Under the Rose

THE greater part of the unpublished remains of Anatole France consists of Dialogues which he intended to entitle Under the Rose.

He liked that old-fashioned expression. In the course of an essay on the Emperor Julian in Life and Letters, he says :

“ One evening I heard Monsieur Renan say under the rose, ‘ Julian ! Why, the man was a reactionary.’ ”

But nowadays the phrase is seldom used, and its real significance is almost forgotten. The big dictionaries of the day know it not.

He had, as a matter of fact, begun to write these Dialogues just after the war, and he had, no doubt, been prompted to enroll them beneath the emblem of Peace. The reader will observe in due course how one of his characters alludes to this auspicious date. “ Let us celebrate tog'ether,” so the words run, “ in these days of peace and repose, here beneath the sacred olive, the serene orgies of metaphysics. Let us drink our fill of wisdom.”