The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-08-25
LIFE Is GOOD.
Striking Passages from Address by M.
Ernest Renan.


Paris Letter.
Some of the most striking passages in NJ.
Ernest Remains recent speech, delivered be-
fore the pupils of Lycee Louis lie Grand, will
be found below:
Consider the life before YOU as a matter
serious and full of responsibilities. But is
that a reason to regard you as less favored by
tate than your predecessors? Quite the con-
trary, young people. Never say, as did those
maicontents of whom the prophet speaks:
our fathers have eaten sour grapes and their
chiidrens teeth are set on edge. Your lot
| is fair and see u thousand reasons to envy
it, not merely because you are young, and
because youth is the entry upon an excellent
thing, namely, existence; but you will see
what we shall never see; you will know what
we seek for restlessly; you will possess the So
luton of many political problem about
| which we hesitate, because the facts have
not yet pronounced themselves with sutfi
cient elearness.
'Your years forbid you to be cautious.
Nobody is fearful about life when he is be-
| ginning it. A kind of blindness, skillfully
arranged by nature, presents existence to
you as a tempting booty which you burn to
seize upon. Wiser men than you will warn
you against the illusion which underlies
your youthful ardor. They will tell you of
! sappointments-they will say that exist
ence does not keep its promises, and that If
people only knew what it was they took in
hand they would not have the 'naif empresse-
ment' of your age But l declare TO you
that it is not my sentiment. / have traversed
this life, which opens before you like an un
known and limitless land. l expect to en-
counter nothing much more in 1t of the
novel-its termination, which seems to you
Indefinitely far off is very near for me. Well,
with my hand on my heart, | say that have
found this life, which it is the fashion to
calumniate, good and we'll worthy the appe-
tite 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 thus
l assure you it is well to nave existed,
and the first duty of man toward that infini-
tude from which he emerges is to be grateful.
| The generous rashness which makes you en-
ter, without a shadow of arriere-pensee,
upon career at the close OF which so many
| enlightened folks aver they have found moth
! ing save disgust, is really very philosophc
after its kind. Forward, therefore, with
good hearts; suppress nothing of your ardor;
| that fame which burns within you is the
same spirit which, providentially spread
throughout the bosom Of humanity, is the
principle of its motive force. Forward for
wardl say |; lose not your love and passion
| for living Speak no evil of the boundless
| bountifulness from which your being
energies, and in the special order of individu-
| al fortunes bless the happy lot which has
| bestowed on you generous country, de-
voted teachers, kind relations, and conditions
| of development in which you have no longer
to strive against the old barbarisms
THAT joyous intoxieation, then, which
| springs from the new wine of life, and which
| renders you deaf to the weak complaints of
the feeble-hearted, is legitimate. Do not be
ashamed to abandon yourselves to its influ-
ences! You will find existence full of sweet
SAVIOR if you do not expect from it what it
cannot give. When people complain of life
| it is almost always because they have asked
| impossible things from it. Upon this belief
wholly-the teaching of the wisest-there is
| but one foundation for happy life. the
pursuit namely, of the good and of the true
| You will be we'll pleased with existence if
you make fair use of it, and if you abide
we'll pleased with yourselves. a noble sem
tenee is that which says: Seek we first the
kingdom of heaven and all the rest shall be
added unto you
| ''On a similar occasion of this of to-day,
but forty-three years ago, the iliustrious NJ.
! Jouffrey addressed the following stern words
to the pupils of the Lycee Charlemagne:
| Our duty, to whom experience has UNI
| yelled the ultimate truths about the things
of this world, is to announce it TO you. The
mountain top of life hides from you its
| further slopes; of its two sides you see but
| one-that which you are ascending; it is
bright, beautiful, fragrant as spring-time.
| You are not able, as we are to contemplate
\ the other fall, with its melancholy aspect,
It's pale sunlight and the icy river flowing at
! the bottom Well, my lads, l say no to all
that. 1t is too mournful. The sunlight is
| never pale though it is often yelled. Be-
cause a man grows old has he the right to say
that flowers have grown less lovely and the
| springtide less radiant? Are we, forsootb,
| to grumhle because we cannot live forever Oh
| earth? What rubbish is this, just heaven!
Amid all the flowers land how sweet and
| fair that tlower-world ISL only one seems to
/ viii nj
stiff, withered, disagreeably glittering thing
which gardeners wrongly call the immor-
telle.' l do not call 1t flower. prefer the
brightand sweet rose though it has the de-
feet of fading away all too soon.
"You will behold the twentieth century,
my young scholar! All! 1 confess 1 envy
you that other privilege; you will see the un-
| foreseen! You will hear what posterity says
of us, You will know what there was of solid
and what of frail in our dreams. Be kind to
us who preceded you. This poor old nine
| tenth century, winch will be so we'll abused
had good people in it, faithful souls, warm
hearts, and heroes Of duty. Genera
tons as they follow each other are ofttimes
unjust to each other. You are the nursery
garden of the the talent of the future.
| | fancy ! descry amid you the very critic,
who, about the year 1910 or 1920 A. D., will
sit in judgment on this age. l imagine l
read his indictment permit me to indulge
my idea): What sign of the times! What
a complete reversal of all proper notions CT
things TO choose in 1883 for our president at
the distribution of prizes a man, harmless
enough, but the very last who should have
been selected, etc. He gave some good ad-
vice. but what feebeness, what lack of in
dignation against his times!' Thus, doubt
less, viii write the conscientious critic OF the
twentieth century. and perhaps he will not
be far wrong but do not let him forget to
add how glad l was to be among you. how
your marks of sympathy went to my heart,
and how the touch OF your youth revived
and rejoiced me-"
One Thing Women Don't Know.
| Springfield Republican.
| ,1rt,. .,...s,. Ill 49,, I-roxr n ..oo.l