MAGIC SKIN, The, or ASS' SKIN,) as the French title 'Peau de is also translated, is one of the most famous of the novels making up the imposing series of the 'Human Comedy' of Balzac, where it may be found in the group of Philosophical Studies.' It was also one of the earliest (1831). While it offers abundantly that penetrating ob servation of human conduct and character, and that minute record of the myriad little con crete details of circumstance and environment that condition and explain them, that mark the realism of Balzac and make his work so full of what Taine has called °human documents,* it is essentially an allegory and enforces, un der the form of a magic symbol, a profoundly moral truth. The magic skin is a piece of shagreen bearing this inscription: °Possessing me thou shalt possess all things, but thy life is mine, for God hath so willed it. Wish and thy wishes shall be fulfilled; but measure thy desires, according to the life that is in thee.
This is thy life, with each wish I must shrink even as thy own days. Wilt thou have me? Take me. God will hearken unto thee. So be it' The young man who becomes the pos sessor of this talisman in a moment of suicidal desperation demands of it a princely fortune, and sees himself with the power to have every wish gratified. But with each exercise of his power he observes with horror that the magic skin shrinks and shrinks; and less and less do his demands on its power bring with them satisfaction. The story is not of even interest throughout, and the narrative of the youth of the hero, which takes up a half of the book, may seem somewhat long drawn out. But it is one of the best examples of Balzac's peculiar power of seeing facts and illuminating them with ideas. There are English translations by Ellen Marriage, with a preface by George Saintsbury (Philadelphia 1897), and by Kathe rine P. Wormeley (Boston 1896).