text:  The personages presented to us by Paul de Kock can scarcely in the strict sense of the word be called human beings; but they are French beings of real flesh and blood speaking and thinking French in the most decided possible manner and at intervals possessed of feelings which make us inclined to include them in the great genus _homo_ though with so many inseparable accidents that it is impossible for a moment to shut one's eyes to the species to which they belong