THE ATTEMPT to supplant Hugo with Balzac as “the greatest of French novelists” is being vigorously made by professional critics, and, whether it succeed or not, it is having a marked effect in increasing the popularity of the author of “The Human Comedy.” It might be said that, admitting Balzac to be “the greatest of French novelists,” Hugo at his best belongs not to France, but to humanity. It is better, however, not to make such comparisons, for nothing that can be said in praise of Hugo can possibly cheapen Balzac whose genius planned and showed itself adequate to execute the vast scheme of “The Human Comedy,” with its ninety-seven distinct works and its thousands of pages of text intended to cover the whole range of human experience. A comprehensive summary of what must be said to qualify praise of Balzac as a novelist would have its parallel in any comprehensive statement of the objections to the best brand of the most unquestionably genuine French cognac. His essays, if less intoxicating than his fiction, are never dull. He was born at Tours, May 20th, 1799, and died August 18th, 1850, at Paris, where Victor Hugo delivered, in his memory, one of the most eloquent orations delivered in France since the death of Mirabeau.