_Those who base their judgments on their artistic sensibilities._
This artistic origin of the political attitudes of so many men of
letters has been pointed out with great ability by M. Daniel Halévy in
the case of M. Maurras. In an old article (_La Grande France_, 1902) M.
Halévy quotes this beautiful passage from M. Maurras’s _Anthinéa_ on
the walk of women carrying a clay pot balanced on their heads:--
‘The bosom swells and is modelled like a vase, it opens like a flower.
The neck settles, the loins strain nervously. Their walk becomes
graver and more supple, is measured with an inestimable sobriety; it
unrolls in the mind like a piece of music. This living pillar moves,
glides, advances, without being interrupted by any sudden jerk or any
break. It follows the undulations of the ground, adapts itself to the
slightest rises, and thus resembles the stem of a beautiful young tree
set free from its roots, moving over the ground without leaving it for
a fraction of an inch. An infinite multitude of half-pauses make the
jerks imperceptible, or one is only conscious of their succession, a
continual harmony which leaves its curves in the air....’