Modern art is all analysis, experiment, and comparison. The ancient inspiration — that in fifteen nights of fever one could create a romance — is nowadays an obsolete and false method of industry. Alas! there are no muses around anymore, to breathe into a kiss the secret of nature! The modern muse is the experimental science of phenomena, and the old one, wearing a star on her brow and clad in her garments of candour, now lies stored in a corner, under the dust of years, with the breastplates of the Wandering Knights, the wings of Eloa, the soul of Antony, the sighs of Graziella, and other props — as endearing as they are old — of the antiquated romantic stage!

O Crime do Padre Amaro received some attention from reviewers in Brazil and in Portugal, particularly after the later publication of a novel called O Primo Basilio. And in Brazil as in Portugal it has been written (however, without giving any definite proof) that O crime do Padre Amaro was an imitation of a novel by Monsieur Zola — La faute de l'Abbé Mouret, or that the aforesaid book by the author of l'Assommoir, and of many other masterful social studies — had suggested the idea, the characters, the intention of O Crime do Padre Amaro.

I have some motive to believe that this is not correct. O Crime do Padre Amaro was written in 1871, read to a few friends in 1872, and published in 1874. The book of Monsieur Zola, La Faute de l'Abbé Mouret (which is the fifth volume of the Rougon-Macquart series) was written and published in 1874.

However (though this might seem supernatural) I consider this reason as merely subordinate and insufficient. Well could I have, after all, penetrated the brain, the thought of Monsieur Zola, and descried, among the shapes yet uncertain of his future creations, the appearance of Abbé Mouret — exactly as the venerable Anchises, in the vales of Elysium, could descry, among the shadows of the races to come, fleeting in the luminous mist of Lethe, him whom some day had to be Marcellus! Such things may happen. No prudent man should deem them more extraordinary than the chariot of fire that carried off Elijah to Heaven — and other such proven wonders.