New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1872-01-05

Bishop OF Orleans is no common man. one
of the greatest succcsses of his life was OBJ
tanned some nine years ago. when he exciuueu
Mr.. Littr6 from the Academy at time when
his election was considered certain. The Ia
nous pamphlet of tho jealous preiate, fui-
minated against Lttr6, Tame, and Roman pro-
duced SO strong a sensation In that serene
upper world of letters that it made tho cleo
ton of either of those eminent men OF letters.
for the moment. impossible. In The
case of Littre il was matter oil
especial hardship. If seat in tho
Academy is the recognition of the
highest achievement in learning and letters,
no Frenchman had n better claim than his. lilo
began in his youth the study OF medicine, and
relinquished its practice to devote himself OK
clusiyely to It's theory. He spent some years
in mastering for this purpose, the Greek
Sanscrit and Arabic languages, and becoming
as Browning says of his grammarian Soul
"hydroptc with sacred thirst" consecrated his
life from that time to the present to the pur-
suit Of pure learning. He became ono OF the
best practical phiologsts who have ever
lived. and his great work, the Dictionary OF
the French Language, will forever remain q
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 no bore o
load which TO that cautious and dccOrous as
scmbly 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 a
dangerous latitude. The Bishop of Orleans,
the Prince Rupert of the Catholic Church In
France sntiIed heresy in the very name OF
this quiet scholar. His attack against Lttr6
called "A Warning TO Fathers of Family
defeated his candidature at ono blow, and the
indignant and eloquent defense of Sainte
Beuve avaled nothing against the odiun heo-
i0gicnm which the Bishop lad brought INTO
play.
Now that the sober, second thought Of years
has brought about calmer and juster esti-
mate NJ Littre, tho Academy takes the
opportunity to secure his companionship. and
to add to its many glories the luster CT his
spotless name. But Bishop DupanlOup is
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.n The SavOyard prelate
and the Kentucky COveDanter had many traits
in common, but mono so marked as this habit
of sticking to their text No brilliancy OF
learning, no purity Of life, could weigh with
either of them one jot i'll extenuation of a
doubtful creed. Monseigneur Dupanloup felt
no contamination in sitting beside Emile
Augicr whose Paul Forester was last year
Al. 4 II ,lNntIo Nm. 1 nnHn
on account Of it's alleged immortality. lie made
no objection to Jules Sandeau or to Camille
Doucet. He did not refuse his hand to
Octave Fcuilet, whose novel of CdmorS is the
most awful picture ever painted OF the utter
degradation of moral sense in the society of
the Second Empire--but it ia painted without
horror and without warning; he hangs over IL
like a lover, and not like an anatomist. If
Thcophile Gautier had at last succeeded in his
lifelong quest, it Is probable that If
he came into the Academy with Mad
em0iseIle do M1upin under his arm,
il would not have driven MOnseigneur from
his fauteui. Bat the entrance of this austere
and ascetic student whose whole nature had
become refined and sublimated in the tranquil
atmosphere of books, seemed full of cOntagiOn,
and ONLY 1ieht could save the orthodoxy of
seventy years, and only clamorous protest
could set the Bishop right with Rome and his
own COnscjcnCe!~
After all, it may DO that strong convictions,
even extravaganza ones, arc better and more
fruitful than indifference. Ii may he better
for France that there should be men like
Littre, who would peril their career by deny
ing what they cannot believe, and men like
Dupanlonp, 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
ish garb and the other a radical doubter, both
driven by profound convictions TO the points
they bavo reached. But they are both prob
ably better and moro efficient workers under
the divine purpose than if they had droned
away their lives in the unquestioning rope
tition of tue formulas III which they were
born.