New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1880-03-21

TIC HAPPINEss-A BEAUTIFUL hCHh MA" I'm
LUXEMBOURG
NJ. Renan. the celebrated author OF " Inc
Life of Jesus" will deliver during April on
the invitation Of Dean Stanley, four lectures
In the Chapter Room Of Westminster. The
TRIBUNE's correspondent in Paris, in giving
synopsis of the lectures, received from the
authors lips, and which deal with the influence
of Rome on Christianity during the first three
centuries of the new era, presents also PIC
ture of the philosophers personality and home
life
A PEN PICTURE OF THE PHILOSOPHER
us PUBLIC CAREER AND HOME LIFr--HIs SISTER
INFLUENCE UPON HIS DFsTINY-RENAN Al VIC
TOR HUGo's TABLr-OUTLINE OF THE LECTURE
WHICH HE IS ABOUT TO DELIVER AT WEST
MINISTER.
lFRoM THE REGULAR CORRESPONDENT OF THE TRIBUNE.l
PARIS. March 3.-M. Ernest Renan will leave
Paris on the Goth instant for London where, under
the auspices of Dean Stanley, he will deliver four
lectures in the Chapter Room of Westminster His
subject will be the effect, in the irst second and
third centuries, of Rome. political, social phllo-
sophical and pagan. Christianity. Nobody IN
our time is better qualified to treat this subject imam
NJ. Renan. He is man of true intuition, the hne
point of which has not been blunted by his extraor
binary erudition. Though he has turned his back
forever on the Roman Catholic Church he harbors
not the bitter feelings of renegade against her
On the philosophical heights to which he has as
cended his mind is more at ease, more active, more
vigorous than it could have been had he entered
holy orders and remained in them. But the Church
of Rome is always to him the mother country. the
old home of his soul. If he has emgTated 10 Bet
ter Land and established himself in happier ana
more c0mmOdiOus dwelling than the primal one. he
still looks back with filial tenderness to the Church
of his youth, her imposing and often consOllng rites
practices and teachings. There are Americans Of
Puritan stock who feel toward England as Renan
feels toward Roman Catholicism. They would not
be English because they have in the Great Republic
outgrown England But they are, and often I'M
known to themselves, disposed to yearn for her.
Their love enables them to enter, so to speak, into
the heart and brain of the nation, and to appreciate
what is bestip her at its real value. Frenchman
who has been making visit TO Great Britain draws
caricature of her when he returns to France and
tries TO expand his tourists notes INTO a book. An
American rarely sets England in ridiculous light,
because filial affection gives him true vision. Re
ian sees Rome as an American the old country,
and he will do her no injustice in the -four lectures
which WILL in April next be the great literary event
of the British capital Her broad bosom nursed
him end he will never mange it with the dlssectng
knife of criticism.
REMAIN AND Golden.
/ have, at different times and on noteworthy Oc-
casions, met and cOnversed with NJ. Renan in the
course of the last twenty years. The first time
saw him was in the company of the lamented Rich
ard Golden, who had read with interest. articles by
him IN reviews and journals. Mr.. Golden pro-
foundly religious. although he did not attach hlm-
self to any kind of theological dogma whatsoever.
believe the idea of bringing down heaven to earth
by promoting peace amongst nations, justice and
popular education, came to him in his early readings
of the Bible. He was convinced that it was the
duty of every man TO endeavOr TO make, at least
this world fitting road to celestial Kingdom. His
soul cleaved to men and women OF religious feeling
who had cast away those fancies of theOlogans
standing in the way of human progress. Iremem-
Der how he kindled with enthusiasm when Renan
spoke of the religious intuition of tie Jewish peO-
pie which led him to hope for a renovated earth on
which there would be neither nor injustice.
SISTERS DEVOTION.
The next occasion on which | met N. Renan was
at the house of Madame Cornu. the fostersister of
the Emperor Napoleon Ill He had just come from
the Holy Land, was very broken il health, de-
pressed and cast down in spirits for he had just lost
at Bcyrout his heroic sister Rosalie She had been
TO him the incarnation of Divine Providence and
had enabled him to emaucipate himself from the
Seminary which he entered to be priest. Both
were the children of piOus Breton woman She was
animated by the most ardent faith in Roman Ca
tholicisn, as it is understood in Brittany. Their
father BOIdelas captain, persisted at Just pre-
yous to the birth of Ernest at the ecclesiastical
town of TT6guer in the north of Brittany The
captains widow was poor. Her lot and that of her
two children lay in the Valley of Humiliation which
Resale turned into flower garden for her infant
brother. When their mother broke down and died,
she took situation as governess in Russia received
q high salary. and with part of 1T helped along her
beloved Ernest in the pursuit Of knowledge and
scholarship. With the rest, when he informed her
that his faith had died out, she set him up in an
humble lodging at the bottom of an old garden, in
the scholastic quarter of S Jacques She then came
TO France to help him in his studies, 10y her
cheering and maternal cOmpanionshp Her eTudi-
ton was extensive. Her literary capacity
par with his. In his journey to Syria she accOmpa-
MED him. She went with him over every spot trod-
den by Jesus. Her intuition her insight. her learn
ing her critical acumen further aid to him
when he collecting materials for the " Life of
Jesus" VI. Renan on a late occasion observed to me
thar the love bestowed a child keeps him warm
for the rest Of his existence. A boy who has not
been allowed to play and a girl who has not had
dolls become amsauthTopc man and sour, nervous
woman. Iinstanced the present Empress of Rus
sia who had every virtue except womanly sweet
ness. YES" said a lady listening to what said,
"she was supposed at Darmstadt TO be merely the
daughter of the Grand Duchess, and was treated as
q Cinderella by the Grand Duke Her gloomy piety,
which led the Court prosecute the beterodox sects
in Russia was responsible for a great deal in the
fermentation going on there. The Empress had
had no dolls in infancy, and had never been petted
by anybody. There caorc stored mp in her
for the Winter time of life, and the Gar went to be
warmed by the conversation OF n lady who had been
favorite child"
Remain when 4 sew him at the house of Madame