New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1896-04-05
A MODERN IUYL.
THE FRIENDSHIP OF ERNEST AND HEN
RIETTE REMAIN.

BROTHER AND SISTER. Memoir and tho Let;
hy Lady Mary Lloyd octave. Up. vi, 80 New
York and London. Macmillan Co
Fraternal sentiment is often a thing 80 meas
urable and sistcrly attachment provides as fire.
ouently SO concrete a parallel TO II In all essen
tials that a certain conventional atmosphere
would seem 10 be inevitable In any record Of
either the one or the othc-. Family revelations.
no matter how beautiful rarely ~ sort 10
contribute anything really new TO the WORLDS
conception Of human affection. Yet the fusion
Of two temperaments In the lives Of Ernest and
Henriette Renan In the life" OF those intimately
related Individuals II would perhaps he more
accurate t. say. was so subtle and complete.
It was characterized by such originality. that
its history IL unique in literature. Ma Socur
Henrietta" the brief memoir which Rcnsn conSc-
Grated to his sister after her death for the
perusal Of their friends alone. IS not the mere
narrative OF an episode In modern family life.
II Is an idy poem. In which the principal
figures are lovers in new sense inscparshle
participants In development belonging more
intensely to the sphere OF spiritual things than
any which religious or phllosophic contempa-
ton commonly brings - two human beings.
To n translation OF this remarkable work. which
reviewed in The Tribune al the time 81 Its
original appearance. the present volume adds a
number OF letters which passed between Rcnan
and his sister at comparatively early period
in their friendship. They date from March.
1872 to December, 1S4j. and relate almost cx-
cluslvely TO the experiences OF Kenan when he
was completing his education in the semlnaries
OF ST. Nicolas ana 81. Sulpice. was emerging
from orthodoxy into condition OF doubt. and
was beset by difficulties which these doubts and
stress OF circumstances placed between him and
the accomplishment OF Cd -eer. The correspond
ence IL full Of explanation on his part OF gentle
admonltion from his sister. but 70 the end II pre-
serves the strain Of almost romantic feeling which
runs through the memoir.
If Remains fervor. within the pages OF Ma
Soeur Henrette" were to provoke In the reader
some OF that caution with which most euloglstc
biography has 70 be received, the letters now
made public would remove at once all suspicion
OF prejudice Nothing that Renan could have
said could ever have drawn too gracious a con-
tour in his sisters portrait. She Is drawn again
in her own letters and through those transparent
pages her spirit shines. IL nything. clearly
than through her brothers narrative. One short
space OF time this correspondence covers yet Its
limits are not too narrow for the full compass OF
her individuality to be expressed within them.
Hers not a bounded nature. Her brother
and her friends knew that in some ways her pow
ers were greater than his own. His memoir
keeps constantly before the reader his sense Of
what he owed TO Henriette. But the great range
OF her intellect and the depth OF her feeling were
not incompatible with an extraordinary sim
plcity, and II is this which makes II possible 10
realize her at full length in the short correspond
ence Lady Lloyd has put into English. She had
undoubtedly much OF the Celtic impressbty Of
her brother but she possessed az an instinct the
countcrbalancng force which he compelled
laboriOusy TO acquire. Rcnan was logical partly
as a matter Of temperament but TO n greater OK
tent because his studies Imperatively demanded
that he assume n distinct position. Henriette
was logical because she could not help herself
because truth was the absolute condition OF her
being.
She arrived at conclusion with mex
orable logic because her mind. her spirit trav-
elled without effort through processes neither
strictly intellectual strictly lniu,ive Her
thoughts n compound OF both elements
She writes to her brother often under the press
ure of great anxiety. but there Is never any
indication that she found It hard to make up
her mind as to what she wished 10 say to him
A question presents itself to her mind. she con
siders 1t, and 1t is solved without so much as a
shade OF indecalon. OF doubt being left In
sight. Her lucidity Is In striking contrast Ia
the condition OF her brother. To be sure. she
was twelve years the elder. and at the time 70
which the present correspondence belongs she
had already had experience In the world
to which he could lay no claim. This would
ordinarily account for a difference between two
points Of view. between two methods OF thought
Yet Ernest Renan had come nearer to intel
lectual maturity in bis nineteenth year than
most men come In their fortieth. and IL Is not
unjust to compare his letters with those OF his
sisters In this collection. Together they I'm
press the imagination as forming a kind OF
ltany In which the passionate beseechngs OF
a clouded genius are answered by the serene
veracites OF a sympathetic power which can
state the solution OF the problem II 1t canno.
actually bend down aud help the suppllant