The Holy Bible is an abyss. It is impossible to explain how profound it is, impossible to explain how simple it is.

The peculiarity of his standpoint and the originality and vigour of his approach make his studies of Shakespeare Hugo and others of abiding importance as literary "triangulation" the results of object subject and point of view. His best-known book Physionomie de saints (1875) which has been translated into English (1903) as Studies in Saintship does not display his qualities best. This struggle probably tinged his prose with a melancholy strain which is strikingly original as mentioned in J.