JEAN FRANÇOIS MILLET
Never has any figure recalled more strongly La Bruyère's famous description. The two have often been bracketed together:
"Certain wild animals may be seen scattered over the country, males and females, black, livid, and burnt up by the sun, bound to the earth, in which they poke and fumble with invincible obstinacy: they have a kind of articulate speech, and when they rise upon their feet they show a human countenance, and indeed are men."[1]
"The Man with the Hoe will cause me to be abused by many people who do not like to have their minds filled with things that do not belong to their own circle nor to be disturbed," wrote Millet. This result duly followed. Gautier and St Victor were merciless. It was declared that Millet slandered the peasant and could not see the beauty of the country. He replied in a letter of magnificent religious grandeur. "The things said of my Man with the Hoe seem to me very strange. Is it impossible, then, to receive quite simply the ideas that occur to the mind on seeing a man
- ↑ La Bruyère, "Characters," Chapter xi., "Of man."
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