"[119] This
discernment is the enemy of anything approaching obscurity of thought or
mysticism; and its outcome was that curious book, _Problemes et
Mysteres_--a misleading title, for the spirit of reason reigns there and
makes an appeal to young people to protect "the light of a menaced
world" against "the mists of the North, Scandinavian gods, Indian
divinities, Catholic miracles, Lourdes, spiritualism, occultism, and
obscurantism."[120]
His love and need of liberty is also of the eighteenth century. One may
say that liberty is his only passion. "I am passionately fond of
liberty," he wrote.[121]
[Footnote 118: Charles Gounod, _"Ascanio" de Saint-Saens_, 1890.]
[Footnote 119: _Id., ibid._]
[Footnote 120: C. Saint-Saens, _Problemes et Mysteres_, 1894.]
[Footnote 121: _Harmonie et Melodie_.]
And he has proved it by the absolute fearlessness of his judgments on
art; for not only has he reasoned soundly against Wagner, but dared to
criticise the weaknesses of Gluck and Mozart, the errors of Weber and
Berlioz, and the accepted opinions about Gounod; and this classicist,
who was nourished on Bach, goes so far as to say: "The performance of
works by Bach and Haendel to-day is an idle amusement," and that those
who wish to revive their art are like "people who would live in an old
mansion that has been uninhabited for centuries.
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