THE FRENCH INTELLECTUAL
483
battle, and more specifically at its moment of highest dramatic
intensity (the Esterhazy and Zola trials), that the word
intel–
lectual
is
coined and thrown into circulation. Maurice Paleo–
logue, in
his
recently published ]
oumal de
[>
Affaire Dreyfus
(1955), relates an impassioned evening during which a par–
ticularly bellicose Brunetiere was battling Paul Hervieu, Gustave
Larroumet, Victor Brochard and Gabriel Seailles-all of them
ardent revisionists. Paleologue records part of Brunetiere's tirade
(15 January, 1898-exactly two days after the publication of
Zola's sensational letter to the President of the Republic) :
As for Mr. Zola, why doesn't he mind his own business? The
letter],
accuse
is a monument of stupidity, presumption and incon–
gruity. The interference of this novelist in a matter of military
justice seems to me no less impertinent than, let us say, the inter–
vention of a police captain in a problem of syntax or versification.
As for this petition that is being circulated among the
Intel–
lectuals!
the mere fact that one has recently created this word
Intellectuals
is designate, as though they were an aristocracy,
individuals who live in laboratories and libraries, proclaims one of
the most ridiculous eccentricities of our time--I mean the pre–
tension of raising writers, scientists, professors and philologists to
the rank of supermen. (pp. 90-91)
The faithfulness of Paleologue's transcription cannot be ques–
tioned: one need only glance at Brunetiere's article in the
Revue
des D.eux M ondes,
or at his militant public lectures attacking
what he termed "the enemies of the French soul," to find the
same expressions and the very tone of his harangue in Mme.
Aubernon's salon.
Paleologue's talent as a memorialist is, however, not in
question here. The real interest of these pages
is
that they
testify to the newness of a word which, significantly, appears in
italics in this, as well as in most other texts of the period. Brune–
tiere associates the word with the signers of the petitions being
circulated. That very day indeed-<>n January 15th-a protest
