ERNEST RENAN. 839 



set deep between wide shoulders, afflicted all too early with an 

 excessive stoutness which made his gait heavy, and was the cause 

 — or the symptom — of his mortal malady, he seemed to those who 

 saw him only in passing an ugly man. But you had to speak 

 with him but a moment, and all that was forgotten. You noticed 

 at once the broad and powerful forehead, the eyes sparkling with 

 life and wit, and yet with such a caressing sweetness, and, above 

 all, the smile which opened to you all the goodness of his heart. 

 His manner, which had retained something of the paternal affa- 

 bility of the priest, the benedictory gesture of his plump and dim- 

 pled hands, and the approving motion of the head, were indica- 

 tions of an urbanity which never deceived, and in which one felt 

 the nobility of his nature and his race. But the indescribable 

 thing was the charm of his speech. His portentous memory kept 

 him supplied with new facts to contribute on every subject, while 

 his splendid imagination and the originality and distinctness of 

 his ideas enriched his often paradoxical conversation with flights 

 of poetry, with illustrations and comparisons the most unexpected, 

 and now and then with prophetic glimpses into the future. He 

 was an incomparable story-teller. The Breton legends, passing 

 through his lips, acquired an exquisite flavor. He had no liking 

 for discussion, and has often been satirized for the facility with 

 which he would give his assent to the most contradictory asser- 

 tions. But this complaisance toward other people's ideas, which 

 had its source in a politeness not always quite free from disdain, 

 did not prevent him from firmly maintaining his opinion when 

 any serious question was in debate. He detested controversy. 



One merit he had which no one dreams of disputing. He was 

 beyond comparison the greatest writer of his time ; and he is one 

 of the greatest French writers of all time. Brought up on the 

 Bible, the Greek and Latin classics, and the standard authors of 

 France, he had accustomed himself to a fashion of speech, at once 

 simple and original, expressive without oddity, and supple with- 

 out languor ; a style which, out of the somewhat restricted vocabu- 

 lary of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, could sufficiently 

 furnish itself to render every subtlest shade of modern thought — 

 a style ample, sparkling, and sweet beyond all parallel. 



In the region of the learned studies Renan has not been a crea- 

 tor. Neither in philology, nor in archeology, nor in exegesis, has 

 he made any of those great discoveries, or founded any of those 

 systems, which renew the face of science. But no other man can 

 lay claim to an erudition at once so universal and so precise as 

 his. Language, literature, theology, philosophy, archseology, and 

 even natural history — no branch of human knowledge was alien 

 to him. His profound acquaintance with the past, together with 

 the magic gift which enabled him to clothe it with flesh and 



