M. Anatole France, who was entertained at a banquet at
the Savoy Hotel on Wednesday, presided over by Lord Redesdale and attended by a large gathering of men and women of letters, made an admirable speech in responding to the toast of his health. Observing that the novel was the homely and modern form of the epic, he said that during two centuries Englishmen had produced masterpieces in this kind. England was the native home of the novel, as Normandy was of the apple or Valencia of the orange, and the reason was that the novel in its nature was, like the English mind, intimate, cordial, and homely. The honour they were doing him was infinitely precious, in that it enabled him to express his respectful and tender affection for England and to pay homage to the English genius, in which there was a vigorous continuity which provoked wonder and compelled admiration. By energy of character and intellect the genius of England was allied with the genius of Rome. The Romans loved justice, and aimed at giving equitable laws and august peace to the conquered lands. " Our task is no longer to conquer the world but to pacify it. Labour, I ask you, or rather let us labour together, for the peace of the world."
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