Morning journal and courier., 1883-08-25
The Value of Life.
M. Ernest Renaa's Remarkable Speech
 Before Students.

ms Ernest RenaR's Remarkable Speech
 Before Students.
 Some of the most striking passages in M. Ernest Renan's recent speech delivered be- fore the pupils of Lycee Louis le Grand will be found below: Consider the life before you as matter serious and full of responsi- bilities. But is that a reason to regard you as less favored by fate than your predeces- sors? Quite the contrary, young people Never say, as did those malcontents of whom the prophet speaks: Our fathers have eaten sour grapes, and their children's teeth are set on edge Your lot is fair, and I see 8 thousand reasons to envy it, not merely be- cause you are young, and because youth is the entry upon an excellent thing, namely, existence; but you will see what we seek for restlesslY you will possess the solution of many political problem about which we hesitate, because the facts have not yet pro- nounced themselves with sufficient clearness.
 Your years forbid you to be cautious. Nobody is fearful about life when he is be- ginning it. 4 kind of blindness, skillfully arranged by nature, presents existence to you as tempting booty, which you burn to seize upon. Wiser men than you will warn you against the illusion which underlies your youthful ardcr. They will tell you of disap- pointments-they will say that existence does not keep it's promises, and that if people only knew what it was they took in hand they would not have the naif empressment of your age. But I declare to you that 1t is not my sentiment. I have traversed this life, which oP6ns before you like an unknown and imitless land. I expect to encounter nothing much more in it of the noyel-its termina- ton, which seems to you indefinitely far of, is very near for me. We'll, with my hand on my heant say that have found this life, which it is the fashion to calumniate, good, and well worthy the appetite which youth shows for it. The one real Illusion of which you are guilty; about it is to believe it long. No, it is short. very short, but even then assure you it is well to have existed, and the first duty of man toward that infnitude from which he eEnerges is to be grateful The generous rashness which makes you enter, without shadow of arriere- pensee upon career at the close of which 50 many enllght- ened folks aver they have found nothing save disgust is really very philosophic after It's kind Forward, therefore, with good hearts; suppress nothing of your ardor that flame which burns within you is the same spirit which, providentially spread throughout the bosom of humanity, is the principle ot rts motive force Forward forward! say l; lose not your love and passion for hVlng Speak no evil of the boundless bountifulness from which your being emerges, ana m tne special order of individual fortunes bless the happy lot which has bestowed on youa gen exous country devoted teachers, kind rela- tions and conditions of development in which you have no longer to strive against the oio harbarisms. ,.i,
 teTbat joyous intoxication, then, which ,sprinps from thenew wine of life, and when renders you deaf to the weak complaints Of the feeble-hearted is legitimate Do not De ashamed to abandon yourselves to lts lnAu- .euces; You will find existence full ot sweet savour if you do not eGpect from 1t what. 1t cannot eivs When people complain of life if is almost al ways because they have asked irapossibls thing from it. Upon this belief wholly the tsaching of the 1isest, r there is but one foundation for a happy life, the pur- suit. namely, of the good and of the true. You will be well pleased with existenceif you make fair use of it, and if you abide well pleased with yourselves. "A noble Bsntence is that which says Seek ye first the skiing dom of heaven, snd all the rest shall be- sad- ded unto you. s T 3 .aOn similar occasion to this of today, but 43 years ago. the illustri0as M. Gophrey addressed the following stern words sasVtne pupils ofthe Lycee Charlemagne; 'Oufdnty, to whom experience has unveiled the ult1- mate truths about the thinRsof this world, is to announce it to you, The mountain top of life hides from you it's further slopes ;, of its two sides you see but one. that which you are ascending; it is bright. beautiful, fra grant as spring time. You are not able, as We are, to contemplate the other fall with it's melancholy aspect, it's pale sunlight and the icy river flowing at the bottom" Still, my lads, say no to all that. It is too mournful. The sunlight is never pale, though it is often yelled. Because man grows old has he the right to say that Blowers have grown less lovely and the sprinetide less radiant Are we, forsooth, to grumble because we cannot live forever on eaEth F What rubbish IS this,