ERNEST RENAN 109 



Averroes, written before he was thirty, has remained a classic of 

 philosophic literature. 



The artistic development of the young author was considerably 

 hastened by his acquaintance with the Dutch painter Ary Schef- 

 fer, whose niece Cornelie he married in or about 1 854. Since Hen- 

 riettas return from Poland, she had been living with her brother. 

 She now joined the young couple and became a warm friend of 

 the bride and later of their children, Ary and Ernestine. A little 

 later, Ernest's old mother joined them too. He had now to pro- 

 vide for a large family, and it was sometimes difficult to keep the 

 wolf from the door. He wrote articles for the Revue des Deux 

 TAondes and the journal des Debats, and was employed in the 

 Department of Manuscripts of the National Library, but all that 

 hardly sufficed to keep such a large pot boiling. In 1857 the chair 

 of Hebrew at the College de France became vacant by the death 

 of Quatremere. Renan was the one man in France qualified to 

 occupy it (he had published in 1855 his Qeneral History of Se- 

 mitic Languages and was already a member of the Institut) , but re- 

 ligious prejudice blocked the way to his nomination. The injus- 

 tice done to him was so flagrant, however, that the government 

 entrusted to him — as a sort of compensation — a scientific mission 

 to ancient Phoenicia. Nothing more fortunate could have hap- 

 pened to him. This long voyage in the Near East completed his 

 artistic initiation and gave him the archaeological and pictorial 

 background which he needed to write to his satisfaction the first 

 volumes of the Origins of Christianity. The devoted Henriette ac- 

 companied him, acting as his manager, his secretary and his be- 

 loved confidante. They travelled extensively in Palestine, visiting 

 together — one can easily imagine with what passion — all the 

 places hallowed by one of the greatest dramas of history. Unfortu- 

 nately the hot and damp climate of the Syrian coast had told upon 

 their health, especially upon Henriette who was very far from 

 strong. Her condition soon reached such a critical stage that they 

 decided to move into the hills and to settle in Ghazir, at the end 

 of the Bay of Kesruan, one of the most beautiful spots in the 



