The Washington herald., 1907-04-28
BRUNETiERE'S BOOKS
Effort to Buy Them for Har-
yard Resented.
MARGINALIA IS ILLUMINATING
Development of Writer'S Thought
May BE Perceived Therein-Frencir
National TREASURES, and TrembIe
Lest Foreigners carry Them on.

The library of the late Ferdinand
BuHetiere. as We nave already noted. is
offered Tor sale. says the New York Even
ing Post ard an American has attempted
to buy it for Harvard. Piqued by such
presumption, Victor Glraud has written
TO Figaro with the avowed purpose
d'inspirer a quelque bon Francois le desir
etiieaCc de retenlr chez nous &c veritabie
tresOr national II. Giraud DESERVES this
library which contains twelve or fifteen
thousand volumes as slzilIfully chosen,
patiently assembled, ingeniously CLASH
ned. ard. above ali, in the case % a great
number Of the books. interestingly an
nOtated. Brunetiere, it seems, was
lover Of beautiful books. elegant bind
lings, and rare editions. He had the col
leetor's taste. though. we infer. he was
too well balanced to let that taste run
into madness. He belonged, according 70
n Giraud, 10 the tribe Of Sainte-Beuve
ard Silvestre de Sacy. His Intellectual
range YVES almost encyclopaedia. The
ology. history. philosophy, aesthetics.
/ science. the classics, and modern bellies
I lettres-in sll these subjects he found
food for his mind lie had many first
editions; indeed, he used 10 say that il is
IN a first edition that you see a writer
face 10 face: in later editions you come
/ To him through the medium Of his
( publishers: you are az least d step re-
moved. He preferred his COrneile IN the
edition of 1853 the Montaigne of 1855 or
1855, and in his view the most beautiful
Ronsard is that Of 1854 When we learn
that most of the books over which ne
displayed such enthusiasm are in his oWn
library. We can see why French bibho-
philes trcmble lest Americans shall carry
I on the tresor national
All Are Valuable
There are also volumes whose price In
the market would probably be far lower
than the price of such raritIes as We
rhave just mentioned bat whose value 70
a critic and a student Of literature might
be far greater Fer example. there is the
''Tableau de Ia poesie francaise al
seizieme steele" with all the manuscript
! corrections and additions that Saiute-
Beuve had prepared Tor a new edition.
+ There is also a copy Of PascaIs pen
sees. which Sainte-Beuve, according 10
his habit had literally annotated IN the
margins These notes. IL Giraud assures
rs, are no less interesting than those Of
/ Sainte-Beuve on Ia Bruyere. which have
/ been deemed worthy Gf publication
But better than all are Brunetiere's own
marginaha. We have nc patience with
the impairment seribbleTs wh0 deface The
/ books of public libraries with their silly
/ comment. Nothing exssperates a sane
reader more than 10 be interrupted by
such childish irreleyancles. But the pass
ing reflections of Sainte-Beuye or a.
( BrUnetiere are a different thing. These
men Of letters were accustomed 10 read
with pencil in hand, UNDERLYING striking
/ passages. and J0tting IN the margin the
ideas which the reading suggested. Here
! YOU have critical article ia the making
Les livTes annOtes de Ferdinand Brune-
tieTe." says n GiTaud. -sont CONNIE Ie
/ prolongement de son oeuvre Ct de son
action.
( Great PIeader for CORserva tisEn.
In hastily scrubbed words, which often
appear so casual and disconnected. one
may Yet perceive the development of
/ Brunetiere's thought Of his critical prin-
ciples. and of those convictions which
made him-like Burke Of a century before.
and yet so unlike-one OF the great plead
ers Tor conservatism and the established
order. The volumes which NJ Giraud
cites as Of special significance are those
/ Of Bossuet. Vinet. Fromentin, Taine.
/ Renouvier, Eugene Bournouf. De Maistre.
and Renan.
The ann0tatIons on Remains writings
are perhaps the most Illuminating for
there, according 10 NJ Giraud. one can
trace the principal steps in the religious
and moral evolution OF BrunetieTe. When
Renan. in his Historic des origines Gu
ChrisfiaHisme. asserts that one finds IN
the books OF the Buddhists parallels Of
exactly the same tone and facture as
those in the Gospels, Brunetjere, defend
er Of the faith once delivered underlines
excitement, and writes. "C'est ce que Je
nie.' For some of Remains hne~spun
metaphors BTunetiere has nothing but the
single harsh word "Gaiimatiast' Remains
endeavor toward an ingenious and rational
explanation Of the raising of Lazarus
provokes from Brunetiere a comment 10
which rationalists as well as Catholics
may say amen: Deny the whole thing
outright "a spare US your absurd ex-
plantations"
Summed TIP In Sentence.
In this sentence, we cannot but feel, is
summed up the attitude of men. like Bru-
netiere and Newman. who see no halfway
house between fun surrender to the
'-AA's4 "a -AAt-A-S anu tAal+A mos
In the Apologize" Newman laid before
us the slow movement of his mind from
AngliCanism TO Catholicism. Once started
In that direction. he saw no place 10 stop
till he reached the end TIE other way
lay religious and moral anarchy, the de-
struciion Of the bonds which hold society
toSether-nladness. The parallel between
Brunetiere and Newman we need not
press closely; bur if n Giraud has not
read into these scattered phrases penciled
in the books of Renan a deeper. meaning
then they can bear, we have here the
raw material of BruneueFe's Apologize"
Positive and External Authority.
He ard minds like his must repose in a
positive and external authority; he would
look beyond himself and his narrow ex-
perience for the great imperative From
the philosophizing that resolved the God
Of Israel and of Christendom into a myth
the mere vision of poet, or the hero OF
a folklore tale. he shrank with dread
Penetrated as ne was with this conviction
that outside the pale of orthodox belief all
things were, as Thomas a Kempis has Il,
full Of trouble and unrest" lie could
lcok upon the rational explanation Of
miracles as only paltering with the eter-
nal veritiss Lazarus rose and Christ
rose: or else We and our creeds are such
stuff as dreams are made Of; and our lit
tie life is rounded with a sleep. II is be-
cause Bru1etiere can gather into a few