"Finally,édé in 1891, after the death of Roumanille, the highest office in the Félibrige was taken by a man who could rally about him the two elements that we have seen manifested, sufficiently Republican to satisfy the most ardent in the extreme Left, sufficiently steady not to alarm the Royalists, a great enough poet to deserve without any dispute the first place in an assembly of poets."
He, like Mistral, wrote epics in twelve cantos. His first work, _Li Carbounié_, has on its title-page three remarkable lines:--
"I love my village more than thy village, I love my Provence more than thy province, I love France more than all."
Possibly no other three lines could express as well the whole spirit of the Félibrige.
Our subject being Mistral and not Félix Gras, a passing mention must suffice. One of his remarkable works is called _Toloza_, and recounts the crusade of the Albigenses, and his novel, _The Reds of the Midi_, first published in New York in the English translation of Mrs. Thomas A. Janvier, is probably the most remarkable prose work that has been written in Provençal.[4] Only the future can tell whether the Provençal will pass through a prose cycle after its poetic cycle, in the manner of all literatures. To many serious thinkers the attempt to create a complete literature seems of very doubtful success.
The problems, then, which confront the Félibres are numerous. Can they, with any assurance of permanence, maintain two literary languages in the same region? It is scarcely necessary to state, of course, that no one dreams of supplanting the French language anywhere on French soil. What attitude shall they assume toward the "patoisants," that is, those who insist on using the local dialect, and refuse to conform to the usage of the Félibres? Is it not useless, after all, to hope for a more perfect unification of the dialects of the _langue d'oc_, and, if unification is the aim, does not logical reasoning lead to the conclusion that the French language already exists, perfectly unified, and absolutely necessary? In the matter of politics, the most serious questions may arise if the desires of some find more general favor. Shall the Félibres aim at local self-government, at a confederation something like that of the Swiss cantons? Shall they advocate the idea of independent universities?