The Sun.
London, England, 1863-06-19 00:00:00

serves: --

"Nothing could be more simple or ordinary than the life
of this young priest. Those who seek romances or stormy
passages in the lives Gf historical personages, or at least in
their youth, must find them elsewhere. No adventure, no
stroke of fate or of passion, troubled the course of his early
years, The son of a village doctor, educated by a pious
mother, he had, like almost all the young men of the time,
lost his faith at college, and dia not regain it either in the
school of law or at the bar, where he ranked for two years
among the advocates. In appearance nothing distinguished
him from his contemporaries. He was a Deist, like all the
youth of the time ; he was, above all, liberal, like all France,
but wi.hout excess. He shared the convictions and the
generous delusions which we all breathed in the air which
had been purified by the downfall of imperial despotism,
but he desired only a liberty strong and legitimate; and
without having yet been enlightened by the lights of faith,
he already foresaw the supremo danger of modern society,
for at twenty he wrote Impiety lead to depravity,'
Corrupt morals produce corrupt laws,' and Licence car-
ries the nations on to slavery.' He himself remained always
virtuous and regular in his morals, without any other
passion than for glory. Even before he became a Christian
he respected himself."

Among the most interesting incidents recorded in
the whole biography of his friend, by Montalembert,
is that in which the Count relates the circumstance
of their first meeting :
" It was in November, 1830, that I saw him for the first
time in tho cabinet of the Abte de Lamennais," he writes,
"four months after a revolution which seemed for a moment
to confound in a common ruin the throne and the altar, and
one month after the beginning of the journal L'Avenir.'
The motto of the journal was—Lieu et le liberte ! It was
intended by its founders to regenerate Catholic opinion
in Fiance, and to seal its union with the • progress of
liberalism. I hastened to take part in this work, with the
ardour of my 20 years, from Ireland, where I had just seen
O'Connell at the head of a people whose invincible fidelity
to the Catholic fe.ith had worn cut three centuries of per-
secution, and whose religious emancipation had just been
won by the free press and freedom of speech. A very small
number of laymen shared the convictions of M. de Lanaen-
nais, with a still more limited number of priests. Among
the latter, the Abbe Lacordaire, whom as yet no one knew,
was named to me. Not only was he not of those who had
made themselves a name by reproducing the doctrines
of the celebrated author of ' L'Essai sur l'lndiffe-
reuce; but ha could not even be called his pupil.
• • • • There needed nothing less than the Revolution
felt
fortelef
of July and L'Avenir' to engage in a common work two
natures so profoundly distinct.
first time; dazzled and swayed by
saw
t h e tohnee7 I both
myself
y th
e
first
mere sweetly and more naturally drawn towards the other.
If 1 could but paint him such as he appeared then, in all

the radiance and the charm of youth I He was 28. He was
dressed as a layman, the state of Paris not then permitting
priests to wear their proper costume. His graceful figure,
his fine and regular features, his sculpturesque forehead,
the commanding carriage of his head, his dark and spark-
ling eye, an indescribable something of pride and elegance,
as well as of modesty, in all his person—all his was but the
cover of a soul which seemed ready to pour itself fo: h, not
only in the free encounters of public speaking, but in the
overflowing of affectionate intercourse. The flash of his
eye disclosed gleams at once warlike and tender; it sought
not only enemy's to combat and to overthrow, but hearts to
fascinate and conquer, His voice, already so nervous and
energetic, frequently assumed accents of an infinite sweet-
ness. Born to fight and to love, he already bore the seal of
the double royalty of the soul and talent. He appeared to
me charming and terrible, as a type of the enthusiasm for
good—virtue armed for the support of truth. I saw in him
one of the elect, predestined to all that youth adores and
desires the most—genius and glory."

As illustrative of the simplicity of character and
the tenderness of affectio❑ for which Lacordairo was
so distinguished among his contemporaries, hero is
a mast characteristic passage from one of those
letters of his which his Biographer asierts, will,
when published, elicit far more admiration for the
man than any discourse his lips ever gave utterance
to—

"I would bury myself in the depths of the country,"
he writes, with an effusion of visionary yet profound
sadness. " I would live only for a little flock, and find all
my joy in God and in the fields It should be manifest
that lam a simple man and without ambition. Adieu,
great works I adieu, fame and great name ! I have known
their vanity, and I desire nothing more than to live obscur
and good. Some day when Montalembert shall have grow
grey in the midst of ingratitude and celebrity, he w
come to see upon my forehead the remains of our
common youth. We shall weep together at the
hearth of the presbyterie —he will do me justice
Lefore we die. I shall bless his children
For me, a poor Catholic priest, I shall neither have chil-
dren growing up under my eyes to survive me, nor domes-
tic hearth, nor Church brilliant with knowledge and sanc-
tity. Born in degenerate times, I shall pass from the earth
among things unworthy of the memory of man. I shall
endeavour to be good, simple, pious—hoping disinterestedly
in the future, since I shall not see it—working for those
who perhaps will see it—and not accusing Providence,
which might weigh down with heavier evils a life which
deserves so little."

The Biography from which have been taken the fore-
going fragmentary passages, as well as some passing
quotations from the Discourses and Epistles of the
remarkable man whose life it relates, commends
itself to the interest of all educated and enlightened
readers in England, no less than throughout all
Christendom. And it does this in a twofold manner,
by reason of the profound interest attaching to the
names—here of the man whose life is related, here
of the man whose hand has penned that relation—
the Abbe de Lacordaire and the Count de Montalem-
bert, Both of them among the greatest of modern
orators : both of them associated with the revival of
religious fervour in France: both of them pure and
noble and earnest in character. Both of them, as
such, standing forth conspicuously before Europe
among the whole mass of their contemporaries as
illustrious Champions of Civil and Religious Li-
berty—the one as a Preacher, the other as a
Patrician : both in the full glare of the light of
this nineteenth century, this age of advanced and
advancing civilisation.