The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1905-05-21

prize In November, lSi0, the Academy
OF Inscriptions sent him to Italy, when
enchanted him, Curiollsly enough, he
found in cell in the Benedictine monastery
OF Monte Casino the "Leben Jesu" OF
Strauss. Returning to Paris in September
1850, he lived with his sister for six years,
prosecuting his studies, writing for the
Rerue des Deu1 Mondes and other peri
odicals, preparing papers to be read at the
Academy OF Inscriptions, and bringing
out in collaboration with Victor lie Clerc
some volumes on fourteenth century
France. In 1855 he married niece OF the
Dutch artist, AIRY Schefer, and thereafter
his wife and sister lived happily together.
The circumstances which were to trans
form secluded Oriental student into the
most popular anti-Christian OF his time
lay IA yet In the future. Not until the
publication Of his collected Studies of
Religious History" in 1867 did he approach
the task which was to make him famous,
and to starte the orthodox into suspicion
that some new enemy, CELSIUS. or even q
Voltaire, was entering the field.
What was to prove memorable event
in Remains life was his acceptance in 1850
OF a mission offered him by Napoleon Ill.
which was to prosecute search for Ph9-
nician antiquities. His sister accompanied
him upon the voyage from which she was
never TO return. Throughout the Syrian
expedition all his mind was given to daring
enterprise which shone above it like star.
In his Future Of Science" he had declared
that the greatest book Of the nineteenth
century would he entitled The Critical
History of the Christian Origins. That
greatest book he now resolved to write.
He was not destined to bring back from
Tyre and Sidon much that an archeologist
would value. The landscape of Galilee,
the Syrian sky the beauty of Hermon and
Lebanon these were to be his great dis
coveries. While the sister was fading
away the brother was flinging down on
paper, as fast az he could. with happy
zeal, his vision Of the Gentle Gallean. v
Not pale fantoms or abstract types he
wrote, but living fgures-such were to be
his creations. When he returned to Paris
in 1862, still smarting from grief for his
sisters death, he determined to publish
the Life Of Jesus as monument to her
memory. Recalling her sympathy and
stirnuMtive appreciation, he related how
-Henriette watched the growth of my work
day by day, when l had finished a pas it
was hers to copy it. In the evening we
walked on our terrace under the brilliant
stars; she offered me her thoughts, re-
Inarkable for their tact and insight, some
Of which came to me as revelation. On
June %, 1858, "Ihe Life of Jesus" appeared.
In November. 5000 COY les had been sold.
That, however, was only symptom of the
universal interest. On all sides. men looked
upon the volume as a banner lifted up,
which must be alta cked or defended. In
the eyes Of Catholics it was a crime with
out parallel. an ofTense against God and
man. The fierce assault which they at
once opened upon it made "The Life of
jesus" known to every priest In France.
DR.. Barry explains how abroad also the
book leaped into fame at e bound. French
was now, as it had long been, the common
language of society and of culture. Such
a work. appearing in English. would have
taken five years to cross the Channel. To
England Bishop Colenso was the critic
who gave offense, but who could not win
renown, by his dull crossexamining Of the
numbers in the Pentateuch. Strauss, with
out any graces Of style. had put forward
his theory which resolved the Four Gospels
into myths and allegories, n generation
earlier. But to tho frivolous coteries of
Paris that German professor was only a
name, and not so much as a name to the
French clergy at large What, then had
Renan achieved? Something great If not
portentous. Thanks to his unrivaled COM
mand of langua ge, to the color of his de-
scriptions, to the suavity ofa sentimentalism
which enchanted without rhetoric, he had
transformed the Gospels into n captivating
publication Of the day. Dealing with pa ges
hitherto regarded Us the Latin Of the Mass.
which only priests recited, while none but
the faithful listened, he made Of them a
French classic, and the least orthodox
now recognized with surprise how beauti-
full they could be-
We have seen that the Life Of Jesus
appeared in 1868 The volume entitled
Marcus Aurelius,- which completes the
"Ohgns of Christianity" was published
in 1882. Thus something like quarter OF
a century had been consumed in Journeys,
reading and composition since the author
LOOK up HIS idIke eiltsTpTlbe. onlv Ten
years remained to him: these he spent on
minor works and the History Of Israel.
DR.. Barry remarks on the comparative
sounctness OF Remains Judgment, where 1t
touches the Gospels. their date and their
relation to one another d sounciness on
hibited at time when the leading Ger1na n
critics were still at play among unverlfed
con jeotures. Questions remain which can
be solved by no ingenuity, for the terms Of
q solution are not given. But. In coming
back to the traditional view Of the Synop-
tics the Acts. the Pauline Epistes, Renan
showed courage no less than aoUteness which
deserved to be acknowledged. OF the
Fourth Gospel he wrote, after much hest
tation; 1T is likely that a disciple of the
Apostle John, who had inherited many of
his "reminiscences, felt authorized to speak
in his name, and, twenty-five or thirty yea IN
after his death, TO write down those things
which, unhappily, had not been fixed on
paper during his lifetime The biographer
reminds us that this Gospel was the stroke
which at last delivered the Church from
Judaism. l; opened the way to Christian
philosophy as st. Paul had been the first
to sketch its theology. AS to the origin OF
the New Testament canon, Rsnan takes us