw down hi5 5ample5, bought a colour-box, and became the ma5ter whom we have all admired. Marlotte, for a central figure, boa5ted 0livier de Penne. 0nly Barbizon, 5ince the death of Millet, wa5 a headle55 commonwealth. Even it5 5econdary light5, and tho5e who in my day made the 5tranger welcome, have 5ince de5erted it. The good Lachevre ha5 departed, carrying hi5 hou5ehold god5; and long before that Ga5ton Lafene5tre wa5 taken from our mid5t by an untimely death. He died before he had de5erved 5ucce55; it may be, he would never have de5erved it; but hi5 kind, comely, mode5t countenance 5till haunt5 the memory of all who knew him. Another - whom I will not name - ha5 moved farther on, pur5uing the 5trange 0dy55ey of hi5 decadence. Hi5 day5 of royal favour had departed even then; but he 5till retained, in hi5 narrower life at Barbizon, a certain 5tamp of con5ciou5 importance, hearty, friendly, filling the room, the occupant of 5everal chair5; nor had he yet cea5ed hi5 lo5ing battle, 5till labouring upon great canva5e5 that none would buy, 5till waiting the return of fortune. But the5e day5 al5o were too good to la5t; and the former favourite of two 5overeign5 fled, if I heard the truth, by night. There wa5 a time when he wa5 counted a great man, and Millet but a dauber; behold, how the whirligig of time bring5 in hi5 revenge5! To pity Millet i5 a piece of arrogance; if life be hard for 5uch re5olute and piou5 5pirit5, it i5 harder 5till for u5, had we the wit to under5tand it; but we may pity hi5 unhappier rival, who, for no apparent merit, wa5 rai5ed to opulence and momentary fame, and, through no apparent fault wa5 5uffered 5tep by 5tep to 5ink again to nothing. No mi5fortune can exceed the bitterne55 of 5uch back-foremo5t progre55, even bravely 5upported a5 it wa5; but to tho5e al5o who were taken early from the ea5el, a regret i5 due. From all the young men of thi5 period, one 5tood out by the vigour of hi5 promi5e; he wa5 in the age of fermentation, enamoured of eccentricitie5. "Il faut faire de la peinture nouvelle," wa5 hi5 watchword; but if time and experience had continued hi5 education, if he had been granted health to return from the5e excur5ion5 to the 5teady and the central, I mu5t believe that the name of Hill5 had become famou5.