The Grange advance. [volume] (Red Wing, Minn.) 1873-1877, 1876-07-12

G SSjes , 2st hnsx Is, Min Say Sy!u,
And her lover will I've His messenger!
MICHELET.
His Early Faith and Latter Unbelief-Last
Moments Of His Life.
Paris Correspondence Boston Advertiser.
The public at large has been very
much more pre-occupied with the
name and life of Michelet on the re.
cent occasion of his final burial in
Pere Ia Chaise than it was on that of
his death, which took place at Hyeres
on the 9th of February, 1874. His
widow directed every detail of the
funeral, and it was in great measure
due to her that everything passed off
so quietly. True, the police had taken
every precaution, and it was generally
feared the radicals would seize this
occasion for riot, or at Leaf mani
Hesitation, but NM. Beriot, president of
the Academy of Moral Sciences, La
boulaye, Herve, Quicheret, and Chal-
leme Lacour took their last farewell of
Michelet and addressed the two thous-
and republicans present in such moder-
ate language that Nine. Mechelet Just
ly observed ''In seeing the crowd
conduct itself so properly, this day of
mourning had become day of fete. -
Poor woman how could she feel
peace with no hope Of the hereafter I?
Their little boy, 10 years of age, had
followed the hearse, bearing the
wreath of immortelles, on which was
inscribed: ''aMichelet, liberte de
Conscience Poor boy and we may
well add, poor France! when most of
her great men have what are called
civil burials. My object in writing of
Michelet to-day is to prove that he has
not always been free-thinker. for the
purity and goodness of his life natural
~ make one hope that, at the last mo-
ment, a ray of the divine light he had
often sought in early life may have
shone upon his soul.
Mlchelet was born in 1893. His
father was a good-natured, jovial man,
treating everything lightly and easily,
and imposing but one command upon
his son-that the name of God should
never pass his lips
Free-thinkers of to-day have their
children baptized on the ground that
it can do no harm, and the want of it
sometimes stands in the way of world
ly advancement the want of an act of
baptism is very troublesome in France
Michelet's father did not admit even
this, and absolutely refused to hear a
word on the subject. and it was not
until 1916 that Michelet-then Is years
of age-repaired the fault Of his par
ents and was baptized. Of his first
marriage I know but little, beyond his
constant attendance at divine service,
sending his children to catechism and
assisting at their first communions.
Toward 1880 Michelet and Guizot be.
came Intimate friends, and when in
1888 the latter became minister, he
chose Michelet for substitute at the
Faculte des Lettres. but they soon
quarrelled, and in 1885 Charles Lenor-
mant took his place. ''Your audacity
frightens me,'' said Guizot, s.and NJ.
Lenormant seems to me better
Christian than you.'' ..What do YOU
know about it?" replied Michelet F.; 81
am as good, and perhaps even better
Christian, than either of you.'
From that day the two men were
always at variance, and on one Occa.
sion, in the academy discussing the
appreciation of the Indian poetry,
Guizot terminated a long speech with
these words: ''This poetry displeases
me. I cannot too severely condemn
it's exuberance.'
care you capable of camprehending
such sublimity o. cried Michelet exas-
perated ,-''you who have always hated
life!''
In early life three books fell into
his hands. The Mythology, which dis
pleased him-he had heard enough
of Jupiter, Apollo. and Venus from
his father, who never spoke, to him Of
God; Beileau, which touched his mind
more than his heart, and last though
not least, elimination de Jesus
Christi In his own words, s.This
wonderful book fell by accident into
my hands. l found it in a pile of
dusty, worm-eaten volumes, in a great.
cold, unfinished room. I read first
carefully, then attentively, and at last
ardently, and that dull, dusty room re-
turns ever to my memory, warmed
with celestial light, in the midst of
which felt God.'
This initiation into religion explains
the almost inspired eloquence with
which he wrote the lives of St. Their
esa and St. Ignace de Loyale, his ad-
mirable Interpretation of St. Louis