The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-06-06

beliefs had completely disappeared. bu;
cising any influence over me on the sub.
Ject. When l communicated to her the
doubts which tormented me and which
made it duty for me to quit a career
where absolute faith is demanded
she offered to facilitate for me
i ierea life s,fe =, % passage oId tbog en-
but as inexperienced and ignorant of the
world as it is possible to be- Literally l
knew no one; the simplest start which
any young man of Is possesses lacked.
1 was not then bachelor of letters. Ii was
arranged that should seek an occupation
In Paris ''du pair" that Is. receiving board
and lodging but training myself a suffi-
ciency OF time for my own work. Twelve
hundred francs sent by my sister Hen
rlette were TO permit me to wait and sup
piement what was insufficient at first, in
such a position. These 1900 francs were
the cornerstone of my lite. / never ex-
hausted them, but they assured me the
tranquility necessary for pursuing at ease
my thoughts and reflections and delivered
me from the necessity of overcharging nv
self with WORK which would have choked
me-"
In 1850, forced by reason of her health
to abandon the position in Poland. Mad
emolsalie Renan returned to Paris and
settled with her brother in a tiny apart
ment at the end OF garden near the VAL
de-Grace, and there these two beings. 50
well suited to each other, passed several
years, the remembrance of which today
even profoundly moves Renan. "Our
windows looked on the garden of the Car
meiites, Rue Enter. The life of these
refuses. during the long hours that /
passed at the Bibliotheque, regulated in
some sort that of my sister and became her
unique distraction. Her respect for my
work was extreme. have seen her in the
evening tor hours at my side scarcely
breathing, so as not to interrupt me.
Her part in the direction of my ideas
was very extensive. She was tor me an
incompatible secretary. She copied all
my works and penetrated so profoundly
into them that could repose on her as on
living index of my own thought. To
her am infinitely indebted for the style.
she read IN the proof all that | wrote and
her valuable censure sought out with in
finite delicacy, negligences which till then
L had not perceived. She had adopted an
excellent manner of writing. gath
cred from ancient sources, so pure, so
exact, that do not think since Port Royal
an ideal of more perfect business of die
ton has been proposed. This rendered
her very severe; she admitted very little
the writers of today, and the essays l had
written before our reunion only half
pleased her. She sympathized with the
tendency, but the poems seemed to her alb
rupt and negligent; finding in them Excess
slve traits, hard tones, and a manner of
treating the language too little respectful.
She convinced me that one can say all in
the simple and correct style of the good
authors, and that novel expressions. vio-
lent images, are always the result of an
unseemly pretentiousness or an ignorance
lf vnot iohn Th,,, IRE,
with her dates a profound change in my
manner OF writing. l accustomed myself
to compose, counting beforehand on her
remarks, haZarding many touches to see
the effect they would produce on her. and
decide to sacrifice them if she demanded
it,"
So the brothers and sisters lived this
which could not but render difficult a
marriage warmly desired by Renan and in
theory, apparently as warmly desired by
the sister, vet which not the less at the
decisive moment provoked a passionate
revolt from the heart heroically devoted
but exclusive.
Before the grief of his sister Renan sac
riiiced himself. He announced to Mile.
Cornelie Scheffer, niece of the painter, AIRY
Schetfer, whom he loved and by whom he
was beloved, that he could see her no
more. Touched with so much abnegation
his sister refused the sacrifice and the
marriage took place.
How much delicate tact, what exquisite
goodness was needed on the part of the
young wife who broke up the warm and
ardent tete-a-tete, but she had the neces-
sary tact, the sweetness and the patience
to excess, and her love and devotion tri-
umphed over all difficulties. The birth
OF little boy, AIRY, aided again in the
pacltcatlon of the home, introducing into
it new happiness. A little girl was to
appear few years later. Nine. Renan
must return for her confinement to Paris,
whilst Renan completed in Phenicia the
scientific mission confided to him in 1860
Is there need to say that his sister Hen
rlette had accompanied him and remained
with him when his sister-in-law returned
to Paris? On the steepest SUBMITS of
Lebanon, as in the deserts of Jordan, she
followed him step by step. The ter
rife mountain roads and privations
inseparable from these sort of ex-
plorings did not brighten or intimidate
her. Death alone could arrest her-death
which at Amschit, near Byblos, in Syria,
carried her away, whilst Renan himself,
struck down by one of those fits of fever,
which in these climates rarely spare, lay
in delirium by her side and perceived not
that the devoted companion of every hour
OF his life was no more.
FROM tDlS IllOIleIIC the lie Oh 6eDdn Is
open to all, he communicates direct with
the public, gives himself up to it entirely,
too much perhaps.
1t is known that, appointed to the Col
lege de France. at the end of lesson which
had provoked tumutuous and contrary
manifestations he refused to give in mis-
resignation and was revoked.
NJ. Jules Simon in 1870 gave him the
chair which since that time he has not
ceased to occupy. In 1878 he was APP
pointed at the Academic Franchise, since
1856 he has formed part of the Academic
des Inscriptions ct Bellies Letters" Bou-
nat has just terminated portrait of the
master. 1t will be admired in the salon
because it is a magnificent work of art and
an excellent painting; but we, for our
part, allow we have not found in it that
little flame which might and should light
up the physiognomy and make us forget
what there is of heavy. common and ma
terlal in the visage, fat, soft-cheeked and
feshy-nosed. The expression of the mouth
Is, however. happy, the shrewd smile and
small winking green eyes through which
filters the look of malicious irony mixed
with the feline grace of the insinuating
and supple writer, to whose charm one
cannot but submit. Truly one may strug-
gle against it, he subjugates you in spite
of yourself, and one is perhaps more an gry
with him for this violence than all the
rest, ROBERT DE CERIsY.