60 MARCEL PROUSTa writer tries to startle, he is likely only to utter a cliche. He will
only be profoundly original when he seeks painfully for a
universal truth; and this will be most universal when it is most
personal. Darlu's influence on Marcel was crucial, and may be
traced even into A fa Recherche du Temps Perdu, not only in
certain features of the character of Bergotte, but in the very core
of the novel. This influence went beyond the mere adoption of his
apparently contradictory doctrines, such as the importance of
scientific discovery ("How agreeable it would be, to be a really
intelligent scientist and get to the bottom of these things," Darlu
would say) or the 'unreality of the sensible world'. Marcel learned
that it is not sufficient for a great work of art to be poetic or
moral: it must also be metaphysical; and the deepest theme of A
la Recherche is the revelation of a purely metaphysical truth. He
was no longer satisfied with vague sensations, but felt it his duty
to discover and express their meaning; and if the Narrator refuses
to rest content with his mysterious delight in the spires of Martin-
ville or the taste of the madeleine, and persists in obstinate
questioning till he conquers their secret, it is partly thanks to the
teaching of Darlu. No doubt, however, Darlu only gave his pupil
qualities which he possessed already, waiting for liberation; and
the Socratic master would modestly conclude with: "But I'm not
here to give you all this advice, my job is to teach you philosophy."
Meanwhile, not satisfied with writing 'decadent prose' for their
homework, the pupils of Condorcet had been raising a crop of
handwritten schoolboy magazines. In the words of a doggerel
poem which appeared in one of them in 1890:
'Excuse me, sir, haye we had showers?
What are these fresh, poetic flowers? •••
Let me explain, it's nothing new:
The whole class writes, their master is Darlu.'The editors were Daniel Halevy and Jacques Bizet, though Marcd
often appeared as contributor or member of the editorial board.
The earliest was Lundi, 'an artistic and literary review', which
began in 1887 and had a white cover with an elegant pen-and-ink
drawing of two cupids allegorically supporting a folio volume
open at Verlaine's line 'The eclectic triumph of the Beautiful'. In
the spring of 1888 came the Reyue de Seconde ('Class Two
Reyiew'), organ of the audacious new school of subtilitism, of