The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1903-04-05
LIFE Of GREAT
PARIS gentlemen
Sketch of CASTOR Paris as He
Was.
SCHOLAR OF HIS DAY
Recognized From First as
Person of Ability.

/ Paris are sure to appear in all foreign
countries where any higher intellectual
life exists He was better known abroa
than at home. To the French University
student, to the ordinary intelligent
Frenchman, he was simply ''savant
occupying himself credibly with Old
French and Medieval literature. To Cor
eign scholars he was the leader in scien-
| tific study of the Romance languages =
the Frenchmen who in philology COM
manded the deepest respect of what DR.
| Doliinger called ''invincible German sci
| ence"; but. higher still, he was the one
| Frenchman of letters in whose house
the humblest foreign student could meet
with the great French writers and bear
| away to his own country the lifelong
memory that he had once seen the makers
of the ages thought. Virgilium vidi tan
| tum.
In many ways CASTOR Paris was repre-
sentative of all that is best in French
| thought, and, with the fate of truly rep
| resentative men. his last years have been
embittered by the cruel dissensions among
all that is best. as well as among the
worst. in France. Foreigners who choose
] to be partisans in a country that is not
their own might learn from his career
! to limit the sweep of their arbitrary
| judgments
Paulin Paris. the father of CASTOR. was
himself notable scholar and held for
| long years the professors chair in the
College of France, which his son occu-
pied after him He was one of those who
did most in the middle of the nineteenth
century to inaugurate thorough studies
in the literary remains of early France
He sent his son to study in Gottingen and
Bonn. where Romance philology was In
honor. This branch Of knowledge which
reaches to the formation of the modern
world, had but recently been invented
the world is scarcely too strongly Fred
rich Diez, who had been bringing it into
something like scientific shape from tie
beginning of his teaching in Bonn in 1871.
1t was Goethe, the great Initiator of sill
modern thought, from Darwinian Evolu-
ton to Carlyle's politics and Emersous
philosophy and the Olympian mood in
general who had set the young Diez on
his way. by recommending him TO study
the works of the Frenchman Raynouard
on the poems and language of the Pro-
yencal troubadours.
When CASTOR Paris arrived about 1860
the teaching activity of Diez was already
passing though not the ability TO pub
lish books for many years TO come. The
elderly professor looked at his new stu
dent. who was fresh from his fathers
profound historical training. and prob
ably recognized the superior fitness for
his work of man whose brain and
fhnr, Oh. toll f1r
foreigner no matter how long his studies,
can hope to have that immediate under
standing of ancient texts. which the ma
tive mind, even after long intervals OF
change, grasps spontaneously. Dies per-
sonal influence seems to have been limited
to impressing on the young man the ne
cessity of complete knowledge. before
pronouncing on a subject; and this
manned a characteristic of CASTOR Paris
at least in book matters, until the end.
No German could have been more min
ute in his researches, and to this he
joined all the French orderliness of mind
and love of the human interest in a
thing. which is the basis of literature.
CASTOR Paris used to say remorsefully
that, during all the time he had had the
advantage of frequenting the courses Of
Diez he was carried away by frenzied
desire TO study-Greek. He was much
later one of the translators Of the great
work of Diez into French: but his own
lore in historical chronicles, and per
haps in Greek. helped him to produce
unique original works-"Oriental Tales IN
Mediaeval French Literature" The Po-
etc History of Charlemange," and 9th
ers like them.
As a professor. in his turn. CASTOR
Paris great success was in forming and
stimulating young men who were TO
become specialists. Along with Michel
Breal. another professor Of the peculiar
College de France. with it's DISTINGUISHED
higher courses. aiming at no examiDa-
tions and open to all. he brought foreign
students once more 10 frequent the I'M
versity courses Of Paris. which had been
long deserted for the somewhat Fictitious
inducements OF Germany.
More important. perhaps. than his work
as a professor was the peculiarly French
institution OF his salon. For more than
twenty-five years CASTOR Paris was at
home to his friends. and 10 ali lovers ~
letters who could manage 70 make hts
ACQUAINTANCE. on every Sunday afternoon.
The history Of these gatherings. II u
could be written in full would we'll
nigh form a running commentary or all
that has been great IN French science
and letters. unta the affair came T.
wrench asunder minds and hearts: sn1. I
al the same time il would chronicle ne
advent OF Parts q the outer worlds sc1l-
arship.
II was understood mat the salon of
Castor Paris vas meeting place ~ en- /
bodied inteIlscts having the socisi talent /
Re had been accustomed 20 meeting -. I
prominent men Of letters IN his father :
house. when he ST himself up tn bach
eior's lodgings. he was careful 70 So
cure for hts library great rom giving |
on a garden. where the shade q a giant
cedar tree adsed 70 the reception place n
fair weather. Here from the beginning
Taine and Rensn occupied tie chinn~T
seats. Silence came with Berthslot aad
Pasteur whose place CASTOR Paris va 70
take IN the French Academy Aiaxerdrs
Dumas. fhe younxe- xifh his pfDhisrns
from, the ne around hin. SDliy- Przs6hor1- /
me whose e-s, poens CASTOR PsTts BAD
taken Il On himself q present 70 ssins--
Be,yve ror that ressoubtah3e critics 3r8x- /
rne-t. HsrNdIa. aroshsr poet. who vss -
aoat into the Acaes-ny o. ss-sie Tol
v-ne q cherished soza~sss F1ari BourEst
Who vas beginning 70 write his p-or.oe--
Gus novels. the yogrger vogue Sno 49,
launching Young France into the short
lived <eo-Chrfsrisn Increment Srf Cont
Afa>~r- de MN. Seo Ess giving be NJ
xo-k 20 ne making q ~orErns1 into