FERDINAND BRUNETIERE, TSi) 



Other fields of work were ^-arious and noteworthy. In 1SS7, for 

 example, his rejection at the Ecole Norniale was more than nullified 

 by his appointment there as a lecturer on literature. He was soon 

 recognized as, on the whole, the most distinguished lecturer of his 

 generation, even by those who dissented from his principles and dis- 

 liked the massive power of his written style. No teacher has e\'er 

 had much more influence on his pupils. Public lectures presently fell 

 to him, at the Sorbonne, in various regions of P'rance, and finally 

 in foreign countries — in Italy, in Spain, in Holland, in Switzerland, 

 in the United States. Meanwhile he had other recognitions, — the 

 Legion of Honor, for example, in 1887. Six years later, in 1893, 

 he received the crown of French literary distinction, admission to the 

 Academic Fran^aise. In this year, he became head of the Revue 

 des Deux Mondes. He remained so for the rest of his life. 



In 1895 came the beginning of the last4)hase of his career. During 

 a visit to Rome, he had a private audience with Leo XIII, of which 

 the result was an article in the Revue des Deux Mondes implicitly 

 setting forth the opinions uttered by the Pope, and also implying 

 Brunetiere's increasing disposition to accept Catholic orthodoxy. Up 

 to this time he had been technically a free thinker, whose freedom of 

 thought had led him to increasing respect for tradition. Before long, 

 he joined the church, and presently became, so far as a layman could 

 be, the most conspicuous exponent in France of intelligent Catholic 

 thought. The politics and the passions of that time and of his 

 ensuing years made this course at once bold and self-sacrificing. The 

 tendency of the French government was by no means favorable to 

 established religion; the Dreyfus affair gave rise to discussions and 

 misunderstandings — profoundly honest on both sides — which in- 

 tensified beyond precedent the warmth of feeling always smouklering 

 beneath differences of religious and political principle; and finally 

 the abolition of the Concordat disestablished the church in France. 

 Meanwhile Brunetiere was deprived of his chair at the Ecole Normale, 

 and was refused all opportunity of teaching in any institution under 

 government control, such as the established universities and the 

 College de France. 



Though by this time stricken with the tuberculosis which proved 

 fatal, he never relaxed his energy, nor his prodigious fecundity of 

 expression. So long as his voice lasted, he lectured still, his pri^•ate 

 lecture-rooms always full to overflowing. When his voice was no 

 longer at his command, he wrote if possible more copiously and 

 vigorously than ever. During the last year of his life he exhibited 



