New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1872-01-02
CELESTIAL ANGER.


Academy because NJ. Macmillan Paul Emile
Littr6 has been elected a fellow immortal
This il tho only news we have of the election
which was to take place on the 20th OF De
cember. There were four vacancies to be
! filled those left by MN. do MontalemOerb
Villemain, Provost aradOl, and Mermee.
The prominent candidates for these places
were the Duke dAumale, Edmond ABOUT
| Alexandra Dumas fills, Henri Tame. Bartheleiny'
| Saint Hilaire, and Mr. Littr6, whose candidacy
has at last proved successful. If any spark OF
human nature remains in the pDhosophlc
breast, it will make Mr. Littre's triumph none
the less agreeable that it is accompanied ana
| empbasized by defeat Of his ancient enemy
so signal "a to drive him to the hitherto
unbeard-of step of Academic suicide. Up to
| this hour, no one ever dreamed Of seeing one
of the Sacred Forty fling his immortality III
the face of his brethren and descend into
common life again.
But this was no common event, and the
Bishop of Orleans is no common man. one
of the greatest successes OF his life was 0D-
| tanned some nine years ago, when he excluded
Mr.. Littr6; from the Academy at time when
his election was considered certain. The IA
nous pamphlet of the jealous prclate, full
minated against Littr6, Tainc, and Renan pro-
duced so strong sensation in that serene
upper world of letters that it made the cleo
ton of either of those eminent men OF letters,
for the moment. impossible. In the
case of Littr6 it was matter of
especial hardship If a scat in the
Academy is the recognition OF the
highest achievement in learning and letters,
no Frenchman had better claim than his. lie
began In his youth the study OF medicine, and
relnquished its practice to devote himself ex-
clusively to its theory. IIo spent some years
in mastering, for this purpose the Greek,
Sanscrit, and Arabic languages, and becoming,
as Browning says of his gIammaiian " Soul
"hydrOptic with sacred thirst" cOnsecratcd his
life from that time to the present to the pur-
suit of pure learning. lie became one of the
best practical philologists who have ever
lived, and his great work, the Dictionary OF
the French Language, will forever remain
monument of his prOdigious industry and
capacity. He is the sort Of man for whom
the doors of the Mazarin palace should have
flown open at the first knock. But he bore
load which to that cautious and decOrous as
semby seemed in the highest degree suspicious
He was an ardent admirer and defender
of COmte; he had translated DR.. Strauss;
he had views Of politics and religion of
dangerous latitude. The Bishop of Orleans
the Prince Rupert of the Catholic Church in
France, snuffed beresy in the very name of
this quiet scholar. His attack against Littr6
called "A Warning to Fathers of Family"
defeated his candidature at one blow, and the
indignant and eloquent defense Of Sainte
Bcuve availcd nothing against the Odiun heo-
l0gicum which the Bishop Lad brought into
play.
Now that the sober second thought of years
has brought about a calmer and juster esti-
mate of NJ. Littr6, the Academy takes the
opportunity to secure his cOmpaniOnship, and
to add to its many glOries the luster Of his
spotess name. But Bishop Dupanloup Is a
man incapable of that indifference which
weaker men mistake for magnanimity. Thomas
Marshall once said "BOb Breckenridge and
"chose our careers early in life-he took to
"the pulpit, and to the bottle. and we have
"bOth stuck to our text" The SavOyard prelate
and the Kentucky COvenanter had many traits
in common, but mono so marked as this habit
of sticking to their text. No brlliancy of
learning, no purity of life, could weigh with
either of them one jOt in extenuatiOn of
doubtful creed. Monseigneur Dupanloup felt
no contamination in sitting beside Emile
Augicr, whose Paul Forester was last year
prohibited by the Lord Chamberlain in London,
on account of its alleged immortality. He made
no objection to Jules Sandeau or to Camille
DOucet. He did not refuse his hand to
Octave Fcuillet, whose novel of CGmOrs is the
most awful picture ever painted of the utter
degradation of moral sense in the society of
the Second Empire-but it is painted without
horror and without warning; lie hangs over il
like q lover, and not like an anatOmist. If
Theophile Gautier had at last succeeded in his
lifelong quest, it is probable that if
he came into the Academy with Mad
emoiSeHe de MGupin under his arm,
it would not have driven Monseigneur from
his fauteuil. But the entrance of this austere
and ascetc student, whose whole nature had
become refined and sublimated in the tranquil
atmosphere of books, seemed full of contagiOn,
and only flight could save the orthodoxy of
seventy years, and only clamorous protest
could set the Bishop right with Rome and his
own conscience.
After ALL it may be that strong convictions,
even extravagant ones, are better and more
fruitful than indifference. II may be better
for France that there should be men like
Littr6, who would peril their career by deny
ing what they cannot believe, and men like
Dupanloup, who lost his position at the
Sorbonne for the qualification of abusing Vol
taire, than that in the highest spheres of
intellectual life and effort there should
be no care and no thought about spiritual
things There is something pathetic in the
sight of the two Newmans, the one in monk