The "Études de Mœurs" will represent all social effects, without a single situation in life, physiognomy, character of man or woman, manner of living, profession, social zone, French region, or anything whatever of childhood, maturity, old age, politics, justice, or war, having been forgotten.
That done, the history of the human heart traced thread by thread, the social history given in all its parts, there is _the base_. The facts will not be imaginary; they will be what is happening everywhere.
Then, the second structure is the "Études Philosophiques;" for after the _effects_ will come the _causes_. I shall have painted in the "Études de Mœurs" sentiments and their action, life and its deportment. In the "Études Philosophiques" I shall tell _why_ the sentiments, _on what_ the life; what is the line, what are the conditions beyond which neither society nor man exist; and, after having surveyed society in order to describe it, I shall survey it again in order to judge it. So, in the "Études de Mœurs" _individualities_ are typified; in the "Études Philosophiques" _types_ are individualized. Thus I shall have given life everywhere: to the type by individualizing it, to the individual by typifying him. I shall have given thought to the fragment; I shall have given to thought the life of the individual.
Then, after _effects_ and _causes_, will come the "Études Analytiques," of which the "Physiologie du Mariage" is a part; for after _effects_ and _causes_ we must search for _principles. Manners_ and _morals [mœurs]_ are the play; _causes_ are the _coulisses_ and the _machinery. Principles_ are the _maker_. But in proportion as the work winds spirally up to the heights of thought, it draws itself in and condenses. Though twenty-four volumes are required for the "Études de Mœurs," only fifteen are needed for the "Études Philosophiques," and only nine for the "Études Analytiques." Thus man, society, humanity will be described, judged, analyzed, without repetitions, and in a work which will be like an "Arabian Nights" of the West.
When all is done, my Madeleine scraped, my pediment carved, my last touches given, I shall have been _right_, or I shall have been _wrong_. But, after having made the poesy, the demonstration of a whole system, I shall make the science of it in an Essay on Human Forces ["Essai sur les Forces Humaines"]. And, on the cellar-walls of this palace I, child and jester, shall have drawn the immense arabesque of the "Contes Drolatiques."