ERNEST RENAN 107 



was at once a great source of happiness and an incomparable 

 opportunity. I like to imagine these two youths discussing to- 

 gether, with equal candor and passion,, either in Renan's garret 

 or else in the quieter streets of the "Quartier Latin/' The conflicts 

 of their points of view, the clashes of their enthusiasms, the piec- 

 ing together of their information, the continual challenge of their 

 respective prejudices could but be immensely fruitful. They dis- 

 cussed endlessly every problem of life; and, as one of them re- 

 marked, "Social and philosophic questions must be very difficult 

 indeed that we were not able to solve them in our desperate 

 effort!" 



The two friends weathered together the Revolution of 1848, 

 and the result of their incessant colloquies during that tremendous 

 crisis was a book which, although written by Renan, bore traces 

 of Berthelot/s influence on almost every page: The future of 

 Science. It was at once a social survey, a sort of general introduc- 

 tion to scientific studies, an attempt to establish a general philos- 

 ophy exclusively upon the data of experience, above all an im- 

 passioned appeal to apply scientific methods to the solution of 

 social and political issues. It was chaotic to a degree and as dog- 

 matic and naive as we might expect the encyclopedic treatise of 

 any young man to be. Crude, aggressive, tactless, poorly written 

 (as it was) it was nevertheless full of excellent suggestions cleverly 

 made, full of delicious remarks, full of learning and wisdom. 

 Neither should we forget that much in it which may seem com- 

 monplace to-day was relatively new in 1848; indeed, some parts 

 — signally his insistence that philosophy should be based on posi- 

 tive knowledge — are not yet generally understood. A careful anal- 

 ysis of it would show that it contained the germs of the best 

 thoughts of his maturity, and we could easily find in it a raw 

 delineation of his later attitude. Though he was fully aware of 

 the crudities and shortcomings of this maiden work, Renan never 

 disavowed its main substance. Indeed, when his first revulsion 

 against it, caused by his Italian journey, was softened, throughout 

 his life he retained a tender feeling for it and used to call it affec- 



