The San Francisco call., 1906-06-10

temperamental differences. too. should
not be forgotten. Imperial as was the
intellect of Renan, there was in him
a decided streak of worldliness He
had not the spiritual fire of Newman,
master though he was of French prose.
The Kelt-Breton predominated. while
with Newman there is something of the
sexlessness of an archangel. To call
one Caliban anu the other Ariel is
hardly fair to either. The sisters of
the two men were. as we may see in
their correspondence, guiding stars
to a certain point in the case or
Jemima Newman; to the last ditch of
renunciation on the part of Henrietta
Renan.
What had happened to the soul of
John Henry Newman? Barry truth
fully asserts that all great literature
is autobiographic. Newman forsook
as untenable the via media, and his
erudite study OF patristic literature
sent him in that direction which Re-
nan, after delving in the same ma
terial. had forsaken But what the in
Commensurate change! What form
was this psychic phenomenon which
we call conversions Newman's ewn
"Apologia pro Vita Sua" Is the an
swer ! confess this to be my favorite
book of all confessions, antique and
modern. II holds in the affections of
Roman Catholics the same place that
'ePilgrim's Progress does in the other
camp. AS in Bunyan's doughty book.
Newman has spilled his souf-spilled
it with a eandor and sweetness that
will make his phrases classic as long
as English> is read st. Augustine $
confessions have always seemed TO
lean heavily on his sins, as do the
extraordinary revelations of Karl
Joris Huysmans' "En Route" We get
the color and perfume and the bravery
of sin; likewise we are dragged
through the mire, and the drab and
gloom set off. artistically. the fam
boyancy of the pictures.
After Huysmans' "LOblat" II would
be absurd to doubt his sincerity. very
much fortified by the publication of
"The Cathedral" And no doubt Mes
sire Anatole France Is half right when
he announces in his gay. charming
voice that your great saints are manu-
factured out of very sinful souls. Yet
without yielding an iota of interest
to either Augustine or Huysmans,
Newman's Apologize is the truthful
narrative of soul in search of divine
adventures. Sinless in the grosser
sense Newman was. His pure nature
the ScHSudi. vi nlIu the
prizes so madly fought for by men,
ambitions. political. intellectual. ar
tistical. social or financial-were as il
non-existant. He saw one thing clear
ly, and that was the relation of his
soul to his God. A man for whom this
tremendous fact was a fact. and not
the dream of a dilettante and a trifer.
there could be no other course to pur-
sue and no dalliance with the painted
Illustrations encountered on his earth
ly pilgrimage. He could ardently ex-
claim: 'As the heart panteth after the
watersi" His life long was a pursuit
of the true path. And aristoerat.
supersubtle thinker as he was. he. un-
like Nietzschke. never despised the
herd" 1t was his self-imposed mis-
sion--a religionist would call il God
imposed-to proclaim the light to this
same herd. This he did humbIy. brave
ly, lovingly. untiringly.
That his sooty lerdship spins trans
for the purest minded we need not
doubt-the devil can quote the Scrip
tures-and doubtless John Henry New
man had temptations, wavering gs.
agonies and mental crucihxions of