838 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



— the habitual attitude of his nature — was that of a Stoic, a Stoio 

 without haughtiness and without rigidity, and with no idea of 

 proposing himself as a model for others. His optimism was not 

 the beatified self-satisfaction of a frivolous mind, but the chosen 

 and cultivated optimism of the man of action, who feels that, in 

 order to act, one must believe that life is worth living, and that 

 some things are worth doing. Never was there a man more deeply 

 benevolent, serviceable, and kind than Ernest Renan, however he 

 accused himself of coldness in the service of his friends. Never 

 was there a more scrupulous devotee of duty, public and private, 

 faithful to the verge of heroism to every undertaking to which he 

 had committed himself, accepting no office of which he could not 

 fulfill all the obligations, and defying, toward the end of his life, 

 the sharpest sufferings, in order to discharge to the last his pro- 

 fessional duties. This apparently light-hearted man was subject 

 for many years to attacks of a most painful illness ; but he never 

 allowed them to interfere with the integrity of his thought, or to 

 hinder the, accomplishment of the tasks which he had set himself. 

 The last months of his life bore witness to the reality of his stoi- 

 cism. He had often expressed the wish that he might die without 

 pain and without any enfeebling of the mind. He had, indeed, 

 the happiness of retaining his faculties to the last ; but pain was 

 not spared him. He dreaded it beforehand, as depressing and de- 

 grading ; when it came, he did not allow himself to be depressed 

 or degraded by it. From the month of January he knew that 

 there was no hope; he told his friends so; and he asked nothing 

 more but time and strength to finish his lectures and complete the 

 works already in hand. He wished once more to visit his beloved 

 Brittany ; then, feeling himself grow worse, he insisted on return- 

 ing to Paris, to die at his post as head of the College de France. 

 His death took place there on the 2d of October.* During these 

 eight months he suffered incessant pain, sometimes so severe that 

 he could not speak; but he was still gentle and affectionate to 

 those around him, trying to cheer them, and telling them that he 

 was happy. The very day of his death he found strength to dic- 

 tate a page or two on Arabic architecture to his wife. He con- 

 gratulated himself on having attained his seventieth year — " the 

 normal life of man, according to the Scriptures." One of his last 

 utterances was : " Let us submit ourselves to these laws of Nature, 

 of which we ourselves are one of the manifestations. The heavens 

 and the earth remain." 



To those who have known him, he leaves an ineffaceable mem- 

 ory. There was nothing in his personal appearance to suggest 

 that irresistible charm. Short of stature, with an enormous head 



* 1892. 



