Whatever he saw became food for meditation, and, if not used at once, was treasured up for future need. Marivaux came at last to surmise that here lay the secret of his inspiration, but it was not for some years yet that he expressed himself, as he did in the _Spectateur francais_: "Ainsi je ne suis point auteur, et j'aurais ete, je pense, fort embarrasse de le devenir... je ne sais point creer, je sais seulement surprendre en moi les pensees que le hasard me fait naitre, et je serais fache d'y mettre rien du mien."[38]

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