The Professor: Ajaccio 



star that now, in the noon-day of life, shone 

 through the passing mists of morning in the 

 flawless Corsican sky, to guide his steps along 

 the humblest tracks of the world of animals 

 to the highest summits of human knowledge ; 

 ay, more, to those calm regions which are 

 the dwelling of that uncreated Light and 

 Life of which all the lights and all the lives 

 of earth are but the pale reflections and fee- 

 ble vestiges. 



Not only do these reflections, which spon- 

 taneously pass through our mind, appear to 

 us in harmony with the natural signification 

 of the facts and the circumstances; we have 

 the pleasant assurance that they are an epit- 

 ome of the intimate feelings of our famous 

 compatriot, as they are expressed in plain 

 words in a thousand passages of his writing 

 and as they were openly revealed in his con- 

 versation. We know, in short, that God and 

 the activities of God in the world were ques- 

 tions which he was fond of considering, with- 

 out regarding the world's opinion. His es- 

 says are full of the subject. But we will 

 quote only one passage, which has the ad- 

 vantage of bringing us an echo of the jubi- 

 lee celebrations which were celebrated at 

 Serignan while this volume was being writ- 

 ten : When the venerable nonogenarian was 



123 



