ERNEST RENAN 



279 



the white of a great-headed viburnum, the yellow of a bunch of 

 iris, the cerise of a broughton rhododendron, are no more than 

 phantoms of white, yellow, and cerise, the zigzags of little blurred 

 bats no longer seem like flights, but the shades of flights. At last, 

 in the mist of things in the darkened garden, nothing but the 

 almost spectral pallor of a streaked negundo, silvery pink in foliage 

 beneath the rising moon, calls to mind an enchanted midnight 

 tree, whither, in a shroud of white satin, a slender wraith of old 

 Italian Comedy comes to cut ghostly capers. — La Maison d'un 

 Artiste.'^ 



— A/\/\A^ — 



A 



ND how preferable for such historical work would be the ERNEST 

 peaceful conditions presented by provincial life, to the ^?^^^ 

 narrow, troubled, instable, precarious conditions of life in Paris. 

 One of the necessities of erudition is a spacious and pleasant in- 

 stallation, where there is no fear of being either unsettled or 

 disturbed. . . . The love of truth, moreover, makes us solitary : 

 the provinces possess sohtude, repose, liberty. 



I will add to this the pleasure and the smile of Nature. 

 These austere labours require calm and joy of mind, leisure, 

 complete self-possession. A pretty house in the suburb of a 

 large town ; a long work-room furnished with books, the exterior 

 tapestried with Bengal roses ; a garden with straight alleys, where 

 we can distract ourselves a moment with our flowers from the 

 conversation of our books : nothing of all this is useless for that 

 health of the soul necessary to the works of the mind. — Feuilles 

 Detachees (' Peut on travailler en Province .? ') 



W^ 



^E venture to think that artistic and scientific gardening MORTIMER 

 might become an admirable profession for gentlemen COLLINS 

 not ambitious of making great fortunes. No occupation is 

 healthier; none is fuller of variety and interest. Every day in 



^ No. 53 Boulevard Montmorency, Auteil. For a translation of the whole 

 article, see ' The Garden,' May 28, 1898. 



