but also uniquely reflective of how creative minds approach the creation of art.

The manifesto was also intended to serve more practical, immediate needs. Moréas, together with Gustave Kahn and others, felt a need to distinguish themselves from a group of writers associated with Anatole Baju and Le Décadent. For Moréas and Kahn's group, the self-identified decadent writers represented both an earlier stage of development on the path towards symbolism, and also a frivolous exploitation of the