Page:The Bohemians of the Latin Quarter.djvu/50

in different ages, a prolegomenon besprinkled with illustrious names that we have purposely placed at the beginning of this work, to put the reader on his guard against any misapplication he might fall into on encountering the title of Bohemians; long bestowed upon classes from which those whose manners and language we have striven to depict hold it an honor to differ.

To-day, as of old, every man who enters on an artistic career, without any other means of livelihood than his art itself, will be forced to walk in the paths of Bohemia. The greater number of our contemporaries who display the noblest blazonry of art have been Bohemians, and amidst their calm and prosperous glory they often recall, perhaps with regret, the time when, climbing the verdant slope of youth, they had no other fortune in the sunshine of their twenty years than courage, which is the virtue of the young, and hope, which is the wealth of the poor.

For the uneasy reader, for the timorous citizen, for all those for whom an i can never be too plainly dotted in a definition, we repeat as an axiom: “Bohemia is a stage in artistic life; it is the preface to the Academy, the Hôtel Dieu, or the Morgue.”

We will add that Bohemia only exists and is only possible in Paris.

Like all callings, Bohemia admits of different degrees, various species which are themselves sub-divided, and of which it may not be useless to set forth the classification.

We will begin with unknown Bohemians, the largest class. It is made up of the great family of poor artists, fatally condemned to the law of incognito, because they cannot or do not know how to obtain a scrap of publicity, to attest their existence in art, and by showing what they are already prove what they may some day become. They are the race of obstinate dreamers for whom art has remained